The Swiss-Norwegian duel between Odermatt, Meillard, Henrik Kristoffersen and Atle Lie McGrath, leading quartet of the first round and the general classification of the World Cup, completely turned in favor of the Swiss on the Chuenisbärgli. The two Scandinavians were eliminated, and left the two leaders of the Swiss team to fight for victory.
Loïc Meillard, less comfortable in giant than in slalom this winter, had the opportunity to achieve his first victory of the season by closing the starting gate. Starting with 0”37 ahead of Odermatt, the skier from Hérémence made a small error and crossed the line 20 hundredths behind “Odi”.
The latter signed a third consecutive victory in giants after his successes in Val d’Isère and Alta Badia in December. Despite his eliminations in Sölden and Beaver Creek, he took off at the top of the discipline rankings.
Like Stenmark
With this fourth success in a row at Adelboden – the 42nd of his career in total – Odermatt equals Ingemark Stenmark, four times winner in the Bernese Oberland between 1979 and 1982. But he is still far from the nine successes of Marcel Hirscher obtained at Adelboden (4 giants, 5 slaloms).
Thomas Tumler (4th, +1”14) and Luca Aerni (7th, +1”86) completed the great performance of the Swiss in front of their home crowd. The Valaisan made a good comeback after finishing the first route in 16th place.
Swiss
