Ligety makes it three in a row in Soelden

American Ted Ligety has won his third consecutive race in Soelden earlier this afternoon, proving once again his dominance in the discipline.
Ligety showed immediately his amazing condition when in the first run he collected a gap over the rest of the field of nine tenth of a second.
Youngsters Pinturault (second) and Hirscher (third) were the immediate followers and then the gap rapidly widened, especially due to the difficult conditions caused by the strong wind and the mild temperatures.
As proof of that it is enough to notice how, for the second run, only two racers in the top 30 did not qualify and one of them can blame a crash for that.
Surely one of the most interesting and surprising runs was given by one man starting out of the elite group: bib 32, Bode Miller.
The American star was starting a World Cup race after more than a year of absence and there was a lot of interest about this comeback.
The excitement of seeing his return immediately raised eyebrows as his known-to-be crazy technique appeared to be as effective as prior his injury. No-one around his starting number had done anything alike, but he attacked the slope and bumps with the usual brave attitude and it paid off as he finished 13th (19th after the second run).
The second run appeared to follow the pattern given by the yesterday’s Women’s race, as the worsening of the snow conditions favoured the comebacks from behind, like Defago who rose from 27th to 14th place as he ended up with the second best time of the second run.
The best time was scored by French Steve Missilier, 13th after the first run, and with this amazing second leg he could challenge the podium as he finished 4th, tied with Norwegian Aksel-Lund Svindal.
The French assault was not big enough to move any of the first-round best three names and nothing changed on top, with Ligety once more showing his class even under pressure.
The podium was then sealed by the same drivers who finished at the top of last year’s Giant Slalom cup, a clear statement that they will be once again the ones to beat.

Maze and Hirscher win 2013 ski world-cup

Maze wins and breaks records but can't take all the Globes

24 podiums, 11 victories, 2 "small globes" and the Overall title with record of points ever scored by a human being in a single season. Yes, Tina Maze just finished the best season ever in the history of ski world cup, but probably a little of a bitter taste stayed as she was very close to win all the crystal globes possible. She unarguably very unlucky with the cancellation of the final downhill where a top 7 finish would have given her the title, no matter the results of the others as she was just 1 point trailing to the injured Lindsey Vonn, who thanks to the horrible weather (and in all honesty the dumbness of FIS rules, which don't let the final races be replaced, not even in the space of the same week) won the crystal globe for the 6th time in a row - that's a record too-.
The same bad weather forced the organizers to cancel the superg too and by the effect of this choice, Tina won the superg globe without the need of defending it from the last assault of the only rival left, Julia Mancuso, who later of twitter expressed all her resentment towards FIS, which decided to hold the team event the really next day, instead of letting girls fight for either the superg or downhill title.
It wasn't then a surprise that USA pulled out of the team event and Maze didn't compete for her country there. In that atmosphere of controversy Germany could run off with the victory ahead of Sweden and Italy.
Saturday was then the day of the slalom, the last unsecure title to be given in the season, Maze was leading the standing thanks to a win in the last race, which made her overcome Mikaela Shiffrin, but the two were just few points away one from the other, hence the one of the two placing ahead of the other would have won the title.

After the first run Maze seemed so sure of the win, as she was leading the race with a margin of over a second, but in the second run the just-become-adult Shiffrin, having nothing to lose skied probably the most impressive run of the year pulverizing whatever attempt to overcome her in the final standing. As usual Tina tried it all, but there was nothing she could have done there and in the end she finished only 3rd, behind a surprising Bernadette Schild.
Tears run down the face of Tina as she crossed the finish line, Lenzerheide, after having given her first win in slalom two years ago, seemed to have become jinxed as in two days she lost everything she could have lost, but all in honesty Shiffrin totally deserved this title and for sure she will see many more coming in the next years, so there's no shame in losing a tight battle with her.

