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2nd Wengen victory for Neureuther
WENGEN, Switzerland – In an exciting turnaround of events in the second run, Felix Neureuther climbed up from his 5th position finish in the first run to claim his second victory in the Wengen slalom. In second place, only 0.20 seconds slower than Neureuther, Stefano Gross the surprise winner from last week’s slalom in Adelboden seemed to have found his groove mid way through the season. Rounding up the podium today, 0.44 seconds slower than the best time was young Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen who claimed his ninth World Cup podium.
Neureuther got a little unlucky in last night’s bib draw and was the last racer to start from the top group in the first run, but in the second one he was quick to adapt to the challenging conditions and put down a flawless yet aggressive second run
“The first run wasn’t really easy for me, with bib number 7 I really had no idea what conditions would be. In the second run I just pushed really hard and it’s an amazing feeling to win here for a second time in front of this crowd and on such a classic hill,” a very happy Neureuther said.
Gross seems to be on a roll in the last two weekends and now that his back has stopped troubling him he seems to be at his best especially on days when conditions are not ideal.
“After all the problems with my back which I had at the beginning of the season it has now been a few weeks where I am feeling good again and I have found my feeling again. I have been skiing well in training lately so these last two races have just confirmed to me that I could carry the speed into a race as well,” Gross said after the race. “The steep sections of his hill and today’s conditions are good for me, today was very difficult but races are won in both nice and not so nice weather and I’m really happy I managed to do a great race,” he explained.
In his only two seasons in World Cup, Kristoffersen has quickly made a name for himself in both slalom and giant slalom and has now earned his first podium in Wengen.
“My plan is always to ski fast and see what happens, I think I have proved myself in the last two seasons. I know that when I ski well and I go for it or even when I just ski normally I can be in the top,” Kristoffersen said.
The Norwegian was one of the last skiers to come down in the second run, having finished third in the first one, but he didn’t seem to mind the ruts too much and was able to hold on to his podium position.
“It was pretty tough, some spots were really bumpy but I actually expected it to be even bumpier altogether. I’m really happy, it’s really great as it’s the 85th edition of this race so to be on the podium is pretty cool,” he said.
Marcel Hirscher has yet to win a race in Wengen but he blew off his chances of doing so this year after straddling a gate in today’s first run.
On Saturday morning Wengen woke up to 20 centimeters of fresh snow but the heavy snowfall didn’t have much impact on today’s slalom as multiple crews were out from as early as 2am pushing the snow out of the race course so the Jury was able to confirm the program and start the race on time.
The snowfall should stop by the end of Saturday allowing the last race scheduled in Wengen to take place in hopefully ideal conditions and from the top starting positons. Stay tuned, last race on the Lauberhorn starts tomorrow at 13:00 CET!
Neureuther got a little unlucky in last night’s bib draw and was the last racer to start from the top group in the first run, but in the second one he was quick to adapt to the challenging conditions and put down a flawless yet aggressive second run
“The first run wasn’t really easy for me, with bib number 7 I really had no idea what conditions would be. In the second run I just pushed really hard and it’s an amazing feeling to win here for a second time in front of this crowd and on such a classic hill,” a very happy Neureuther said.
Gross seems to be on a roll in the last two weekends and now that his back has stopped troubling him he seems to be at his best especially on days when conditions are not ideal.
“After all the problems with my back which I had at the beginning of the season it has now been a few weeks where I am feeling good again and I have found my feeling again. I have been skiing well in training lately so these last two races have just confirmed to me that I could carry the speed into a race as well,” Gross said after the race. “The steep sections of his hill and today’s conditions are good for me, today was very difficult but races are won in both nice and not so nice weather and I’m really happy I managed to do a great race,” he explained.
In his only two seasons in World Cup, Kristoffersen has quickly made a name for himself in both slalom and giant slalom and has now earned his first podium in Wengen.
“My plan is always to ski fast and see what happens, I think I have proved myself in the last two seasons. I know that when I ski well and I go for it or even when I just ski normally I can be in the top,” Kristoffersen said.
The Norwegian was one of the last skiers to come down in the second run, having finished third in the first one, but he didn’t seem to mind the ruts too much and was able to hold on to his podium position.
“It was pretty tough, some spots were really bumpy but I actually expected it to be even bumpier altogether. I’m really happy, it’s really great as it’s the 85th edition of this race so to be on the podium is pretty cool,” he said.
Marcel Hirscher has yet to win a race in Wengen but he blew off his chances of doing so this year after straddling a gate in today’s first run.
On Saturday morning Wengen woke up to 20 centimeters of fresh snow but the heavy snowfall didn’t have much impact on today’s slalom as multiple crews were out from as early as 2am pushing the snow out of the race course so the Jury was able to confirm the program and start the race on time.
The snowfall should stop by the end of Saturday allowing the last race scheduled in Wengen to take place in hopefully ideal conditions and from the top starting positons. Stay tuned, last race on the Lauberhorn starts tomorrow at 13:00 CET!
Source: fis-ski.com
