Daniel Yule made history in Chamonix: The Swiss climbed from 30th place to first place in the second slalom run. Linus Straßer missed the top ten.
This has never happened before in the history of alpine skiing: Daniel Yule was 30th after the first run of the slalom in Chamonix and opened the second run. The slope was now completely in the sun – and it was clear: the early starting numbers have a clear advantage in the final. But no one expected the Swiss to go so far forward.
The leader after the first run, the Frenchman Clement Noel, had a lead of 1.93 seconds – in the end he was 0.18 seconds behind Yule and only came third. The Swiss Loic Meillard secured second place (0.16 seconds).
Straßer missed out on a top ten place
The slalom in Chamonix is considered one of the easiest in the Alpine World Cup circus – not to be compared with the difficult slopes in Kitzbühel and Schladming, which Linus Straßer recently mastered so brilliantly.
After two wins in a row, Straßer entered the race as the top favorite. Even before the slalom, the Bavarian warned about the pitfalls in Chamonix: “The supposedly easy slopes are often the difficult ones,” he said on the ARD microphone. Straßer had problems in the first round and finished 17th, 1.24 seconds behind. In the second, he wanted to “drive a little bolder,” as he revealed in an interview with Sportschau.
Start number races in Chamonix are nothing new
But at Straßer the conditions were worse. He tried to take risks but, like in the first run, had problems gaining time. In the end he had to settle for 14th place. “It didn’t feel that bad, but the slope doesn’t allow it anymore,” said the 31-year-old. And not for the first time, as Straßer emphasized: “I’ve been coming here for four years now – and every year it’s the same. Either you lead and reduce your time or you start the race first. In the middle it gets difficult. But that is the competition.”
Disappointing DSV result
Sebstian Holzmann was eliminated after a threader. Linus Witte also didn’t make it to the finish. Anton Tremmel and Fabian Himmelsbach were unable to qualify for the second run,