VAL D’ISERE, France (Dec. 11, 2016) – Some days you’re riding in the groove, other days you’re just trying to find the groove. Today was the latter for U.S. men’s slalom team at the Audi FIS Ski World Cup slalom.
“The hill was prepared with injection – hard snow,” said Sasha Rearick, U.S. Ski Team men’s head coach. “A good course set, but tough in some ways. With the injected groove, you had to ski that groove cleanly. If you don’t make that groove with confidence, you’re going to bounce. And that was the challenge today.”
Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen won his 10th career World Cup slalom race in dramatic fashion, charging hard on the second run to take a 0.75 advantage that forced first-run leader Alexis Pinturault of France to pull out all the stops in the second run. Unfortunately for Pinturault, winner of Saturday’s giant slalom, he bounced out of the groove just 15 seconds in the second run and did not finish. Austria’s Marcel Hirscher finished second to extend his overall World Cup lead, as Russia’s Alexander Khoroshilov was third.
The U.S. SKi Team Fan Club was out in full force in Val d'Isere. (USSA)
No Americans qualified for the second run. AJ Ginnis (Vouliagmeni, Greece) was the only American to finish the first run – 37th.
“Our guys in the back, they didn’t charge out of the gate,” Rearick said. “There were sections where they skied well, but made too many mistakes, or had the brakes on in sections where there was really speed to be had.”
Up next, the U.S. team will compete in a series of Europa Cup events in Italy before returning to the World Cup circuit in Alta Badia, Italy with a parallel giant slalom race Dec. 19.
“We have three Europa Cups coming up here and it’s going to be a good spot for them to challenge themselves, and get that feeling going because a lot of the World Cup field is going to be competing in those Europa Cups,” Rearick added.
HIGHLIGHTS
- Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen won his 10th career World Cup slalom race Sunday
- Austria’s Marcel Hirscher finished second and extended his overall World Cup lead with 440 points over France’s Alexis Pinturault, 284 points
- Through two races, Hirscher also leads the World Cup slalom standing with 180 points
QUOTES
Sasha Rearick – Men’s Team Head Coach
The hill was prepared with injection – hard snow. A good course set, but tough in some ways. With the injected groove, you had to ski that groove cleanly. If you don’t make that groove with confidence, you’re going to bounce. And that was the challenge today.
Our guys in the back, they didn’t charge out of the gate. There were sections where they skied well, but made too many mistakes, or had the brakes on in sections where there was really speed to be had.
To me it comes down to a confidence thing. Besides Chodounsky, this group is a young group with not a lot of World Cup experience in the sense of these kind of conditions on this kind of hill. They have to step their game up. They are doing well in training. I was please to see how balanced they were in training, and at least that have that platform now to build on. The key in the next week here is to bring that balance position into confidence into skiing clean in the fall line.
We have three Europa Cups coming up here and it’s going to be a good spot for them to challenge themselves, and get that feeling going because a lot of the World Cup field is going to be competing in those Europa Cups.
RESULTS
Men’s slalom