Marco Odermatt returns to victory in the giant slalom in a strange race. After three retirements in a row, the man from Nidwalden wins for the fourth time in a row in Val d'Isère. Luca Aerni surprises with 4th place.
In the end, Odermatt had a lead of eight hundredths in a giant slalom characterized by a major upheaval in the rankings in the second run. The man from Central Switzerland kept the unexpected second-placed Patrick Feurstein behind him by this tiny time difference. The Austrian, who was only 24th in the first run, made it into the top three for the first time in the World Cup. Feurstein's margin over his compatriot Stefan Brennsteiner, who secured third place, was even smaller, namely four hundredths.
Odermatt's second run was a pure battle in conditions that deteriorated from skier to skier. A look at the individual run times shows just how difficult the task was. Odermatt lost no less than 3.19 seconds on Luca Aerni's best time in the second run.
After this special race, several stones fell from Odermatt's heart. His victory was a relief. The failures at last season's finale in Saalbach, in Sölden and last Sunday in Beaver Creek had not left the Nidwalden native unscathed. With World Cup victory number 39, which puts Odermatt one behind the Swiss record holder Pirmin Zurbriggen, the World Champion should have dispelled any doubts that may have arisen here and there once and for all.
Luca Aerni in 4th place with bib number 62
Luca Aerni wrote a special chapter in this special giant slalom. The skier from Bern, who was only competing in this discipline for the eleventh time, was the last skier on the start grid with the number 62 and just managed to qualify for the second run in 30th place - and used the perfect conditions in the first phase to make another big leap forward. Thanks to his best time, he made up no less than 26 positions.
Fourth place means a significant improvement in World Cup giant slaloms for Aerni, who missed out on a podium place by eleven hundredths. The best of his three previous results in this category was 21st place, which he achieved seven years ago in Alta Badia.
The third best Swiss was Gino Caviezel, who improved three places to 11th in the afternoon. Among the racers who went the other way in the rankings were Loïc Meillard and above all Thomas Tumler. Meillard dropped six places to 9th, Tumler from 6th to 25th.
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