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:

Fri 24/01 - Kitzbuehel men's slalom and Cortina ladies' downhill 1

The most important weekend of men's tour kicks off with the slalom. This is kind of special also because run 1 will be at 12 while run 2 at 17, big gap between the two runs. Note that run 2 will be a night run (watch out for Yuasa)

Pick from ladies' SG was a winner: Schmidhofer 16th finished more or less were I expected her, Ruiz-Castillo made me panic scoring the best intermediate time at Int1, but then she was awful and finished 30th.
Goergl won confirming her good form, and so Hoefl-Riesch close behind and getting more and more close to the Cup; good third place for Nici Hosp.
Maze and Mancuso looked in better shape, and so american Cook; on the other hand Gut, 19th, in falling down almost vertically.

On to men's picks.
Kristoffersen, though he'll start with a worse bib in run 1, is performing better than Moelgg.
Hargin and Neureuther are closer to their opponents than odds suggest. I think Hargin is in great form and that the bad result in Wengen was because of the snow conditions, that didn't let him ski aggressively as he does.
 

Alpine skiing - quick recap after season opening and 1/2 American swing - part 2 mens

In men's tour music didn't change from last year: Ligety still winning with margin on chasers in GS, same for Hirscher in SL, Svindal won in SG, and Paris the DH.

Overall

The fight for the Globe once again looks limited to Svindall, king of the fast disciplines, and Hirscher, king of the tech, with the austrian again andvantaged by the number of events (9 slaloms and downhills, 8 giant-slaloms, and only 6 super-gs, + 2 super-combi and a city-event).

Ligety should find more solidy in either slalom or super-g, or maybe he just should use better super-combies as he's one of the most completes and yet he scored 0 points in kombies lat year.

Pinturault potentially has the podium in his legs in slalom, but he lacks of consistency. Frequency of results there could turn him into a new Hirscher.

Kostelic looks far behind these. He is still fighting for top position in slalom, but the field there is wide and the points he is going to lose are more of those he is going to win there. Super-G and downhill hardly are taking him big points, above all compared to the risks he is taking competiting in those after all his knee surgery he underwent.

Comebacks: Miller, Lizeroux, Feuz 

Some big names came back this year. Honestly I can't see they win or find placements at the very top of the standing (at least not in the short period) but anyway for me it was a great pleasure to have them back as they all at some point in the past have represented the best of their specific discipline, or of skis in general - guess who am I talking about?.

Age isn't on Miller and Lizeroux's side while Feuz once he'll have scratch off the rust should become relevant again.

Up-and-comers 

Vinking Henrik Kristoffersen, 19 yo,  surely deserve the first mention. He was the surprise of Levi reaching his first WC podium behind Hirsher and Matt. Away from the major tour, he's backing that astonishing results with other good placements in European Cup and leading the overall standing.

Compatriot Sebastian-Foss Solevaag, older than Kristoffersen but with less WC starts, was another surprising youngster. 9th place in Levi where he was bib #55, and doing good in EC as well: 3rd and 2nd place in two slaloms.

Harder to find top-performing youngster in the fast disciplines, where maturity seems to arrive later.

Austrian Matthias Mayer grabbed 2nd place in SG and 13th in DH in Lake Louise, though he already is full-time part of the OSV from few season.

Freasher names are France's Brice Roger and Austria's Otmar Striedinger who got two top 20 placements in Lake Louise.

 

Men' Slalom - Wengen

h2h Kristoffersen - Grange - pick Grange 2 units @2.39 Void 0
Picking the experienced french who's now some races in his legs after recovering from an injury.
He also had some good results in the past on this slope, while the young norvegian has never raced here.

h2h Yuasa - Larsson - pick Larsson 3 units @2.10 Won +3.3
This slalom slope is very various and technical with some hard part.
Yuasa is very aggressive but most of the times he's also faulty, and it's not a surprise that he's finished only one slalom in past seven years here.
Larsson is good enough to make top 20 and easily beat the japanese.

+3.3
Kristtofersen dind't start.
Yuasa as expected didn't finish, not qualifying for the second run, Larsson, 9th, good enuogh to beat him as well.