'Luck was on my side': Feller narrowly wins Adelboden slalom
Jan 07, 2024·Alpine Skiing
With the men's slalom field wide open and a World Cup victory there for the taking, Manuel Feller (AUT) decided to just go for it, and it paid off — big time.
Feller won his second slalom of the season in Adelboden on Sunday and took control of the race for the discipline crystal globe, using all his experience to triumph on one of the most challenging pistes on the tour.
The 31-year-old came from fifth after the first run to put down a target time that less experienced racers after him could not surpass, with Atle Lie McGrath (NOR) coming closest, missing out by two hundredths of a second to finish runner-up.
"Always an amazing feeling to come here, probably my favourite hill to ski next to the Austrian races," said Feller, who was joined on the podium by teammate and surprise third-place finisher Dominik Raschner (AUT).
Feller was 0.45 seconds off the lead after the first run and knew he needed something special in the second run to challenge for victory, a day after he slipped at the top of the steep pitch to throw away his chances in Saturday's giant slalom.
"You can never expect to win a race, especially after the first run," Feller said. "I saw these young guns from Norway, they are going really hard, so I need to go a little bit more on the limit.
"That's what I did for the second run. It's also a lot of risk because this hill is so difficult, you can make a mistake at every gate.
"The luck was on my side with the hundredths of a second, but my skiing was awesome too."
Those Norwegian young guns — Alexander Steen Olsen (NOR), 22, and McGrath, 23 — posted the top two times in the first run and threatened to repeat Norway's 1-2 finish in the Swiss resort from a year ago.
But penultimate skier McGrath, who came second to now-retired teammate Lucas Braathen (NOR) in Adelboden in 2023, was forced to settle for the same position this year after losing his lead to Feller on the lower part of the steep pitch.
First-run leader Steen Olsen, skiing last in the second run for the first time in his World Cup career, went down and out on just the sixth gate to hand victory to the Austrian.
Although runner-up McGrath admitted it was "bittersweet" to just miss out on victory, he was thrilled to be on the podium again after recovering from a second ACL operation in February 2023.
"It's an amazing result," he said of his first World Cup podium since last year's race on the same piste. "Coming back from injury like I have now, being back on the podium so quick in probably the toughest conditions you can get.
"The second half of the second run in Adelboden, the pressure is so big because you can hear everything that happens."
Raschner's surprising third-place finish was his first World Cup podium in a traditional discipline and came after he started the race with bib No. 35 and moved up from 16th after the first run with the fastest time of the second run.
"It's unbelievable for me, I gave everything in the second run," said Raschner, whose only previous World Cup podium came in a parallel event in November 2021.
Raschner's surprising finish showed the openness of men's slalom this season, following the shock retirement of last year's globe winner Braathen as well as Marco Schwarz's (AUT) season-ending injury and Henrik Kristoffersen's (NOR) indifferent early-season form.
With the crystal globe up for grabs, Feller has now put himself in pole position, with two firsts and a fifth from the three slalom races this season giving him a 125-point lead over the next active skier, Dave Ryding (GBR), who finished 21st on Sunday.
"That's an honour too but still a lot of races left," Feller cautioned. "I try to show some good skiing in the next races and looking forward for (the next slalom race in) Wengen."
