Manuel Feller won the Slalom in Palisades Tahoe to confirm his lead in the Slalom standings. It´s his sixth World Cup win. Feller made the difference in the second run. With a strong drive, he raced all the way from third place to the Top. Clement Noël finished in second place +0.28 seconds behind Feller. Linus Strasser rounded out the podium 0.38 seconds off the pace.
The 31-year-old Austrian skier became the first man to win four World Cup Slalom races in a single season since Marcel Hirscher won five in the 2018-2019 winter season. He finished in the top five in the eighth slalom races of the season. Previously Manuel Feller has won in Gurgl, Adelboden, and Wengen. He finished fifth in Madonna di Campiglio, and fourth in Kitzbühel and Chamonix.
Manuel Feller (590) extended his lead in the Slalom World Cup standings to 204 points over Linus Strasser (386) with only three remaining races in the Calendar. Clement Noël is third with 352 points. Timon Haugan is fourth with 310 points.
"I knew that victory was still possible today. Especially with the second run. It was an extremely difficult run. The course setting was so difficult you couldn't ski every turn on the limit, there were some passages where you needed to be tactical a little bit and I think I found the right tactic. Right now I am just taking every race with joy. I want to show everywhere in the world why I am wearing the red bib at the moment in slalom. But there are still three races in which a lot can happen. Especially in Slalom. I’m focusing on the next race and then we’ll see what happens", Feller said.
For Clement Noël, it's his fourth podium of the season and his 24th World Cup podium in Slalom. But the reigning Olympic slalom champion is still looking for his first win since he won in Schladming on January 24, 2023.
"It’s not the perfect race because I have yet to win a race this season but I know it is not that easy to win a race and the other guys are really fast and I have to be a little bit faster. But in the end, it is my third podium in a row so I can’t complain", Noel said.
Linus Strasser's third position keeps the German skier with the chance to fight for the Crystal Globe.
"I would say the first run was very good, the second run I had, here and there, my problems. I didn’t hit the line perfectly. But overall, if I think about my second run I had three gates where I nearly went out so in the end I am happy with third place. I am still in the game, let’s see", Strasser said.
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