For his first slalom of the season, Henrik Kristoffersen claimed the win on the challenging course of the “Criterium de la Première Neige” in Val d’Isère, ahead of his biggest rival in the discipline Marcel Hirscher and Russia’s Aleksander Khoroshilov.

The results of the first run promised an interesting second leg, with a surprise guest in the lead: the skier of Courchevel Alexis Pinturault, who won the GS on the same hill on the day before. However, the slalom aces didn’t allow the Frenchman to win two consecutive races on “La Face”.

After sitting out the first slalom of the season, Henrik Kristoffersen jumped from 3rd place to the highest spot on the podium, to claim his 10th slalom win. Already last year the Norwegian was topping the field in Val d’Isère, but this years’ victory is special for Kristoffersen as he had difficult start in the season due to personal reasons.

"It's a really good feeling. With all that's happened in the last month and a half, too, this is really good. I hope you can expect me to ski good. As long as I can do that, I'm happy. I'm a little bit relieved. It's nice to slap some plastic again."

It’s the other way round for Marcel Hirscher. He has been on the podium in every tech race he participated in since the beginning of the season, and today again, he earned a second place in the slalom.

"You never can expect anything in alpine ski racing, especially not in the technical events, it is nearly impossible. From parts, it was an amazing weekend, from the positions, it was brilliant, but from the feelings I had during skiing, it was not the best weekend I've has so far in my career. Now Henrik is back and he is showing us who is the real big king in slalom skiing. I thought I have done a pretty good job during the summer, but right now I am searching for some slalom tricks to come closer to Henrik."

In third place, Alexander Khoroshilov skied a very strong first run and limited the damage in the second. The Russian athlete, who never performed better than 8th place in Val d’Isère, grabbed his 7th career podium.

“First run was really great. The second run, it was just surviving for me and maybe I think it's not only for me, but I'm really happy I'm on the podium again. I had a really good feeling and in the second run it was just a little more bumpy so I was a little more stiff. Really, I was just braking and surviving."

The ladies will take over the hill in Val d’Isère with speed races next week-end. The men’s Tour is travelling to South Tyrol for the so-called “Italian Block”, where Val Gardena will start by organising a super-g and a downhill on Friday and Saturday.

Source: fis-ski.com