The big performance of the day is therefore to be credited to the Bulgarian Albert Popov. The pocket skier from Sofia (1m64, the smallest on the circuit) celebrated, at 27, the first victory of his career, his second global podium after his third place at Palisades Tahoe (USA) in 2022. He dusted off a crazy statistic. It was, in fact, 45 years to the day since a rider from his country last won a World Cup. It was Petar Popangelov, in Lenggries, Germany. To think that he was eighth in the first round!
Loïc Meillard is incredibly consistent this season in the short turn discipline. The skier from Hérémence reached four podiums in five events. His worst ranking? A fifth place in Gurgl… Second in the first round, he suffered Popov’s law, before taking advantage of the elimination of the Norwegian Atle Lie McGrath, who had crushed the competition a little earlier in the evening. The Swiss leads the slalom rankings and third overall in the World Cup. Madonna’s podium was completed by another first: Croatian Samuel Kolega
Daniel Yule, on a Canalone Miramonti track that he had tamed three times in the past, did his morale a little good. The Valaisanno-Scotsman, disappointed with his 18th time shortly after 6 p.m., then enjoyed a short comeback. The skier from La Fouly, who found hard snow that he likes, could even have done even better without a big mistake at the bottom of the route. A seventh final rank bodes well before the sequence of Adelboden, Wengen, Kitzbühel and Schladming, before the Worlds in Saalbach.
Lost in the first round, the “rest” of the Swiss team did not get back on track by mid-evening. Noel von Grünigen (20th on the first route) fell and Tanguy Nef (19th) did not shine at the end of the second route and finished fifteenth. For Ramon Zenhäusern and Marc Rochat, it’s even worse: they didn’t make the cut for the top thirty. Small consolation for the Vaudois, he saw a finish line, which had not yet happened to him this season.
-The Frenchman Clément Noël, always among the big favorites when it comes to short turns, was eliminated after just a few gates at the start of the evening. On a track which held up well, despite the recent heavy snowfall, the Norwegian Timon Haugan and the Swede Kristoffer Jakobsen also left the track, surprised by patches of ice. Same sanction for Marco Schwarz, title holder, after just a few doors.
This first round had quite simply been a sort of elephant cemetery – 23 eliminated in total out of 73 starters, all the same 9 “DNF” in second -, because the Italian Alex Vinatzer and the Haut-Valaisan Luca Aerni had as for them mounted. The last transalpine victory on this track dates back 20 years now. It was Giorgio Rocca, the native of Chur in Graubünden. The legend Alberto Tomba, triple winner on this slope and present in the stands, must not have appreciated
