Triple winner for Pinturault on his 30th birthday - VG

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WIN: Alexis Pinturault won most of it on Saturday. Foto: DENIS BALIBOUSE / X90072

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Alexis Pinturault (30) took the grand slam in Lenzerheide and won the overall cup for the first time.

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French Pinturault has finished second in the World Cup overall in the last two seasons and has three more third places earlier in his career. In the giant slalom cup he has been number two four times and number three five times, but on Saturday he could cheer for victory in the season’s last giant slalom race, victory in the overall cup and victory in the giant slalom cup.

All that on the Frenchman’s 30th birthday – what, to put it mildly, was a day to celebrate for Pinturault.

– I have worked so hard for so many years. It feels very good that I get paid for it, says Pinturault in an interview shown on TV 2.

– It was very deserved that he won this year. I think he has thought a lot about it and it was a nice 30th birthday, says Kjetil André Aamodt during TV 2’s studio broadcast after the race.

BALL: Alexis Pinturault got “the little ball” as a symbol that he won the giant slalom cup and also secured enough points to win the overall cup. Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP

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Earlier this week, the downhill and super-G runs were canceled. Thus, Marco Odermatt had 31 points to collect on Pinturault before the weekend’s two races, in addition to leading the giant slalom cup with 25 points. However, the Swiss was far from his best and was a full 1.66 behind the Frenchman after the first round and down in tenth place. In the final round he did not get to vote either and ended up in eleventh place.

Pinturault, on the other hand, was superb and had as much as 81 hundredths down to Stefan Brennsteiner in second place after the first half.

In the final round, Pinturault drove safely and well and came to the finish line to victory, 20 hundredths ahead of Filip Zubcic. This winter’s world champion, Mathieu Faivre, came in third place, 21 hundredths behind compatriot Pinturault.

Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen and Henrik Kristoffersen were down in tenth and 13th place after the first round. In the final round, they both drove up and Kristoffersen was the best of the Norwegians in eighth place. Nestvold-Haugen finished in second place, two hundredths behind Kristoffersen.

The men’s world cup season ends with downhill skiing tomorrow.