Paco Rassat takes season lead in men's World Cup slalom after defeating Norwegian pair
Frenchman, 27, gears up for Olympics with 2nd victory of breakout season
The big surprise of the World Cup slalom season scored his second win Sunday adding to his fast-rising reputation before the Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina next month.
Paco Rassat raced to the fastest time in the second run to rise from fourth place, clocking one minute 55.22 seconds, and pushing two Norwegians down the podium steps after they had been fastest in the morning run in Adelboden, Switzerland.
United States-born Atle Lie McGrath was edged out by 0.18 seconds and first-run leader Henrik Kristoffersen dropped to third, trailing 0.20 behind Rassat.
Rassat, a 27-year-old Frenchman, had a career-best result of ninth in World Cup races before this Olympic season started.
He now has two wins, a third place and two sixth places this season and shapes as an Olympic medal contender in Italy. The men's slalom is on Feb. 16 at Bormio.
"To win on this crazy hill at Adelboden, it's something really unbelievable," Rassat told Swiss broadcaster RTS, describing his season as "a magnificent surprise."
Erik Read was the lone Canadian entered in the race, and the Calgary native did not finish his opening run.
Rassat also took the lead in the season World Cup slalom standings, ahead of his France teammate Clement Noel, the defending Olympic champion. Noel tied for eighth Sunday.
McGrath was runner-up in the Adelboden slalom for the third time in four years.
"It's kind of crazy," said McGrath, whose father Felix skied for the U.S. at the 1988 Calgary Olympics. "I'm of course super happy, it's such a challenging slope and mentally it's one of the toughest places to perform because of this amazing crowd."
Another packed finish-area crowd at Adelboden observed a minute's silence before racing for the victims of the fatal fire in a bar in nearby Crans-Montana on New Year's Day. Crans-Montana hosts men's and women's World Cup races in three weeks' time.
The World Cup overall standings leader, four-time title holder Marco Odermatt, does not ski slalom and his huge lead was cut a little by Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who placed fourth. Pinheiro Braathen was second to Odermatt in the classic giant slalom Saturday.
The men's World Cup circuit stays in central Switzerland for the storied Lauberhorn meeting at Wengen, for a super-G on Friday, the classic downhill Saturday and a slalom Sunday.
Women's super-G cancelled in Austria
Lindsey Vonn lost the chance for another World Cup race win Sunday when a super-G was cancelled because of the weather conditions in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria.
The 41-year-old United States star won a downhill on the same course Saturday but "strong snowfall in the night and strong wind on the top" prevented Sunday's race, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation said.
"The current conditions do not meet the necessary safety standards," FIS said. No detail was given of rescheduling the race later in the season.
The cancellation leaves just two women's super-G races before the Olympics open Feb. 6.
The first is at Tarvisio, Italy, next Sunday and the other is Jan. 31 at Swiss resort Crans-Montana. Both venues also stage a downhill the previous day.
Vonn has won two of the four downhills this season and shapes as a strong medal contender in the Olympic race scheduled Feb. 8 at Cortina d'Ampezzo. She won the downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. The Olympic super-G race is Feb. 12.
The next women's World Cup race is a night slalom Tuesday at Flachau, Austria.
