Tritscher Gets Out of His Rut, Holds On to Win Slalom Race

All those years spent running in the ruts as a late-seeded skier served Michael Tritscher well.

The 30-year-old Austrian survived a rutted second run and an unexpected challenge from France’s Sebastien Amiez to win a men’s World Cup slalom Sunday.

Tritscher posted his third career victory by edging Amiez by only three-hundredths of a second.

Tritscher led the first run by only four-hundredths over teammate Mario Reiter, with Alberto Tomba a tenth of a second off the pace.

Reiter, however, missed a gate early in his second run, and Tomba was unable to mount a charge.

Amiez, in 10th place and 1.02 seconds off the lead after the first run, had a blistering second heat that was nearly a full second faster than anyone else. Of the nine skiers who raced after him, only Tritscher, the last out of the gate, could hold him off.

Officials invoked the controversial new reverse-30 rule for the second run, with skiers racing in reverse order, meaning Tritscher came down 30th. In the past, only the top 15 were reversed. The course became somewhat rutted for the leaders.

“I believe I could have been at least one second faster with a lower start number,” Tritscher said. “It’s not a good rule. To be really fair, the best skiers should ski under the best conditions.”

Tritscher had an aggregate time of 1 minute, 35.29 seconds. Amiez was second in 1:35.32 and Tomba third in 1:35.49.