The second round of the Chamonix slalom was seriously disrupted by the heat in the French resort, which melted the snow as much as the gaps in favor of the Swiss Daniel Yule.
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Chamonix offers itself a historic first, but one which it could perhaps have done without. The slalom of the Alpine Ski World Cup in the French resort was won on Sunday February 4 by the Swiss Daniel Yule, a huge sensation as he set off first after setting the 30th time in the first sleeve. Never before has the World Cup seen such a comeback in slalom, the fault of the sun and high temperatures (nearly 15°C in the finish area) which considerably deteriorated the Alpine snow in the second round. One of his main collateral victims is Clément Noël, finally third (+0”18) after dominating the first run.
However, the Frenchman started almost two seconds ahead of Yule, thanks to a first run of great technical accuracy. But Noël, like all the others, had to give in to the fantastic comeback of the Swiss skier, but also to the weather conditions which completely flattened the performances. Daniel Yule, who started on a track that was still in good condition, took advantage of it, he who had only qualified for the second round by 0″05. All the leaders ended up taking on water, three of the four best times of the first round achieving the three worst times of the second route.
“I never told myself that I was going to be able to winreacted the winner. I was on the verge of returning to the hotel, and I had the opportunity to have this second chance. My coaches told me that the weather was hot, that I was going to have a perfect track, so I had to take advantage of it. But I never even dreamed of victory.“
More than one in five events of the season already disrupted by weather conditions
With this performance, Daniel Yule erases the Norwegian Lucas Braathen, winner of the Wengen slalom on January 16, 2022, by moving up 28 places in the second round. That day he was ahead of a certain Daniel Yule, this time on the first step on Sunday.
Already on Friday and Saturday, the two descents initially scheduled in Chamonix had to be canceled because the temperatures were too mild to ensure the quality of the snow. If this held up thanks to the salt scattered in the cooler morning, the mercury rose at the zenith of the day and completely overturned the hierarchy. Since the start of the World Cup season, fourteen events (out of 64, or 21.9%) have had to be postponed or canceled due to bad weather conditions, linked in particular to global warming.
The downhill and women’s super-G in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany), which were to be held this weekend, also had to be scratched from the calendar due to lack of sufficient snow.