The Pinzgauer held his fourth half-time position (+0.72 seconds) on his feel-good slope Kranjska Gora on Saturday. Frenchman Alexis Pinturault managed to jump from five to two (+0.23), Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen was third (+0.37).
The Swiss Odermatt increased his points cushion in the discipline classification to 140 on his pursuer Kristoffersen. The overall World Cup winner could fix his third crystal globe of the winter on Sunday (9.30/12.30 live ORF 1) in the second giant slalom in Slovenia. Marco Schwarz slipped back from sixth to ninth place in the decision. Behind Raphael Haaser (16th), Patrick Feurstein (19th) and Roland Leitinger (24th) collected important points with a view to next week’s World Cup final. For Manuel Feller, the race was over after just 20 seconds of the first run. It was the Tyrolean’s fourth failure in a row in this discipline.
Brennsteiner said he probably left too much time on the steep slope exit. “Everything else was okay. I had a really good feeling on the ski.” He at least underlined his soft spot for the podkoren. He finished the last four races there in fourth, second, fifth and third place. It is still a mystery to him why Brennsteiner only gets up to speed again late in the season. “I’ll do something different again next season,” the giant slalom specialist promised to continue his search for early form. “It looks like I need a lot of good training days to get up to the level of the other guys.”
When he was sixth at half-time, Schwarz didn’t get a top run. After line problems, the Carinthian all-rounder bit his teeth against the strong Swiss around Gino Caviezel (6th) and Loic Meillard (7th). Pinturault was more precise, pulling the second-fastest track in the snow, overtaking Brennsteiner, Kristoffersen and local hero Zan Kranjec.
Even Odermatt, who had put half a second between himself and the rest of the world in the first run, has now completely used up his eight-tenth lead (+0.02). In the finish, however, he benefited from a small mistake by Pinturault and celebrated his tenth win of the season. As the fourth runner in this century after Hermann Maier, Stephan Eberharter and Marcel Hirscher, Odermatt reached double digits in this regard.