In the last day of this 2013 ski world cup GS was to be hold. Title was already secure to go to Tina, but despite that, you could see how much she wanted to finish this season well, because she attacked from the very first gates of the first run too and she was second only to Tessa Worley when one run was yet to be done.
In the second run a great comeback avoided Lara Gut to snatch her second ever podium in Giant Slalom, but nothing could stop Maze to take her 11th win of the season, she was just flawless and not even an inspired second run by Worley could do much to stop her. Tessa finished second in the end and Tina could finish the season exactly the same way as she started, winning.

Weather kills Svindal's last chances, Marcel wins the Overall again

Heading to the world cup finals Aksel Lund Svindal knew his hopes for the overall title were really few, he was trailing in the run for the title of some 50 points to Hirscher, but he could have had a chance if he had won both the downhill and the superg as everything would have then been on the Austrian's young shoulders, but the Norge didn't even have the chance to try, because as it happened for the Ladies, weather has been harsh during the days of the speed events and forced organizers to call them off.

Svindal won two globes nevertheless, the superg and the downhill ones, yet this wasn't enough to challenge Hircher as the number of slalom and giant slaloms this season was a lot bigger than the one of speed races and in the technical ones Marcel kept an impressive pace, which in the end could give him the overall title, even if he competed only in those two events.
After the team event, it was giant slalom's day and as usual it was an only man show, with Ted Ligety dominating the race in both runs, in the second of which he tamed the attack of Hirscher and Pinturault, who finished 2nd and 3rd, making the final standingof the race, the same of the GS cup!

Last day was the one for slalom, once again everything was already decided for the discipline globe and the overall was already "booked" under Hirscher's name, nonetheless the race was hugely enetertaining and in the end Felix Neureuther could snatch an impressive win over Hirscher and the once again incredible Ivica Kostelic, who's been able to win last week in Kranjska Gora and now to finish on podium despite another severe injury occurred to his knee not long ago.

Hirscher from Fail to Glory in Adelboden

Grasp all, lose all

Sometimes the proverbs of the olds aren't just a fixed idiom, but they see in every-day life their reflection. So it was for Marcel Hirscher, who had to come into terms with the famous one in the heading as he blew away a certain win in Saturday's giant slalom of Adelboden.

But going on step by step, the first run of one of the most famous and spectacular Giant Slaloms of the circuit gave already a big deal of emotions, surely a great entreé for what would have been the second leg.
Once again at the lead of the race after the first run there were the dominants of the discipline for the past two years, Marcel Hirscher and Ted Ligety, the latter only few hundreds away from the Austrian, despite a big mistake which almost set him out.
All the others, starting from Fanara were more than one second away with only two slightly big surprises happening: the first was the comeback on good levels in the discipline by Svindal (4th) and Kostelic (6th), the second the qualification of a bunch of athlets coming down with high bibs such as 52 for Caviezel and 54 for Muffat Jandet.

In the second run Swiss youngster Caviezel was the first one to get close to break the limit of 1'14" and with such a time he could step by step climb the ranking in his very first appearance in a second run of World Cup. From the 23rd place of the first run he could lead the race until the 19th came down, that one being Italian Davide Simoncelli, who seemed another athlet from the first run as he passed the swiss on the lead, but together with him led the race for long as the two finished 10th and 11th.
But today it was the day of the come-backs from behind as first Manfred Moelgg and then the German duo of Dopfer and Neureuther signed the best three times of the 2nd run to raise the ranking in spite of their first runs.
The Italian, who was 12th at the middle of the race, showed to be the most in form of his team in the technical races once again as he rose as high as 4th with his terrific 2nd section. The podium finished very close for him, but the raise of the Germans prevented him from achieving it. First Neureuther and then Dopfer indeed, were the only one in the top 10 to get close to the time of the Italian and bettered it; the two who were 8th and 9th after the first run took the lead in front of Moelgg and saw one by one all the other top tenners finishing behind them.
When the top 3 were to go down the situation had still Dopfer ahead of compatriot Neureuther and then Moelgg. Thomas Fanara, after the great first run fell into one of the many trapts of Adelboden's slope and crashed after very short time.
Secure of his great lead Ted Ligety skied a little more wary than usual, but that still was enough to take the lead and put all the pressure on Hirscher's shoulders.
The Austrian maybe by knowing how close Ligety had been in first run in spite of his mistake, or maybe to show how better than him he could be, attacked all the way down the swiss slope and approached the last steep with a terrific advantage of more than one second on the American. But if you grasp all, you lose all. He wanted too much and tried an impossible line to enter this very last steep and almost jumped on the entering wave, that costed him an almost fall, which led to a complete stop. Only thanks to his incredible reactivity he could still finish the race, but far behind the top names, 16th.

