Kristoffersen continues love affair in Garmisch to grab slalom season lead

For the third time in 11 months Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR) proved far too good for the rest of slalom’s best on Germany’s Garmisch-Partenkirchen slopes, securing another brilliant Audi FIS World Cup win on Wednesday evening.

In front of a buoyant crowd, the Norwegian made light of the difficult, deteriorating second run conditions in what is fast becoming his second home to finish ahead of a pumped-up Manuel Feller (AUT) and a relieved Clement Noel (FRA).

Alberto Tomba (ITA) is the only other male slalom skier to secure three wins in three successive World Cup starts in the home of German skiing. The great man himself would surely have approved of the composure Kristoffersen showed in the face of a course described by Britain’s Dave Ryding as “like weaving your way through porridge”.

“I was pretty calm at the start actually,” Kristoffersen said. “I thought the second run, the conditions were rough but not so bad. I have skied in worse. There were some gates that were really nice to ski and I took pretty good advantage of that, skiing smart and not risking too much.”

The 28-year-old now has an incredible 22 World Cup slalom wins to his name. But after following two World Cup giant slalom runners-up finishes with a second place last time out in Madonna di Campiglio in the slalom, he had begun to wonder when he would reach that mark.

“After three second places in a row, it is good to win,” he laughed. “I just tried to do the things that make me ski faster. I tried to focus on the technique, on the tactical stuff in the course and that’s it.”

It was more than enough with Kristoffersen extending his first run advantage to finish a comfortable 1.22 seconds ahead of Feller.

The Austrian, who lay fourth after run one, told journalists he would “put everything on the line” in his second effort. Typically, he did just.

“That was definitely one of the toughest races this season. I fought until the finish line,” said the man who now sits second behind Kristoffersen in the season standings. “Yeah super happy with this result and awesome atmosphere here in Garmisch.”

The noisy fans that so delighted the showman Feller did not quite get what they wanted. Local hero Linus Strasser (GER) lay second going into the evening run and by the halfway point he had opened up more than a second’s advantage on Feller. But trouble with the inside ski led to a heart-breaking fall.

Noel, the reigning Olympic slalom champion, was thankful he managed to avoid the same fate.

“It feels really nice because I was a little bit stressful before the second run because I knew that I had to get to the finish line,” said the Frenchman who had failed to finish in either of his two World Cup starts this season.

“I knew I could be fast in these conditions but mistakes are really, really difficult to avoid in these conditions because you have to push but you also have to be really solid.”

The fact Lucas Braathen (NOR), who came into the event as the form skier, and the reigning slalom world champion Sebastian Foss-Solevaag (NOR), both failed to finish gives an idea of the scale of the task the skiers faced.

Italy’s Stefano Gross was one man to prosper thanks a thrilling effort. The 36-year-old was 26th in the first run and a whopping 3.99 seconds behind Kristoffersen. But fifth out of the gate in run two, he flew to the fastest time of the evening and jumped up to fifth.

Next up for the men’s technical skiers is a giant slalom-slalom double-header in Adelboden (SUI) 7-8 January.