(Aspen) After two second places Friday and Saturday in giant slalom behind the untouchable and invincible Marco Odermatt, the Swiss Loic Meillard won the Aspen slalom on Sunday, where the Frenchman Clément Noël, best time in the first round, crashed in second.
The snow that fell heavily in the Colorado resort during the night from Saturday to Sunday forced the organizers to postpone the program by an hour to prepare the track.
The flakes reappeared on Sunday at the end of the first round and throughout the second round.
Despite this changing weather between the start and end of the weekend, Loic Meillard confirmed that he was very comfortable on the Aspen track. Friday and Saturday, he had to give up his arms, not without a fight, against his compatriot Marco Odermatt, who won all the giants this winter.
Sunday, without Odermatt who did not take part in the slaloms, Meillard outclassed the competition, with almost a second ahead of the German Linus Strasser and more than a second over the Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen.
Only the Frenchman Clément Noël did better than Meillard on the first course, with almost three tenths ahead of the Olympic champion in the discipline and who started in last position in the second round.
But after only about twenty seconds of racing, the skier from Val d’Isère got on, letting slip a fifth podium this winter (no victory) which was waiting for him.
Third victory for Meillard
This is the third time that Clément Noël has found himself in this position this winter. At Madonna di Campliglio (Italy), he ultimately took 2e place behind the Austrian Marco Schwarz; in Chamonix (France), he had arrived 3e behind the Swiss Daniel Yule and Loic Meillard.
Meillard signed the third victory of his career in the World Cup, after the parallel giant slalom of Chamonix in February 2020 and the giant slalom of Schladming (Austria) in January 2023.
This season is his fifth podium. In addition to the three in Aspen this weekend, he also hung the “box” in Chamonix (2e slalom) and in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (3e super-G).
In the race for the small globe of the discipline, the Austrian Manuel Feller has not yet mathematically secured the trophy, after his fifth place on Sunday. But with 169 points ahead of Linus Strasser with two races remaining (and 200 points to distribute), he took a big step towards a first small globe in his career at 31 years old.