'Crazy': Rest and sandwich power ill Hector to Giant Slalom victory

After spending much of the week in her sick bed and then inadvertently revealing her meal of choice between runs, Sara Hector (SWE) might have discovered not one but two secrets to success.

Despite being less than 100 percent healthy, the 32-year-old Swede held off a spirited challenge from the next generation of World Cup stars to dominate Saturday's Giant Slalom in Kranjska Gora and win by nearly a second and a half.

The Olympic Giant Slalom champion won her second race of the season, using a scintillating first run to set up her victory ahead of 18-year-old Lara Colturi (ALB/Blizzard, +1.42s) and 23-year-old Alice Robinson (NZL/Salomon, +1.52s).    

"Oh my God, crazy," said Hector, who was still coughing during her post-race interviews. "I couldn't believe it this morning, that this could happen.

"I was resting a lot this week, so maybe it helped a little bit. When you have been training a lot, resting is a good recipe."

And rest wasn't the only successful recipe for Hector, as she also revealed, after mishearing a question in her victory interview, another secret weapon that fuelled her between the two runs: a sandwich with scrambled eggs.

With the 100-point score, Hector moved into the lead in both the Giant Slalom and Overall World Cup standings as the new year begins, and is well-positioned in both races with Mikaela Shiffrin (USA/Atomic) still recovering from injury and Lara Gut-Behrami (SUI/Head) down on her form of a season ago.

In a difficult first run on hard, icy snow on the Podkoren piste, Hector, Colturi and Thea Louise Stjernesund (NOR/Rossignol) were the only top skiers to find the right combination of aggression and technique, though Hector was in a class of her own, leading second-placed Colturi by 1.13 seconds at the halfway stage.

"These conditions really fit me very well," Hector admitted.

Almost everyone else struggled to find their grip in the first run, including the two most decorated skiers in the field: Federica Brignone (ITA/Rossignol), who went down and out on her inside ski midway down the course to register a DNF; and Gut-Behrami, who lost time all the way down the piste and found herself nearly a second and three-quarters behind the Swedish leader, albeit in fifth position.

In the second run, Julia Scheib (AUT/Rossignol) threw down the gauntlet with the fastest time from equal 13th, taking the lead and holding it for the next nine skiers until Robinson overtook her.

Scheib ended up fourth, 0.34 seconds off the podium, while speed star Sofia Goggia (ITA/Atomic) skied the second-best run of the afternoon session to finish fifth.

As the race reached its climax with the final five skiers, Gut-Behrami couldn't take advantage of a course set by her father and coach, ending up sixth, while Stjernesund dropped four places from third to seventh.

One-time phenom Robinson, who won three World Cup races as a teenager and has found her way back to close to that form in the last season and a half, took the lead and guaranteed herself a place on the podium when Stjernesund faltered.

"I knew I could have done better on the first run," said Robinson, who like Gut-Behrami after her, didn't quite take advantage of a course set by her coach in the morning session. "I think I skied solid but was just too conservative.

"Second run, I didn't want to think as much. I just wanted to attack and go for it and not overthink anything. I think I found a good balance of pushing and also being smart with the tactics."

With two racers left, Colturi aimed to emulate fellow youngster Zrinka Ljutic's (CRO/Atomic) maiden victory last Sunday, and skied wisely beyond her years to overtake Robinson, although she was ultimately no match for Hector.

"It just feels amazing," Colturi said of her second World Cup podium, her first in Giant Slalom, and the first in GS for Albania.

"I was feeling really confident in myself in the last week and finally I've made two really good runs."

As for holding her nerve in the second run, given the high stakes, she said simply: "I was just thinking (of) having fun like always, and doing my best."

Hector, skiing last and with a huge advantage, was error-free and never troubled as she powered away from Colturi's splits with the third-fastest second run to confirm her seventh World Cup victory and second in the Slovenian resort after her 2022 triumph.

With some more rest on Saturday night — and maybe another sandwich or two — the veteran Swede will be back at it again on Sunday in the Slalom at 10:00 CET, hoping to complete the Kranjska Gora double.