Six straight for Hirscher in Alta Badia GS

Austrian Marcel Hirscher won his sixth straight giant slalom in Alta Badia (ITA) as he destroyed the rest of the field winning today’s race by 2.53 seconds.

The French picked up second and third place in a strong team showing.  Thomas Fanara, who finished the first run in 12th place, leap-frogged into second place for his first podium finish since 2016. Meanwhile Alexis Pinturault earned his first podium finish of the season, ending in third place.

Hirscher already built up a healthy lead after the first run as he was ahead of Matts Olsson by a solid 0-94 margin. Third place after the first run was the Swiss surprise Marco Odermatt, who ultimately attacked the second run a little too hard and did not finish. Olsson had a disappointing second run and ended in sixth place.

Despite Hirscher’s massive victory margin, his second run was surprisingly only the second fastest on the day.  Luca de Alipradini, who finished a distant 28th place in the first run, had the run of his life in the second run,, topping Hirsher’s time by 0.24 seconds, allowing him to climb into seventh place in the final standings.

Tomorrow is sure to be more of a test for Hirscher as the parallel giant slalom will take center stage. Despite his clear dominance in the giant slalom in Alta Badia, the Gran Risa parallel course has not been as kind to the Austrian as he has just one podium, third place last year, in the three previous editions of the young event.

The parallel giant slalom will be staged tomorrow under the lights, with a start time of 18:15 CET.

Results are available here: Alta Badia GS

Quotes from the Top 3 are available here: Soundcloud