Schladming (Austria) (AFP)
"Ich liebe Schladming" ("I love Schladming", in German), or the words of Clément Noël to the crowd, during the night slalom on Tuesday. The Frenchman, the author of a phenomenal comeback, was one of the biggest players in the craziest race of the year, a habit in the Austrian resort.
The Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen has finally won and consolidates his position as leader of the general classification ahead of the French Alexis Pinturault, who remained on two missed races, and the Swiss Daniel Yule, the best slalomeur of January.
This night race, disputed in front of tens of thousands of spectators, turned into madness when the Italian hope Alex Vinatzer (finally 6th) believed to take the lead at the end of the second round. But his time at the finish was not his, but that of a "striker", a lightly dressed spectator who crossed the line just in front of him, skewing the clock!
The Schladming cauldron, probably the hottest atmosphere on the circuit, has further justified its reputation: gathered close to the track, the natives, particularly chauvinists here, applaud the mistakes of the opponents of the Austrians, and have already gone so far throw snowballs on the Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen, in full race in 2018!
The 25-year-old Norwegian however loves this station in the peaceful Enns valley (center of the country) since he wins the race for the 4th time in his career, his 17th victory in a World Cup slalom.
He is 34 hundredths ahead of Alexis Pinturault, who recovered after a failed January marked by two outings in the slalom at Wengen and then at Kitzbühel on Sunday. Overall, Pinturault lost another 20 points on "Kristo" but climbed to 2nd place (119 points).
Previously it was Clément Noël who made the show. After barely three doors in the first run, the Vosgien had gone to fault then had finished somehow more than two seconds behind the Austrian Marco Schwarz, leader of the first run.
Miraculously, Noël snatched the last qualifying place (30th) and therefore started first on the second route. Taking all the risks on an immaculate track, he achieved the benchmark time and saw 25 skiers march from his seat as leader, only to fail at the foot of the podium (4th to 99 hundredths).
Last bout of madness, the public, boiling, pushed for the local Marco Schwarz to win. But the last skier to jump started at the first gates, leaving the victory to Kristoffersen.
The French can also rejoice in a great collective performance: after Pinturault and Noël, Julien Lizeroux is 12th, Victor Muffat-Jeandet 14th and Jean-Baptiste Grange 15th.
© 2020 AFP