Brennsteiner wins first World Cup after Odermatt crashes out of Copper Mountain Giant Slalom

Stefan Brennsteiner (AUT/Fischer) took advantage of a rare Marco Odermatt (SUI/Stöckli) error to win the Copper Mountain Giant Slalom by nearly a full second on Friday, the first World Cup victory of the 34-year-old's career.

Brennsteiner was first down the course at the start of the day in bib number one, where he put down a smooth and confident opening gambit. It did not initially appear to be a blistering place that he had set, but not only did the rest of the field fail to cross the line quicker than the Austrian on their first run, no fewer than 13 athletes recorded DNFs in attempting to do so - including Odermatt, Timon Haugan (NOR/Van Deer) and Stefan Babinsky (AUT/Head).

As the 30 athletes then went down the slope for their second run, time and again good starts would fall away due to the exhaustive nature of a long course which started at an elevation of over 3,400 meters.

It appeared as though Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR/Van Deer) might take the victory when he narrowly usurped Filip Zubcic (CRO/Atomic) by five hundredths of a second with four skiers remaining, but though the three that followed were unable to unseat the Norwegian, his lead ended when Brennsteiner stepped up.

Showing none of the nerves he predicted during his broadcast interview at the halfway stage, Brennsteiner - whose previous best World Cup return was second place at Kranjska Gora in March 2022 - put together a near faultless second run to record a time of 1:13.27 and finish nearly a whole second ahead of Kristoffersen in second place (+0.95) and exactly a second ahead of Zubcic who took third.

"It means a lot for me," The Fischer skier said. "The last years were quite good but I had tough times in my career. I'm 33 or 34 years old now and my first World Cup win feels just amazing.

"I was pretty excited yesterday when I heard (bib) number one because the conditions are amazing down here and to ski on such a course with number one is one of the most beautiful things which you can imagine in ski racing. Nice that it was fast as well!

"My first run was a little bit easier with number one, there were no tracks, so it's not that exhausting. But the second run, the last five or six gates I was thinking 'Just go on the edge and just stay high and withhold the pressure'."

Asked if he knew this day would eventually come, Brennsteiner said: "No, not at all. I believed in it in the last years, but like I mentioned before I had tough times. It's even better now to celebrate my first victory."

Of all the athletes who took part, Kristoffersen was the one who showed the most obvious signs of exhaustion at the end his runs. The Norwegian was therefore delighted to claim a podium place after coming seventh in the first Giant Slalom in Sölden, which was followed by finishes of 13th and 12th in the Slalom season openers in Levi and Gurgl.

"It's a very long GS at this altitude I would say," the Van Deer athlete said.

"Coming straight from Europe, from the Slalom - Gurgl is pretty high but not that high and Levi is not high at all.

"Then having two days of training here and then racing such a long GS, that's I would say one of the more demanding things I've done in my career.

"I'm very happy with second place. Nothing to do with Stefan today, he was in his own league and sometimes that's how it is."

Zubcic, whose last World Cup top-three finish came nearly two years ago, said: "It was a really tough one, I needed this podium so badly. After last season, I was close so many times but I couldn't reach the podium.

"Maybe the start of the season was not the best this year. The first run was s**t - sorry for my language but it was. I saw the course setting, it was right for me and I took my opportunity and I'm back on the podium."

Zubcic was not the only one to use such language to describe his first run of the day. Odermatt dropped to fourth in the Giant Standings - now led by Brennsteiner - after what he called a "classic inside ski mistake" early in his first outing.

"In the end it was a classic inside ski mistake," he said. "This usually doesn't happen too much to me. Never in training, but sadly often in racing in Colorado - here now, last year, (and) a year before as well in Beaver Creek.

"It's a snow where you have to ski very smooth and clean; on both skis, not just on the outside skis. If you go too much on the inside, this mistake can happen."

The 28-year old Stöckli skier says he will learn from the mistake as he gears up for the next stop in Beaver Creek in a week's time.

"You always carry some mistakes with you for a couple of hours, maybe days," he said. "That's normal but I think that's also good because I don't want to do it again, so I have to do this better next week in Beaver Creek.

"It's just a race, s**t happens and next week there are three more chances."