Was Meillard inspired by his sister Mélanie? Excellent 7th the day before, the Valaisanne showed the way to Loïc, twirling on Sunday on the first picketed route on the Levi Black. The native of Neuchâtel has mastered the mid-course wall and will be one of the favorites for victory, during the 2nd round scheduled for 1 p.m. The morning’s performance is to the credit of Geneva’s Tanguy Nef, excellent 6th, less than half a second behind.
Meillard will start two hundredths behind Frenchman Clément Noël and 0”19 bonus compared to another Blue, Steven Amiez. The German Linus Strasser is 0”30 from Christmas, Dave Ryding, the Briton, is 5th at 0”41, Alexander Steen Olsen (Nor) 6th at 0”57 and the Croatian Samuel Kolega at 0”65 . Almost all the rest of the field will leave with more than a second behind the provisional leader of this first slalom of the 2024/2025 financial year.
Daniel Yule (15th) for his part did not really find the right rhythm on this inaugural slalom. The Valaisan regularly lost time and ended up being more than a second behind the best (1”33). The luck of the Fouly skier? Quite a few other contenders piled up right in front of him, like Henrik Kristoffersen (0”19 ahead of him), Timon Haugan (at 0”15) and Manuel Feller (at 0”04). Ramon Zenhäusern (at 1”38) is just behind Yule.
Marc Rochat went out at the bottom of the track. The Vaudois was never on the pace (more than 2 and a half seconds behind at the last intermediate time!) and his skis did not seem to grip the Finnish snow at all. Luca Aerni, at 2”39, was not yet sure of his place in the 2nd round after the first 33 competitors had passed. The “returners” Marcel Hirscher (PB) – dropped by more than two and a half seconds – and Lucas Braathen Pinheiro (Bré) – very good 9th – experienced varying fortunes
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