3 on 3 wins in the last slaloms

Whatever passed in the mind of Hirscher the night after the giant slalom surely seemed to affect his first run in the slalom, where he looked far more wary than usual, a little blocked even as he tried to finish the run without too big mistakes, but this time it wasn't enough to stay on top.

The lead after the first run was taken by Manfred Moelgg, whose raise to the top after a couple of complicated seasons seems finally completed, who led by a very short distance evergreen Mario Matt and the more and more costant Felix Neureuther. But the race was far from being decided as the 11th, Alexis Pinturault was just 1second away from the first place and so everyone had his chances to be played in the 2nd run.
The man of the come backs, Japanese Naoki Juasa, after the fabulous fairytale of Madonna di Campiglio, did something surely not as big, but worth of mention here, as he could rise in the 2nd run from 25th to 14th place. Even better did American Chodounsky, whose 2nd run time let him gain 10 positions worth of a 10th place by the end and best career result.

In the early runs of the top 10 little did Missilier and Dopfer, but then it was Hirscher's turn, who at the start arrived without the ghosts that probably frightened him in the first run as he went down like only he can do in this season. Unstoppable he set a terrific time, one second faster than everybody else and even though his gap from top was quite big, the chances he could finish not on top were very slim.
Indeed, one after another all the specialists of the slalom had to surrender to the Austrian and so when the top 3 was about to start, he was still leading the race with a big margin on Kostelic and Pinturault.
Neureuther skied well, but a couple of mistakes held him back and placed him right behind the Croat and eventually 5th.
Mario Matt started with a great fighting spirit, hence risking a lot, but that didn't make him fail or fall into the traps of the setter and in the end he was the only one who could even if for little scare Hirscher as he lost a lot in the upper part of the course, to eventually make up by the end, but not enough to stop the team-mate.

First run leader Manfred Moelgg had on his shoulder the burden of the mediocre day of his team and the awerness that he needed something extraordinery to stay ahead of Hirscher. He tried his all cards, but this time it wasn't enough, he skied well and took many risks, but Hirscher had been just too good. The Italian could still be happy at the end as he finished 3rd, first podium in slalom after 3 years.

Hirscher comes out winner from snowy Val D'Isere

The weather hasn't been very kind with Val D'Isere in the past years, as last year they were had been forced to call the event off because of the lack of snow, whilst this year they had to work very hard for the massive snowfall that hit the French resort in the past few days. Because of this they were forced to switch the normal order of the races, having the slalom done first and then the GS, with the former done almost by night in order to have more time to prepare the slope.
The result was better than expected, but both races obviously had been little signed by the odd conditions of the snow.

Pinturault first win on home soil.

Because of the snowfall and the delay of the start to early afternoon, together with the difficulty of the slope made the slalom very thrilling as the result of each run was uncertain and very spectacular.

In the first run a lot of emotions went on with Austrian young talent Marcel Hirscher leading the team-mate Manfred Pranger, who exploited his expereince and his talent to snatch that 2nd place despite the bad slope's conditions when he went down with bib 11. A group of three athlets from the top group were following with Neureuther, Gross and Deville one after the other. Another great surprise had been done by Pinturault, who was 6th despite the 16 on her bib and the few training under his belt - because of the injury occurred in the fall.
Despite the big bumps created by the passage of the athlets on the soft snow quite a few guys could qualify for the second run even with high numbers: Austrian Feller was even 16th with number 50.
In the second run American Chodounsky took advantage of being the first on track and kept gaining places for a long with Slovak suprise Adam Zampa following close (the two would eventually finish 15th and 16th).

