Schladming results

On the shoulders of the giants: Hirscher and Neureuther
crown the new king of Slalom, Kristoffersen

As always great race and atmosphere in Schladming.

Surprising win for the newborn superstar of Slalom: 19-year-old Norse Henrik Kristoffersen.
Maiden win in the temple of Slalom.
Honestly I expected him to feel the pressure, but no, he skied easily in both runs good enough to beat "on field" Hirscher and Neureuther, while Matt, leader after run 1, straddled.
Also good from Dopfer and Pinturault, they are in peak form now.
Expected worse from Moelgg, but the slope was in good conditions also after many runs and this is a course he loves.
Bit of bad luck as Hirscher was in front of Neureuther by just .01s

Tue 28/01 - Men's Slalom Schladming (night race)

Big event for Schladming night race, although there's no Yuasa (no party!)

Two early surprise are Kristoffersen and Thaler entering the first group, first time for both. Worth to notice they are kind of the youngest and the oldest athlete on course.
Kostelic and Moelgg drop off the top7, things could possibly go even worse as beside the lack of shape they've never performed well on ruined courses.

Hirscher should have learnt the lesson from Kitz, and if he wants to win the Globe he must not fail here; this means he must be less aggressive and take the 80-60 points of the 2nd-3rd place rather than get out.
Neureuther, free from all these issues, can just ski for the final victory and has proved more than once that his level is equal to Hirscher's.
Behind them Kristoffersen and Thaler battle for a step of the podium, Pinturault occasinally joins them; Matt, Myhrer and Hargin don't look on the same level but they can always be dangerous.
Dopfer's shape raised recently could worth backing him (though not at current prices) and also Gross in in good shape.
Moelgg and Kostelic among those might be worth opposing.
My picks:

11-12/01 Weekend - Altenmark and Adelboden

(I know, I know... got a couple of lazy weeks...)

Interesting weekend, mostly because one of my favourite courses - Adelboden, with its breathtaking hump from which you can see the standings in the finish area, best camera angle of the Tour imo.
Giant-Slalom on Saturday and Slalom on Sunday for the men.
Ladies with a Downhill on Saturday (after only one training run) and a Super-Combined made of Super-G and a Slalom run


Here's my picks, for now. All on Saturday's ladies DH:

Hoefl-Riesch is favourite to win, honestly I don't know this DH but I don't think it's like Lake Louise.
Anyway Weirather, Gut and Elena Fanchini look all top competitor to me (along with Fenninger, who's odds are too low, though) and I fancy those pricese, above all Fanchini's ones: in 4 DHs she's been 3rd twice, 5th and a DNF.
And so I fancy them in head to heads: Weirather over Riesch; Gut over Maze, who's still far from the best shape; Fanchini over Goergl who's got nice Super-G results but hasn't backed them in Downhill.

I didn't find any good price for men's GS; I also have difficulties to read trends going on there: Ligety isn't the one he used to be last year - Olympics preapration maybe the cause - so Hirscher is closer same for the other topo one Pinturault, who though seems to lack of "the peak" to win.

Val d'Isere and St. Moritz

World Cup back in Europe
Ladies in St.Moritz: saturday a Super-G, sunday a giant-slalom
Men in Val d'Isere: giant-slalom on saturday, slalom on sunday

Footnote of a post from last year:
"In St.Moritz the slope offers a good variety for the GS.
In Val d'Isere very narrow slope but well steep... strange comebacks in run2"

Val d'Isere last year was thrilling. 
Local hero Pinturalt scored his first WC win in the night slalom, it was special because he won a slalom before winning in giant-slalom, his favourite discipline.
In giant-slalom Hirsher won in front of Luitz and Ligety. Scandal was Ligety not winning, the features of this slope and the course setting made everybody think they've finally found a way to stop him - he won the next GS, in Alta Badia, with one of the most terrific performances I've ever seen (you'll easily find the video on youporn or nearby, for a skiing fan there it belongs).  
Luitz was at his first WC podium - a year later the best he's placed is 9th two weeks ago in Beaver's GS - he was bib #35 (his compatriot Neureuther was bib #36 and finished 4th). Luitz was placed 25th after the first run, scored the best time in run2 to recover up to the 2nd position, Nani made another interesting recovery from 29th to 10th place.
St.Moritz lost the super-combined.
Last year Vonn won the super-G ahead of Maze, who won the giant-slalom and the combi. 
Vonn is not racing this year, Maze isn't the absolute dominator she used to be.
St. Moritz isn't particularly fashinating, it's average on many levels: lots of turns and "S", but not technical or challenging, fast but not even close to Lake Louise, some jumps but it's not Cortina. It's like a bigger version of a giant-slalom. Being the actual leader of giant-slalom the same of super-g I'm expecting the same names at the top: Gut, Riesch, Weirather, Fenninger

Picked some bets earlier, prices tempted me.

First three picks refers to saturday's SG.
It's Weirather - Fenninger again and I still see Weirather ahead.
I see value in both Suter and Riesch prices. Riesch on this course could be closer to Gut, while I had priced Suter favourite against Goergl.

Lindell-Vikarby vs Fenninger is from the giant-slalom market and I think this price is ridiculus and won't last long - Pinnacle makes Fenninger 1.7 to Vikarby 2.1.

Men' Slalom - Zagreb 06/01

h2h Hirscher - Myhrer - pick Myhrer 2 units @2.50 Lost -2
To me between this two is 50-50, maybe 60-40 in Hirscher's favour, so this is a good odd.
Both won in here in the past two years and in general this slope suite to the swedish team due to some flat sections.
I also think that now that Hirscher is closer to Svindall in the overall standing he's going to slow down a little and take less risks to complete the race and gain points.

h2h Yuasa - Hargin - pick Hargin 6 units @1.83 Won +4.98
Many reasons for this pick, so a preatty heavy stake.
Hargin will start with a better number: and in men's race the slope will be more ruined than in ladies's one, Yuasa can't be aggressive as he usually is.
Hargin made 3rd place two years ago, and made 7th place in two other occasions, as said before this slope suite to the swedish team.
Yuasa's 3rd place in last SL in Madonna di Campiglio has been a one off, an hat-trick Yuasa makes under some conditions of the slope and in night races, like that one and Schlamding, which are very similar.
Hargin can easily beat Yuasa as the japanese is very faulty and apart from very few races doesn't often break the top 20.

h2h Valencic - Kristoffensen - pick Kristoffensen 1 unit @2.15 Won +1.15
Big difference in the starting bib in Valencic's favour, 17 and 32.
The young norvegian though always start with similar bib. He is doing well also in European Cup while the same can't be said for Valencic who's doing average, with no sign of improvement.

h2h Byggmark - Kostelic - pick Kostelic 1 unit @2.10 Won +1.1
Byggmark will start with the n.1, meaning the slope will e in perfect condition, Kostelic is n.4 so not much behind.
Kostelic is in a bad shape and his knee hurt, though his non-aggressive style could be useful on this kind of snow, that has even got wet by rain.

h2h Neureuther - Pinturault - pick Neureuther 2 units @1.76 Won +1.52
Here starting bib in Neureuther's favour, 6 vs 14.
The german is in great shape with 2nd places in last two Slaloms and the win in the City Event.
Pinturault although winner in Val d'Isere, in some strange conditions, hasn't done anything else that good.

+6.75