A win and a second place in Alta Badia – but the win in the Monday race ahead of Luca De Aliprandini by more than a second, unbelievable, hard for me to get my head around. After the first race on Sunday, I knew I had more in me. All the more satisfying, then, that things went so well in the race on Monday. While successes like this of course help to draw on the very last reserves of strength, I’m happy now that I have some days off to recharge my batteries and also process it all a little.
In Alta Badia, the additional giant slalom training then totally paid off with a win and second place. The Gran Risa is one of the legendary giant slalom courses in the World Cup. Now, after coming 5th and 4th in previous years, things finally worked on this challenging course. Two years ago, I came fifth, but damaged a knee, which led to several weeks off. Last year, I came in fourth place, four hundredths of a second behind Justin Murisier. In the first race on Sunday, only a few hundredths of a second separated me from the leader Mathieu Faivre in the first run. Unlike in past years, I was able to capitalize on this good position in the second run and eventually came in just behind Henrik Kristoffersen in second place. But as the next-to-last to race in the second run I was a little surprised by the rough course. It was pretty churned up, which didn’t make things easy. The second run was a huge battle. I thought it would be difficult, but then the sheer scale of difficulties took me by surprise. I knew Patrick Feurstein was well ahead and I had a lot of work to do to catch up. But in the end I was super happy to win a place on the podium in Alta Badia at last.
In Alta Badia, the additional giant slalom training then totally paid off with a win and second place. The Gran Risa is one of the legendary giant slalom courses in the World Cup. Now, after coming 5th and 4th in previous years, things finally worked on this challenging course. Two years ago, I came fifth, but damaged a knee, which led to several weeks off. Last year, I came in fourth place, four hundredths of a second behind Justin Murisier. In the first race on Sunday, only a few hundredths of a second separated me from the leader Mathieu Faivre in the first run. Unlike in past years, I was able to capitalize on this good position in the second run and eventually came in just behind Henrik Kristoffersen in second place. But as the next-to-last to race in the second run I was a little surprised by the rough course. It was pretty churned up, which didn’t make things easy. The second run was a huge battle. I thought it would be difficult, but then the sheer scale of difficulties took me by surprise. I knew Patrick Feurstein was well ahead and I had a lot of work to do to catch up. But in the end I was super happy to win a place on the podium in Alta Badia at last.
In the last seven races in the giant slalom I have come first four times and second twice. With this unbelievable record I’m naturally happy to go into the short Christmas break before the next speed races on the programme in Bormio. I wish you all a very Happy Christmas.
Your Marco
