First heat of the world champion giant in Courchevel with the Carinthian who confirms a splendid feeling with this track: the big favorite is second, then Kranjec and Meillard, while Kristoffersen is in trouble. De Aliprandini at 2″67 and far from the medal zone, the Bergamo player does better by almost 3 tenths (very good in the first two partials), from the top ten zone.
A scary Marco Schwarz, another Marco, Odermatt, having to chase him with almost 6 tenths of a delay to make up for in the 2nd heat, starting at 13.30, which will have Swiss tracking (the first was an Austrian one).
A very tough giant world challenge for everyone, along the 80 seconds of steep and icy slopes on Courchevel’s Eclypse, interpreted in a magnificent way by the Carinthian who will try to give the first title in this event to Austria.
Sure, the Olympic champion and master of the CdM will be furious with those 58 cents conceded almost all in the second part, after a snag towards the end of the wall that caused Odermatt to lose his rhythm who will also have to beware of Zan Kranjec. The Slovenian is third at 76 cents from Schwarz, but he gives up 7 tenths all in the final 15 seconds and has the skiing to fight for the title too.
Much more difficult for Loic Meillard, 4th at 1″13 (we’re talking about the last winner in the cup, even if Odermatt was missing), then Austria is still great with Feller 5th at 1″27 and Brennsteiner 6th at 1″37. ahead of Henrik Kristoffersen who never finds the rhythm and pays 1”41.
We go 2 seconds behind to find Zubcic, with Gino Caviezel at 2″23 and Pinturault who scores 2″48 and is out of the ten, certainly with a serious mistake but the technical difficulties in giant that have been seen since the beginning of the season have emerged in such a tough technical context. The same goes for Mathieu Faivre, in an even heavier way, with the reigning world champion even 4 seconds behind.
And the one who finished second in Cortina, Luca De Aliprandini, certainly couldn’t change gear overnight, even though he saved himself with a decent performance (compared to what we’ve seen since Soelden) which is worth the 14th time, at 2″67 from Schwarz (in front of him also the fourth Austrian Haaser and the Norwegian Steen Olsen, from whom something more was expected) and in any case very far from the medals area.
The Trentino rider is second among the Azzurri, because Filippo Della Vite puts down an absolutely good heat, tenth at 2″40 with two great partial firsts before giving way, even physically, in the second part of the Eclypse where he lost 2 full seconds from the leader. The first top ten at these levels, never achieved so far in CdM, is now possible.
Giovanni Borsotti pays 3″01 at the finish line, finishes 18th with Alex Vinatzer who hits the inversion for the first time (even if for the points in the WCSL it will be necessary to finish in the 15th minute), 23rd at 3″71 with one heat more than Discrete.
CLASSIFICATION 1^ MALE GIANT HEAT – WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Courchevel MERIBEL
1° Marco Schwarz in 1’19”47
2° Marco Odermatt + 0”58
3° Zan Kranjec + 0”76
4° Loic Meillard + 1”13
5° Manuel Feller + 1”27
6° Stefan Brennsteiner + 1”37
7° Henrik Kristoffersen + 1”41
8° Filip Zubcic + 1”99
9° Gino Caviezel + 2”23
10th Filippo Della Vite + 2”40
14th Luca De Aliprandini + 2”67
18th Giovanni Borsotti + 3”01
23° Alex Vinatzer + 3”71