But it was Austrian Wolfgang Hoerl who made the real comeback of the day, by scoring what will eventually be the 2nd best time of the run, he rose from 26th to 9th place.
Moelgg and Ligety did quite a nice job in the second run as well, but it was the Swedish duo of Myhrer and Byggmark that impressed the most as the two by risking a lot in their attacking run could first stop Hoerl raise and then start their own. Jens, who had done half a miracle in the first run already by skiing the whole run without a pole lost on start, had fire burining in his eyes, but a couple of mistakes cost him the lead over the team-mate. The two finished right at the feet of the podium 4th and 5th.
The one who stopped them was the eventual winner of the race, Alexis Pinturault, who skied out of his mind, as if there were no signs or bumps on the course. He scored the best time of the run and hardly anyone could get any close: one by one every racer start to fall behind him in the final standing with Neureuther being the only one able to stay relatively close to him, half a second away and eventually 2nd.
Manfred Pranger, who was second after the first half, completely lost the plot in the second section of the race and finished 6th, while Hirscher's big mistakes cost his leadership and for a little he hasn't lost the podium at all, but he could still finish 3rd.

Hirscher wins the first race for Austrian team

Of course Austria can't always win, but when it's middle December and the only win for the Wunderteam arrived from ladies the pressure on the guys start to be big. None could expect that Ligety would suddenly drop his terrific form and lose the first GS of the season, but the weird snow conditions, the shortened GS and the very tight gates surely mixed the cards on the table.
The first run had already been very unpredictable with the protagonists of last night's slalom again on top as Hirscher was leading after the first run with a very small gap over Pinturault and Neureuther was 5th. Of course the short distance between the gates would have advataged the young slalomists, but still a few veterans could find their way to stay close as Benjamin Raich was 4th, Ligety 6th and Blardone 8th.

The second run was again marked by a few athlets exploiting the better slope give by an early start, this time, though, the surprise was even bigger as German Stefan Luitz, 25th after the first run, at his 3rd top 30 appearance in World Cup led the race as far as finishing just a step away from the victory. His run was something of rare quality, since he was even behind Roberto Nani -who was leading the race at the moment- by the middle, but then he found a great sequence of gates, a perfect one actually and finished ahead of the Italian. None in the craziest of his dreams might have thought of it, but the young German started to climb the ranking step by step and each position he won, you could see an amazed and thrilled smile growing on his face.
Nani gained a lot of positions too, finishing for the first time in the top 10, 10th actually.
The fight for the first places started with a brave run by Svindal who used his great power to tame the bumps of the course, but it wasn't enough to better Luitz's time but enough to go from 11th to 6th.
Italian Max Blardone, who hadn't finish out of the podium here for a three seasons, tried his best to make his streak longer, but he had to surrender to the German too, but the podium didn't finish that far as he was 5th at the end.
Ligety of course was rather daunted after his first disappointing run and wanted to make up in the second run, he tried everything and he was the first one to gain some advantage to Luitz in the first part, but then a couple of bad mistakes set him beck and prevented him from stopping Luitz's raise. Ted eventually was 3rd, which of course feels rather tight for his standards, so we'll see for sure him angry for victory in Badia next week.

A solid run from Neureuther gave him the first top 5 finish in GS in his carreer (previously a 13th placement had been his best result, that's the reason of his high bib -36-). Sadly for him, Raich couldn't find the same flawless run he had in the first run and even if he didn't make many mistakes, he seemed to never finish the turns and that made him accumulate hundreds on hundreds every gate; 25th his final placement.
When Pinturault started the crowd went crazy and his brave attitude wouldn't but grow the hopes the French public had for a back to back win from him. It seemed already done, only a few gates were missing before he could cross the finish line with a reassuring advantage, but he let his focus decrease and his boot touched the snow making him fall.
Hirscher knew his worst opponent had fallen and his advantage was big enough to be administrated and so he did, he didn't take many risks and so he could finally secure his first win of the season and end the seasonal drought for the Austrian team.

