TL;DR
Two days at Sölden, two races decided by a hundredth somewhere on the podium, and one very quick Brazilian. Lucas Pinheiro Braathen led from the first run to win the men’s World Cup opener by 0.48 seconds, with Loïc Meillard second and Marco Odermatt third. River Radamus charged from 15th to fourth on a rutted course, and Britain’s Freddy Carrick-Smith banked his first World Cup points. Braathen still hasn’t lost a giant slalom since Olympic gold.
Lucas Pinheiro Braathen still hasn’t lost a giant slalom since Milano Cortina.
The Brazilian won the men’s World Cup season opener at Sölden on Sunday 25 October, posting a combined 1:44.72 to beat Switzerland’s Loïc Meillard by 0.48 seconds. Marco Odermatt took third, 0.49 seconds off the winner and 0.01 behind Meillard.
It was Braathen’s fourth consecutive giant slalom victory, a streak that began with his Olympic gold, and a tidy contrast to last year’s opener, where he failed to finish. It is also his second win on the Rettenbach glacier, six years after his first, when he was racing for Norway.
Wind Shortens the Course, Braathen Shortens the Field
Wind forced organisers to move the start gate lower down the course, so each run took less than a minute and there was very little room to recover from a mistake. Norway’s Atle Lie McGrath was first out and set the early mark at 53.04 seconds. Austria’s Stefan Brennsteiner beat it by 0.15 seconds, which gave the home crowd something to cheer after Julia Scheib’s DNF the day before. That mood lasted until his teammate Marco Schwarz skidded out.
Braathen started fourth and skied the first run right on the edge of control, finishing 0.49 seconds clear of Brennsteiner. Meillard slotted into second, 0.24 seconds back, with Brennsteiner third and Odermatt more than half a second behind the leader. Kristoffersen could not get near the front.
River Radamus was the only American to make the second run, sitting 15th and 1.15 seconds off the pace. Ryder Sarchett missed the cut in 32nd, Patrick Kenney was 47th, and Bridger Gile tied for 50th. Canada’s Erik Read was 48th.
