Alone in the world like a giant.
Alexis Pinturault had a stunning first round this Friday at the Cortina d'Ampezzo Worlds.
Boring, too, for his opponents, invited to focus now only on a possible silver medal.
With almost half a second ahead of his runner-up (+ 0''40), the unexpected Italian Luca De Aliprandini, the Frenchman now has a comfortable mattress.
Especially since its main rivals took to the water during this inaugural round.
Starting with the Swiss Marco Odermatt.
Starting with the number 1 bib, the one who occupies the second place in the World Cup in the discipline behind Pinturault left at the mid-slope fault.
A huge disappointment for him, but also for the whole of the Swiss team which would subsequently lose two other possible candidates for the podium with Gino Caviezel and Justin Merisier.
As for Loic Meillard, he finished more than a second (1''25).
"The good compromise" found by Pinturault
Another strong competitor of Pinturault, the Croatian Filip Zubcic never found the right tempo to fail more than two seconds (2''12).
Like the defending champion, the Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen, rejected at 2''32.
An impressive chasm.
That the Courchevel skier explained in particular by having found "the right compromise" between a top of the route with very aggressive snow, and a very different second half of the piste.
“I really tried to attack and be fair,” he confided at the Eurosport microphone.
“It was not necessarily easy among the first numbers because the track was very icy.
With the sun, the end of the route seems to improve. ”
An observation shared by his compatriot Mathieu Faivre, very good 4th in this first act (0''58 behind Pinturault): “My feelings were quite contradictory.
On the top, I was fine, but on the bottom, I was at the limit.
Overall it was a good round and I can get into the fight for a medal.
I am in the game, I see that what I produce is working.
I really enjoy riding giant since I put everything back in place after Adelboden. ”
Even if on such tricky snow nothing is certain, Pinturault now has all the keys in hand to win his first world title as a giant, he who had finished bronze medalist in 2015 and 2019. The second act will begin at 1:30 pm.
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Ski Worlds: as a giant, Pinturault dreams only of gold