‘Favourite hill’ delivers Grenier World Cup win No.2 in Kranjska Gora

Valerie Grenier’s (CAN) love affair with Kranjska Gora continued in soggy conditions on Saturday as the Canadian surged to her second Audi FIS World Cup giant slalom win in 12 months on the Slovenian piste.

Mad at herself after mistakes in the morning left her fourth at the halfway stage, Grenier produced a stunning second run on a course set by her coach to set a combined target of 1:50.51. A time that no one truly threatened to match, with first run leader Petra Vlhova (SVK) fading to fourth in tough conditions.

The tireless Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI) found her “timing” to grab the 70th World Cup podium finish of her career but was still 0.37 seconds behind the winner. While the third-placed  Federica Brignone (ITA) was over half-a-second back. The Italian, who later shared that she had gone through “three pairs of socks, three t-shirts and two (race) suits” due to the driving rain, does narrowly maintain her lead at the top of the GS season standings.

But there was no doubt though who the day belonged to, with Canada’s Grenier wishing every race was held in the Slovenian resort.

“I think it’s my favourite hill for sure, it seems to really suit me. I don’t know why, there is just something about it. I love it here,” said the skier whose two World Cup wins in 108 starts have both come in Kranjska Gora.

A year after breaking her duck on the same mountain, Grenier had the second half of her second run to thank for her second career triumph.

“Definitely after the first run I wanted the win because I was so pissed. So, I went all out,” said the skier whose flawless accuracy propelled her to comfortably the fastest second run in the field.

The win, coming swiftly on the back of a fourth place in the final GS of 2023 in Lienz (AUT), moves Grenier up to fourth in the race for the discipline Crystal Globe.

Gut-Behrami, who started the season with back-to-back wins, was delighted to get back on the podium after slight dip in form and revealed a secret weapon… of sorts.

“For me, it was important to find my timing, I was struggling a little bit in Lienz with that. Today I did two solid runs, which was my goal,” the Swiss star said, before adding with a smile, “Of course it is hard, it is challenging, you have to find an umbrella to go to the start and you find a hairdryer to dry your shoes.”

With her spare wardrobe, there was no need for a hairdryer for Brignone, although maybe that was the tiny margin the Italian was missing.

“Today I feel like I didn’t do my best. The other times I was always 100 per cent and I did what I had to do, so I was really happy with myself. Today, I don’t know, maybe I was missing something, missing a little thing, especially in the second run,” Brignone said. “I couldn’t attack as I wanted.”

Third place was a fourth World Cup GS podium finish in a row for the 33-year-old, something she has never previously achieved. A sign of her remarkable consistency is that her other podium finish in Kranjska Gora came way back in 2012.

Vlhova has not been around quite as long as Brignone but the big name Slovakian, who had an army of fans cheering her every turn, did look primed for World Cup win number 31. Last out the gate in the second run however, she struggled on the soft, rutted lower section with the 18th fastest second run time dropping her off the podium.

Great rival Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) was similarly unable to find her best. After a low key first run she also found the second half of the afternoon set tricky to master and ended ninth for her lowest World Cup finish of the season so far.

She, and her legion of worldwide fans, will be expecting a swift bounce back in the Kranjska Gora slalom on Sunday. Racing starts at 09:30 CET. Tune in to find out if the greatest ever can secure her fourth slalom win of the season.