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:

St. Moritz and Val d'Isere - the results

This weeked has been a disaster, and feelings are even more mixed because picks weren't actually so wrong and everything could have turned the other way in a blink.

Conceptually-lost bets were the two on Fenninger, and Pranger to podium.
All the others were good.
Deville was (and I think will be in the future) shite finishing 26th, I don't know what happened to Pranger as I haven't seen run1 (ladies' one too) but he should be better than that.
Anyway Val d'Isere is madness: lots of racers ousted, Hirscher made a mistake too and couldn't qualify...
Can't find a common thread for this slalom, sure thing is that you can't "attack" on this hill, but just be calm and clean, experience I think helped as the runner-up Hargin ,28 yo, is the youngest in the top10, and he stepped on podium with Matt and Thaler, 34 and 35 respectively.

Biggest disappointment was Gagnon. 5th after the first leg, in the second was doing equally good, but when 5-6 gates away from the finish line, she fell down wasting a good chance to step on podium. Anyway she's getting closer to it, at this kind of odds might worth keep backing her.
Also Brignone crashed, in the first leg though. Anyway she was about half a second in front of Riesch. Riesch was eventually 11th, and it sorts of confirms that GS is her worst discipline, with possibilities of opposing her as bookies could overrate her at it.
Tessa Worley wins big scoring the best times in both runs.
Lindell-Vikarby is on her level and increases her lead in GS-standing.
Maze found back a good way to ski, her movements didn't look slow as in previous races.

Men' Slalom - Madonna di Campiglio

So, let's try to understand how head to head are set up.
Here's three pick I've done BEFORE the draw of the starting bibs.

h2h Pinturault - Neureuther - pick Neureuther 2 units @2.02
h2h Byggmark - Deville - pick Deville 1 unit @2.25
h2h Matt - Moelgg - pick Matt 2 units @1.95

Pinturault - Neureuther
In this order they made 2/3 of the podium of last Slalom in Val d'Isere, where Alexis Pinturault achieved his first WC win. For Neureuther it was one of the many career podiums.

Every thing was a bit special in that weekend. Pinturault winning his first race, in his country, in a discipline that isn't his favourite. The following day a big mistake few gates away from the finish line probably prevented him from double the success, on the day that Ligety showed he's human finishing 3rd place.

In an inverse order they stand in the Slalom standing: Neureuther 3rd place with 116 points, followed closely by Pinturault with 108.

So all this points to a close head to head... but there's something missing.
The starting list doesn't follow the "Overall Standing" or the "Discipline Standing" (Slalom in this case), but another standing called World Cup Start List (WCSL), different for each of the four discipline.
In Slalom's WCSL Neureuther is 4th place, meaning he's in the first group and he can start with bib from 1 to 7, racing on a slope in good conditions. In WCSL Pinturault is 11th so his starting bib will be between 8 and 15, included, meaning condition could be worse and he'll take the start afterward anyway and this cause a drop of the odds.

Byggmark - Deville
Here momentums are in big contrast, if comapred to previous season. Deville struggles to find back his shape with a DNF and a 7th place. While Byggmark has little find himself after some seasons fighting with a change of style that sent him away from top placements; now seems to have find a good balance and had a good beginning with a 3rd and a 5th place.
Byggmark is 4th in the Slalom standing, while Deville is 14th.
Form for sure makes Byggmark big favored, for this, but again relying in the WCSL I'm pretty sure this odd will have a drop as Deville still as a spot in the first group, 5th, while Byggmark is in the second, 8th.

Matt - Moelgg
Also here there's a clash of shape, as there's been in previous seasons.
After coming near to retire, austrian Matt made some great season and gained the first group of the WCSL.
Moelgg, also fought with fitness and now is well out of the two group og the WCSL, being 19th.
This season however is inverting again the momentum with Moelgg climbing the standing with a 4th an a 11th placement in previous Slaloms, while Matt is doing average with a 8th, and a disqalification in Soelden due to technical measurement in his skis.

With this picks I want to see if they know the existence of the WCSL, a drop in these odds could prove it's so.
The fact that there haven't been races in this slope recently will reduce the variables from stats about results on this slope in other season.