Ligety and Vonn once again on another planet

Lake Louise's undisputable Queen

Third race and third success in row, this time in superg, which sets her winning streak on that slope one step forward, this was indeed Lindsey Vonn's 7th success in the last 7 races on the Canadian track. But if yesterday's result was nothing but pure and amazing talent, today she had been much wiser in her skiing, avoiding any big risk, mostly in the steep part, but that didn't change the eventual result as no girl could finish closer than half a second.
2nd in the end was Julia Mancuso, her team-mate and long time rival. Julia was on the lead until Lindsey finished her run and she probably caressed the idea of beating her on her beloved slope, conscious of having done a terrific flat final, the best one before Vonn's run. So when Lindsey looked rather prudent on the steep part and the partial time before the flat showed a very close gap between the two, none could expect Vonn to easily gain a greater advantage of Mancuso, but so she did and grabbed another victory.
Julia had to be very proud of her race though, because, despite the gap that separates her from Vonn, she was able to ski a very convincing run mostly, as it has been already pointed out, on the last part of the slope. She knew she had done something great the moment she could overtake Anna Fenninger on the temporary lead of the race: the Austrian had herself skied an extremely good run, built on some great gliding and line choices on the flat parts, but most of all on an outstanding interpretation of the big turns set on the middle steep.

4th and 5th finished respectively Tina Maze and Maria Riesch. The two of them had to content themself of staying at podium's feet, but still scoring good points for the overall ranking, in which the former is still leading, despite the not-too-positive weekend.
Maze's run was, anyway, a great step ahead of what she had shown in downhill, where she didn't find the right way to fully express her abilities. Today she skied much better, mostly on the steep, where her GS talents helped her to score on of the best partial timing, unless losing quite a lot by the end on the last few gates on the flat.

Ligety still too good, Hirscher and Simoncelli the best among humans

It's been more than a month since the last Giant Slalom men had raced at, but the winner is still the same: Ted Ligety, the American the passport says, but from outer space his time said today on Beaver Creek's snow.

Ted was the one to open the race in the first run and then to finish it since he was leading already after the first half and didn't fail to confirm his placement, actually he did even improve his lead over the second by finishing more than 1'7 seconds ahead of all the others. What struk the most of Ligety's runs is the apparent effortless way he faces even the most difficult passages and trapts set on the courses, despite the longer and less carved skis, where the others need to invent tricks or somehow use their whole power, he just flexes his Heads and makes the turn.
The first among the others on the finish line was Marcel Hirscher, 2nd after both the runs, the only one to be closer than one second to Ligety after the first run, but a couple of mistakes in the second partial couldn't but let this delay to grow bigger, at one point in the second run he looked on trouble defending his placement too, but in the end he could save it from the assault of Italian Davide Simoncelli.

Davide had a very good first run already as he finished it on the 3rd place, but could secure his comeback on the podium only through a solid second run, lightened by an outstanding bottom part, where he could inflame the local crowd with his amazing style. Davide looked on cloud nine when he jumped on the podium, since this summer he got injured and needed a very long and painful recovery and that podium looked like a great prize for his hard work.
Right away from the top 3 finished Manfred Moelgg, who gained one position at the expenses of French Pinturault, who still was able to finish 5th. The two had to be happy in any case, the former for setting another proof of his comeback to the top of both the technical races, the latter for the coinfidence he could draw from such a good result coming from the injury he suffered.
But if the best placements didn't see many changes in the 2nd run, what happened right behind them was strongly affected by three huge comebacks: Aksel Lund Svindal, to once again prove his love for the Birds of Prey rose from 17th to the eventual 6th; Max Blardone, after a huge mistake in the first run barely made it to the 2nd, but there he gave proof of his talent and finished 9th from 18th, whilst Austrian youngster Noesig did even better finishing 10th from the 28th place of the first half.

