After Zagreb, the Men’s tour heads to Adelboden (SUI) for a Giant Slalom race on Saturday, followed by a Slalom on Sunday.
Adelboden is a Swiss Alpine village in the Bernese Oberland region. It’s known for the ski resort of Adelboden-Lenk, host of the FIS Ski World Cup.
Adelboden-Lenk is one of the largest and most attractive snow sports regions in Switzerland. 72 high-performance transport facilities provide access to a piste network of just over 210 kilometers.
Adelboden Program:
Giant Slalom. Men. Saturday, January 8th. 1st run 10:30, 2nd run 13:30 (CET)
Slalom. Men. Sunday, January 9th. 1st run 10:30, 2nd run 13:30 (CET)
Last season Alexis Pinturault was on a league of his own in Adelboden.
The legendary Chuenisbärgli racecourse saw a dominant Pinturault who has returned to the top of the podium in Adelboden three years after winning here for the first time (2017). He set the best time in both runs to finish 1.04 seconds ahead of Filip Zubcic and 1.11 of Marco Odermatt.
On Saturday Alexis Pinturault raced to his third consecutive Alpine Ski World Cup Giant Slalom victory, the second one in Adelboden. While yesterday was "relatively easy" for the Frenchman, Saturday's race was more of a challenge as he sat in second place after the first run behind Loic Melliard. But a flawless second run pushed Pinturault to the victory.
For a second straight day, Pinturault finished ahead of a consistent Filip Zubcic, who was closer today, finishing 1.26 seconds off the winning pace.
The leader of the first run Loic Meillard was very lucky to hang on for third place as he had a big mistake at the middle section of the course but recovered and hung on for his third career giant slalom podium.
Marco Odermatt won the Giant slalom events in Sölden, Val d'Isère and the second one held in Alta Badia.
After finishing in second place in the first race in Alta Badia, Marco Odermatt won the second Giant Slalom held in La Gran Risa.
Marco Odermatt celebrated his third victory in the fourth Giant Slalom of the season in an impressive manner. The 24-year-old Swiss, who was leading the race after the first run, outclassed the competition and won with a clear lead of 1.01 seconds.
The Swiss finished in the top-five in 15 of his last 16 World Cup appearances in the Giant Slalom, with 11th place in Lenzerheide on 20 March 2021 as the exception.
He leads the Giant Slalom and Overall standings by 167 and 228 points respectively.
Alexis Pinturault has won 18 Giant Slalom races in the World Cup, ranking him in fifth place on the all-time men's list.
Pinturault can become the second male skier to win a World Cup event in 11 successive seasons, after Alberto Tomba from 1987-1988 to 1997-1998.
Filip Zubcic has finished in the top three in nine of the last 15 World Cup Giant Slalom races. This run includes wins in Naeba (February 2020), Santa Caterina (December 2020), Bansko, and Lenzerheide.
Zubcic (3) is one of only three skiers representing Croatia to win a World Cup event, alongside siblings Janica (30) and Ivica Kostelic (26).
Mathieu Faivre has finished on the podium in four of his last nine Giant Slalom appearances including the World Championship gold in Cortina 2021.
Until last season Henrik Kristoffersen finished in the top-three of the overall standings in each of the previous five seasons. He ranked second in 2015-2016 and 2017-2018, and third in 2016-2017, 2018-2019, and 2019-2020.
In the 2019-2020 season, Kristoffersen became the first man other than Marcel Hirscher to win the Slalom and Giant Slalom crystal globes in one season since Benjamin Raich in 2004-2005.
Henrik Kristoffersen won the first Giant Slalom in Alta Badia. After a great second run, he moved up to the top from 7th place to beat the dominator of the season Marco Odermatt.
It was Kristoffersen's 5th World Cup victory in Giant slalom and his 24th overall. His last win in the specialty was also in Alta Badia in 2019.
Žan Kranjec has won two World Cup events, both in the Giant Slalom. He won in Saalbach-Hinterglemm on 19 December 2018 and in Adelboden on 11 January 2020. Last year he finished in second place in the first race held in Santa Caterina.
The Slovenian finished in third place in the Opening Giant Slalom in Sölden. It was Kranjec's 8th podium in Giant Slalom.
Manuel Feller finished this season on the podium in Giant Slalom two times. In Val d'Isère and in Alta Badia he finished in third place. In total, he was on the podium in Giant Slalom 3 times. He finished in second place in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in January 2018.
Luca De Aliprandini, silver medallist in Giant Slalom at the 2021 World Championships, is the first Italian man to reach a World Cup podium, -he was second in Alta Badia (2)-, in the Giant Slalom since Florian Eisath's third place in Alta Badia on 18 December 2016. The last Italian man to win a GS in the World Cup was Massimiliano Blardone in Crans-Montana in 2012.
Last season we enjoyed an Exciting Slalom race in Adelboden with Austrian Marco Schwarz earning his first career World Cup slalom victory, hanging on for the victory by 0.14 ahead of Linus Strasser and 0.15 seconds ahead of Great Britain’s Dave Ryding.
Clément Noël won the season slalom opener in Val d'Isère. He (9) is one of three Frenchmen to have won at least nine slalom events in the World Cup, alongside Jean Noël Augert (13) and Patrick Russel (9).
Noël achieved all 16 of his World Cup slalom podiums since the start of 2019. In this same period, no other male skier claimed more than nine slalom podiums in the World Cup.
Sebastian Foss Solevåg won the last slalom of 2020, in Madonna di Campiglio on 22 December. It was the Norwegian's third world-level victory in the slalom, after a World Cup win in Flachau on January 2021 and gold at the world championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo on February 2021.
Solevåg can become the first man to win back-to-back slalom events in the World Cup since Daniel Yule in January 2020. The most recent Norwegian man to claim successive World Cup wins in the slalom was Henrik Kristoffersen in January 2017.
Kristoffer Jakobsen is the only man to finish on the podium in both slalom events this World Cup season. The Swede finished second in Val d'Isère and third in Madonna di Campiglio, claiming his first career World Cup podiums.
Jakobsen can become the first Swedish man to win a World Cup slalom event since André Myhrer in Aspen in March 2017. Sweden's last win in the men's slalom was Myhrer's gold medal at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
Henrik Kristoffersen has won 19 World Cup slalom events, ranking him fourth on the men's list behind Ingemar Stenmark (40), Alberto Tomba (35), and Marcel Hirscher (32).
Kristoffersen's 19 World Cup wins in the Men's Slalom are already most for a Norwegian skier in a single discipline (17 by Aksel Lund Svindal in Men's super-G).
Marco Schwarz, the winner of last season's slalom crystal globe, failed to post a result in the opening two slalom events of this season. The last man to win the men's slalom crystal globe after not collecting any points in the first two events was Benjamin Raich in 2000-2001.
Alexis Pinturault finished second in the slalom in Madonna di Campiglio. It was his 12th World Cup podium in this discipline. The Frenchman won three slalom events in the World Cup, the last one in Val d'Isère in December 2019.
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