Kiwi Alice Robinson has just gone back-to-back wins in FIS Giant Slalom World Cup. An incredible victory for the 24 year old from Queenstown. This marks Robinson’s career sixth World Cup victory and her 19th World Cup podium.
Conditions at Tremblant in Canada were challenging with flat light and snow falling, causing problems for some of the most seasoned racers on course.
Robinson was unfazed by the conditions, putting down a lightning fast first run to lead the race by -0.33 seconds after the first run.
“That was such a testing race, it felt like the complete opposite of Copper last weekend, I’m so excited and I’m so glad I was able to hold on after the lead in the first run and build on it, it’s awesome,” said Robinson in her post race interview.
Robinson pushed out the start gate for her second run, delivering a dynamic top to bottom run and taking the win by almost a full second.
“The speed was faster [in the second run], I think the snow got colder. It stopped snowing as much and it froze so the tempo was up a bit, and it was definitely just working top to bottom. It’s a flat hill, but it’s not easy, it has got so much terrain, so you have to be tactically smart where you push and where you hold back a bit,” said Robinson.
Her nearest competitor Zrinka Ljutic of Croatia finished in second position, +0.94 seconds behind Robinson, with Canadian Valerie Grenier rounding out the podium in third position on home snow in front of a roaring crowd.
Comparing today to last week’s race at Copper Mountain Robinson explained; “The slope here is really different, Copper was steep and really fast the whole time, today was really grindy and had so much micro terrain, it definitely tested different skills than we tested in Copper. I’m really proud of myself and the team, we did a lot of work this summer with terrain as it’s been a weakness of mine, so I am really glad it’s paid off!”
The Tremblant FIS Giant Slalom World Cup is a double-header, with Robinson competing again on the same slope Monday morning from 6am AEDT.
