A week after his world champion title, Mathieu Faivre again climbed on the podium, taking 2nd place from the World Cup giant Bansko (Bulgaria) on Saturday.
Alexis Pinturault was scared but provided the essentials for the general with a 4th place.
The Croatian Filip Zubcic won the race in front of Faivre (0''40) and the surprising Austrian Stefan Brennsteiner who at the age of 29 won the first World Cup podium of his career.
Zubcic on a wire all the second round
The world crown gives it wings.
While he had not known the top 3 in the World Cup since October 2019, Mathieu Faivre once again showed an excellent level, in the wake of the World Championships in Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy) where he was crowned in giant and in parallel.
On a very demanding track, he first dominated in Bansko the first race before a solid second pass.
Only the Croatian Filip Zubcic, breathtaking commitment and on a wire from start to finish, was able to pass him to sign a third success in his career.
“It was a struggle from start to finish.
I skied very well in the most difficult part, ”said Zubcic.
The Niçois for his part proves with this 8th podium in his career that his world title is not due to chance.
He has regained the level which made him the world number 2 in the discipline in 2017, thanks in particular to a fruitful period of adjustments and training from the end of January to mid-February.
Well placed after the first round (3rd), Alexis Pinturault could seriously consider victory or at least the podium on a route that suited him.
A week after his terrible disillusionment at the Worlds (off the track), he again made a mistake at the start of the second round, this time by putting his hand too much inside a door under attack, which caused him lost his right stick.
"The poles are not for nothing that we have two, I use them a lot for the support in curves."
Alexis Pinturault
Without his stick on three-quarters of an extreme track, he achieved a great performance by limiting damage to take 4th place in the final.
“The poles are not for nothing that we have two, I use them a lot for the downforce in curves, it helps us to refine, to be more precise, on the right line, to enter a curve with a highligths.
I tried to forget, to stay focused as much as possible.
I limit the breakage, I lose a stick, it happens.
In these cases we quickly go wild and make a mistake which is costly, ”he explained.
Above all, he was ahead of Marco Odermatt, 5th, allowing him to take a small additional margin at the top of the general classification of the World Cup with 230 points more than the Swiss with ten races from the end of the season.
He therefore remains very well placed to become the first Frenchman to win the big crystal globe since Luc Alphand in 1997. For the little giant's globe, a three-way match is announced between Pinturault (three wins), Zubcic (22 points away) , two wins) and Odermatt (45 points, one victory), three races from the end of winter in this discipline.
They will meet again on Sunday for a second giant in the Bulgarian resort, crucial for the various rankings.
Thibaut Favrot achieved the best result of his career on a World Cup giant with 7th place.
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