Men's GS Val d'Isere
TL;DR = Marco Odermatt again is absolutely dominant. He won both runs and finished with a margin of 1.4 seconds over Manuel Feller who came second.
Feller was the only athlete to finish with two seconds of Odermatt's winning time of 2:03.62. He's finished on the podium in all six events so far this season and hasn't finished off the podium in a GS race since the 20-21 season.
Odermatt now as 520 world cup points from six races, for an average of an incredible 87 points per start! He's averaging 22 more world cup points per start than he did last season. This suggests that barring injury, the big globe is a foregone conclusion. Hirscher's highest total was 1,795 in 15-16. Hermann Maier has the record under the current points format which dates back to the early 90s. He scored 2,000 in 99-20. Both feel under threat given the incredible level at which Odermatt is skiing.
Other Notes
Nine bibs made the second run from outside the top 30. A testament to the great work of the course crew. It'd snowed a lot in southeastern France/northwestern Italy (Sestriere) from Thursday evening through to late Friday. The sun came out and visibility improve dramatically after about bib twelve which also helped.
After a couple of big mistakes in run 1, River Radamus managed to charge and his 2nd run time was 9th fastest allowing him to salvage 16th place overall.
Two Americans made the flip! Veteran Brian McLaughlin skied well in run 1 and managed to finish in the points (19th) from bib 39. McLaughlin skis independently of the US Ski Team as part of Team Global Racing.
Filippo Della Vite confirmed the flashes he's shown. The silver medalist in last year's GS at Junior Worlds was the highest bib to make qualify for run two and managed 12th place, his best ever world cup finish.
Great result from Swiss athlete Fadri Janutin today (17th) in only his 5th WC start.
Val d'Isere is a happy hunting ground for Manuel Feller. He did one better than last year in finishing best of the rest.
Finally, how beautiful is Val d'Isere when the sun is shining after a fresh snow? Wow, that view down the legendary Face de Bellevarde makes me want to jump on a plane and get there! And they consistently have the coolest race poster on tour IMO.
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