Yule Takes Kitzbuhel Slalom
Switzerland's Daniel Yule won his third FIS Ski World Cup slalom race of the calendar year, with Austria's Marco Schwarz in second by .12 and France's Clement Noel in third, .37 seconds off the pace. Daniel ended a 52-year winning drought at the Kitzbuehel slalom. The last—and only—Swiss man to win a World Cup slalom event in Kitzbuehel was Dumeng Giovanoli in 1968.
All eyes were on the 19-year-old Norwegian, Lucas Braathen after he knifed the first run coming down into the lead ahead of Daniel by .33 seconds from bib 34. It appeared he'd hang on to a podium position second run, but he slipped back to fourth place, .49 seconds off Daniel—a career-best result for the young Attacking Viking.
Second after run 1, Yule took all the risks in the second run and managed to take the win, closing 0.12s ahead of crowd's favourite Marco Schwarz (AUT). The Austrian went very close to claiming his first Slalom World Cup victory but eventually closed second, preceding French youngster Clement Noel.
Despite a major mistake in the second run, Noel was able to achieve the podium, coming back from the 9th position scored in run 1.
With this victory, Daniel Yule jumped up in the Slalom standings and chases the current leader Henrik Kristoffersen, only 17 points away now. On Tuesday it's slalom time again with the Night Race in Schladming.
In what is a rebuilding year for the Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team in slalom, the American slalom skiers showed flashes of brilliance but will have to look ahead to the Schladming Night race on Tuesday evening to show what they are made of, under the lights.
The conditions at Kitzbuehel were favorable to the entire field, with a consistent and grippy-icy surface. High bib numbers—like Austria's Adrian Pertl, who started bib 73 and finished eighth on the day—were able to lay it down and punch it in there. The young guys, like Lucas, are skiing fast and the veterans, like France's Julien Lizeroux (41-years-old), are still skiing fast—making it near-impossible to squeeze in the top-30 in the men's slalom field at the moment. It is, arguably, the deepest and most challenging field on the circuit at the moment.
The young American men's slalom field showed some promising and solid sections, but Luke Winters and AJ Ginnis finished just outside of the 30 in the first run, while Ben Ritchie skied a fast top split before he DNFed, and Kyle Negomir ran into some trouble on the top and did not qualify. It's a tough course with a lot of rolls and lots of terrain, and all of the guys except for AJ had not skied it previously. They'll take the experience and look ahead to Schladming.
"I got a little bit thrown on the top, like the third or fourth gate, but I think my splits were still OK up there," Luke reflected. "Then, I skied all the way down and was trying to push it, but came over the last roll and had a little mistake. It's so tight right now in World Cup slalom...you have to be clean all the way down, and also ski really well. I know I have the speed, and I'm really looking forward to Schladming in a couple of days. We all know we have the speed, it's just about getting from top to bottom clean and fast."