Riesch and Myhrer take the first slaloms of the season

After the season opening in the Austrian glacier of Soelden, it was time for the slalom specialists to start their season and so it was high time for them Levi to come. Up in the very north of Finland the "black Levi" was ready and majestically prepared for the WC and maybe the good lightening, the great public and the very nice ammount of snow in the lovely town, but the atmosphere was the best on for these very first slaloms.
On saturday it was women's turn and the very question was about who could have bothered Marlies Schild after the amazing season she once again scored last year in the short gates of slalom. The austrian star had bib number one and so immediatly everyone was ready for another great display of technic, but this time surprisingly her race was much shorter than her opponents' just because she had gone out beforetime.
Immediatly the chance of a win seemed very much possible for a lot of girl up at the start and so every one of them fought hard against the very difficult setting of the first run, in order to make the best out of herself.
Austrian disappointment for Schild's turnoff was soon increased by a very poor performance of Michi Kirchgasser and then another exit from Zettel.

Out of that few exits, not many surprises signed the first run as local champion Tania Poutiainen was leading the race with a little gap over Maria Riesch -who looked far better than a couple weeks ago in GS- and American Mikaela Shiffrin.
In the second run a couple of great runs were shown by the girls who clearly were disappointed after their first run. That was the case with Canadian Gagnon, rising from 18th to 10th place and Zuzulova, who as usual displayed an amazing feeling with flat parts scoring a terrific time that almost looked unbeatable, until Tina Maze came down and took the leadership. The two led the race for a very long while, so that only the virtual podium was yet to go down, but then all three of them could stay ahead of the come-backers and the Slovakian ended 5th and the Slovenian 4th.
American young talent Shiffrin looked very strong-minded and could confirm her 1st run placement with a very brave 2nd run, snatchig the 2nd podium of her carreer being only 17!

Maria Riesch had a lot of experience on her side and a little advantage from the first run, but that alone wasn't enough to take the lead and try to grab another WC victory, she had to ski errorless and so it was, she ended her run with a very solid run that secured her the lead, but would that be enough against local favourite Poutiainen?
Tania started the 2nd leg with a terrific upper part adding precious hundreds to her leading, but as the steep started she lost a little determination and a couple of mistakes cost her the lead, but with experience she still could end 2nd.
THe real winner of today's race is Sarka Zahrobska though, who suffered a brain surgery this summer, but still she was able to compete and quite well considered all she's been through, bravo Sarka!

The day after it was about men to face eachother on the Finnish slope, but even if the first 4 position after the first run didn't change by the end, the race was even more spectacular than the women's one.

A lot of uncertainty was in the air throughout the race and it was not only about the fog, but all the racer showed a very great form already and the gap needed to quality for the 2nd run was so small that everyone almost had a shot for a good result before the 2nd run to start.
Surely aware of that it was Austrian Reinfried Herbst, who got in last-minute thanks to his team-mate Matt disqualification. Herbst took advantage of the perfect conditions and risked it all by attacking from the very first gates till the end and his run made him climb more than 20 places in the ranking as he finished 6th.

Italian Giuliano Razzoli took advantage of the low number in the 2nd run and could rise from 29th to 13th place, whilst Norvegian young hope Kristoffersen - year of birth 1994- rose from 24th to 11th.
It was just when the top 10 was to start that Herbst leading was broken though and it needed a terrific run by Italian Patrick Thaler to do so, but the two kept rising the ranking together for quite a few runs more.
The top 5 racers of the first run were the only left and the two above were still on the lead, Russian Sensation Aleksander Khoroshilov looked a little too cautious after the amazing first run (5th starting with bub 45) and sadly for him this attitude didn't pay off as he eventually finished only 18th. Italian Moelgg, 4th after the 1st leg, had a completely different attitude and attacked with no fears and could overtake his team mate in the leadership, but it didn't last longer as Swedish Byggmark skied an old-fashioned runs of his and despite a couple of big mistakes he still could secure himself of the podium.

