Alpine Skiingmen's world cup
2019 Getty Images
Sixth appointment to analyze, discipline by discipline, the next season of the white circus with our "5 + 5".
Wednesday 16 October 2019 13 minutes reading time
With the withdrawal of Marcel Hirscher, the biggest gap opens up in a specialty like the male giant, in which the World Cup had ended up in the hands of the Salzburg champion in the last five years.
In the last decade, six crystal balls went to Hirscher, four to Ligety (who won his first in 2008), so the last to win that was not one of the two was Benjamin Raich in 2009. Considering that the parable of the US cowboy has been descending for some time, although the specialty tri-champion has decided to continue for at least another year, we should attend an heir and the possibilities that emerge from the duel between Henrik Kristoffersen and Alexis Pinturault are a lot high. Even if there is a Marco Odermatt who is now scared at all.
Thursday evening, seventh episode with the women's slalom.
SWISS OF MEZZO
1.Henrik Kristoffersen: sixth in 2015, then third, fifth, second and again in the square of 'honor last season, always behind Marcel Hirscher. And 'the score of Henrik Kristoffersen in the ranking of specialty between the wide doors, but the growth demonstrated in the last 12 months by the 25 year old Norwegian was evident, so that he brought it to the world title and, just after the bang of Are , to get one after the other his first victories in giant in World Cup races, between Bansko and Kranjska Gora, after almost 4 years from the only seal he signed in the finals of Meribel 2015.
Without his black beast that forced him to eight second places, Henrik has the potential to become the reference in this specialty, perhaps even more than in slalom where Noel (but not only the Frenchman) folded it several times .
2.Alexis Pinturault: he has never won a cup of discipline, if we exclude those of combined with a couple of races per season, and although the goal of the Savoyard is directly the general crystal ball, starting from the giant standing in front of everyone it would also be fundamental from a "coppone" point of view.
With the withdrawal of Fanara and the crisis of Faivre (as well as a decline in Muffat-Jeandet performance), it is the absolute reference of a France that clings to him; with 11 successes in the specialty, he is the second in business behind Ligety and his continuity is impressive in the last eight years. Since 2012, when he finished in 4th place, he has always risen to the podium in the giant classification, with five third places and two seconds (in 2015 and 2016, needless to say behind Hirscher). He won the last disputed giant, dominating the snows of Soldeu, and is ready to take it all. Kristoffersen permitting ...
3. Marco Odermatt: it is the man who can blow the bank, if we think that in the first real year in the World Cup he got his first podium just in the two conclusive giants, with the 3rd place of Kranjska Gora and the 2nd in Soldeu, finishing eighth in the final ranking with 245 points. He has already entered the first group and, at 22 completed last October 8th, seems already ready to beat everyone in this specialty: it was understood that he had something special inside when, with the bib 27, in the 1st run on the Gran Risa finished in 3rd place, then derailed in the decisive run. A certain Marcel Hirscher said of him: "He is the man of the future, he will win everything". Do some of you ...
4.Zan Kranjec: it was built over time and, at 26, is a certainty of the world giant. The first victory came last December in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, at the end of a race a bit 'crazy but that deserved fully, then went on the podium also in Soldeu, with 3rd place, and finished fourth in the specialty ranking after the sixth of 2017/18.
And '' it improved a lot in the slalom, confirming a psycho-physical maturity that makes us think that it is man from the podium almost every race. Starting from Soelden.
5. Loic Meillard: if the injuries have slowed down the growth, the class has never been in question and in the company of Odermatt and the returning Murisier forms a trio with extraordinary prospects for Switzerland.
It is true, the one that saw him conquer his first podiums in the World Cup in December, a bit later in the last 24 hours in Saalbach Hinterglemm, with two second places in giant and slalom that tell all of its completeness.
Ninth in the 2017/18 giant cup, fifth last year, it has also placed 4th in the World Are race with a great 2nd run. The first victory is only a matter of time.
THE OTHER PODIUM MEN
Stefan Luitz was one of the most discussed men of last season: the first victory of his career, obtained in Beaver Creek in front of Hirscher, was taken away for the "oxygen case", then returned a few days after the conclusion of a year already ended for the German gigantist, due to the umpteenth knee injury suffered in the rainbow race in Are (after the dislocated shoulder a few weeks before in Adelboden).
The summer was still positive in terms of recovery, of which now Luitz is a specialist, so you have to wait there in front of you because we are talking about a boy who, despite at least three heavy stops, has always been a very dangerous man in various contest contexts .
Matts Olsson had revealed retirement intentions, then returned, only 30 years old and at the end of one of the most positive seasons of his career, with the 6th place finish in specialty (after the 5th of 2017/18 and the 8th of the previous year): he is a regularist who can hardly put fear to the big boys constantly, but last December in Val d''Isere he found the podium (3rd place) one year after his first and only victory in the Cup, arrived in the parallel giant in Alta Badia.
A little 'surprise, even if the talent has never been in question, at 30 years will start in the first group in Soelden (thanks to retreats of Hirscher and Fanara) a name like that of Tommy Ford, which of podiums in CdM not he has never achieved it, but last year he experienced the most beautiful season, finishing between 5th and 6th in three very classic places such as Val d''Isere, Alta Badia and Adelboden.
He finished only 14th in the standings, after the 4th of the previous season, a Manuel Feller returning from a difficult period in giant, but with potential under the eyes of all though, the highly anticipated first podium in the World Cup, so far he has only arrived in slalom with the 2nd place in Wengen.
Finally Luca De Aliprandini: at the level of the final result in the specialty ranking, it is true that he has so far collected only an 11th, a 16th and a 15th place finish in the last three seasons, and we are talking about a boy who at 29 is considered the best man in the Saracco team to assault a podium to the blues missing from the 3rd place by Florian Eisath on the Gran Risa, in December 2016.
The best placement of the Trentino remains the 4th of Adelboden 2018, while last year it was a continuous swing (as in the final of the 2017/18 season, between that big 1st Olympic race and the "zero" of the last races) , with the best time in the 2nd heat in Alta Badia and its 7th final place, repeated in Soldeu with a performance that gives confidence to think of being able to see De Aliprandini constantly in the top 10. As a minimum, given that the space to emerge between the best in the world in the specialty there is, and how.
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