The stars at night were big and bright deep in the heart of the Dolomites as the Audi FIS World Cup Parallel Giant Slalom gave fans in Alta Badia (ITA) a night of excitement with the top 32 men’s alpine racers battling for the win.
And in a field filled with the biggest names on tour, it was relative unknown racer Cyprien Sarrazin (FRA) who earned his first-ever World Cup victory. It was just his seventh start in a World Cup event and 22 year-old's previous best World Cup finish was 24th place, but tonight he was in the zone as dispatched some of the biggest names in his quest for victory, topping racers like Justin Murisier (SUI), Leif Kristian Haugen (NOR) and Carlo Janka (SUI) en route to the win.
"I have never really dreamed about wining a World Cup," said Sarrazin. "My main goal is to ski as fast as possible and enjoy it. I was just trying my best and going for it. I was so concentrated that I wasn't even looking at who was next to me."
"I didn't expect that I would be in the finals," said Janka. "I made some steps forward with my start and that was really important today for this competition and also in the gates I had a pretty good feeling and it was fun to do this competition. It's good that I'm on the podium today and I hope I can go on in the next few races with a little bit more confidence."
Janka settled for second place after closing 0.10 seconds behind the Frenchman in the big final. The small final, with third place on the line, was an affair of bragging rights as Norwegian countrymen Kjetil Jansrud and Kristina Leif Haugen dueled it out for the final podium place. In the end, last year’s PGS champion in Alta Badia, Jansrud, topped Haugen by 0.23 seconds, to earn his second podium in as many races at the nighttime race.
"I think parallel is a fun discipline," said Janrud. "I've skied both parallel slalom and parallel GS and for sure parallel slalom is way different than normal slalom. Parallel GS is kind of similar to GS and I think it looks like there's a little bit more action to it."
The stands were once again packed in Alta Badia for the night race as fans were treated to several upsets. Going out in the first round were big names such as Marcel Hirscher (AUT) and Felix Neureuther (GER), but it added to the excitement for the fans as the course proved to be challenging for much of the field creating many surprises.
It was the second year that FIS has staged the nighttime Parallel Giant Slalom and it is quickly becoming a fan favorite with its knockout format and head-to-head format.
The World Cup will continue its Italian tour as the technical racers move onto Madonna di Campiglio for a night slalom. That will be the last race before the Holiday break, which is quite short before the speed racers return to action in Santa Caternia for a packed program with a super-G, a downhill and an Alpine Combined starting on December 26th.
Source: fis-ski.com