Austrian Marcel Hirscher looked unbeatable when he ended the second run's course, as he showed some incredible agility down the steepest part of the slope, but 1st run leader and last year's Slalom cup winner Andre Myhrer had other weapons on his side and by painting amazing lines in the top flat and pushing hard like only he can do in the bottom, he still could overtake on the Austrian and took the Levi's slalom.

Ligety schools everyone in Soelden's snowstorm

American Ted Ligety was one of the -if not the one- most critic about the new rules on GS skis, as he said they wouldn't make any difference in the speed, but would actually increase the risk of injuries. One would then believe that this change might actually set him back on earth, whereas he's been the best interpreter of the discipline over the past few years. Well this one was surely surprised at the end of today's race, as not only he won, once again, but he completely destroyed the chances of everybody else, as the first mortal, Italian Manfred Moelgg, finished almost 3 seconds behind Teddy!
What makes it even more scary, is that the scenario after the first run was rather different.
The huge snowfall that kept blowing a lot of snow throughout the night gave a lot of troubles to the organizers, but after a great effort the race could start, but the whole course was slowed down by the fresh snow, mostly for the first racers and very soon a lot of bumps ruined the course.

Austrian Philipp Schoerghofer, unluckily for him, had the duty to open the race and couldn't even qualify for the second run as slow it was the last flat part of the slope.
Passage by passage the course got a little faster though, but of the top group only Ligety could score a time good enough to stay into the very top places after the first run. On the contrary French Thomas Fanara could take advantage of the little faster surface and by attacking the course from the very first gates with no fear for the bumps he could set the best time, by placing few hundreths ahead of the American.
Swedish Myrher and Austrian Baumed too, made solid runs and placed themself just behind Ligety and then with bib 21 Italian Moelgg showed a great attitude and even if he looked on the point of falling many times, he could stay up and score a terrific run, which placed him 3rd.
In the huge snowfall and the bad visibility a few guys from behind could find the right intuition to score a good run and so, quite many of them could qualify for the second run.
Cyprien Richard opened that second partial, but he wasn't really lucky and went out before time, then it was Roy's turn, and the Canadia made a really solid run even if at first it didn't look like one, as the very next racer, Slovakian newcomer Adam Zampa, destroyed his leadership with a terrific and brave run that would eventually give him a long-lasting leadership and a final placement into the top 10, 9th at his very first 2nd run in World Cup! Such a great achievement for the young guy from Vysoké Tatry, who had showed terrific improvements in the past few seasons, thanks to a very commendable hard work!

Zampa's run was so good that in the end his time was the 2nd best and could take him ahead of champions like Kostelic, Bauman and Mathis!
Only when the top tenners of the first run were to come down, the advantage over the Slovakian was big enough to let them overcome him at the finish line.
When it was last year's champion's turn, everyone expecred a great reaction from Hirscher, who didn't look very good in the first run and so it was. The Austrian seemed to shake out all the doubts and attacked like only he can do and leaded the race for a few intense moment.
The conditions of the weather were very tough and so the course, with all the bumps impossible to be seen in the snowstorm and so many runners fell or went out earlyon and after the exit of Simoncelli, Italian fans were holding their breaths while Manfred Moelgg was skiing down the hill.
Once again, like in the first run, the Italian looked always risking a little too much as if he was about to crash, but again he didn't and when he crossed the finish line he ended Hirscher's leadership.

His own was to last very few though, as Ted Ligety seemed not to be bothered by the fog or the snow and skied as if it was smooth and sunny, scoring a crazy good time, 2.75 seconds faster than the Italian and nothing could the first run's leader Fanara apart from trying to go beyond his limits. Too bad for the French it didn't work and he lost the podium too, finishing 4th.