Valérie Grenier remained in the leader’s seat for a few moments on Saturday at the Alpine Ski World Cup giant slalom in Killington, Vermont. However, it was in fifth place that the athlete from the Mont-Tremblant club ended his day, 1.44 seconds behind the winner.
The Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami is the one who climbed to the highest step of this podium where she was accompanied by the New Zealander Alice Robinson (0.62 s) and the American Mikaela Shiffrin. Alberta’s Britt Richardson placed 24th (3.35s).
Grenier knows what it takes to win a World Cup and she didn’t raise her arms, in addition to shaking her head “no” once in the finish area. She then smiled and waved to the camera before heading to the cheerleader’s seat.
“It was cool to be first, but I made a big mistake at the top and a small one at the bottom. I suspected that it wouldn’t be good enough to finish on the podium and that’s why I was a little disappointed,” said the skier in a telephone interview with Sportcom. “It’s still a good race, that’s for sure, and I can’t not be happy to finish fifth. I know I had good skiing, but I want more, obviously, and I am capable of doing better than that. »
Seventh after the initial round with a delay of 54 hundredths of a second on Robinson, the Franco-Ontarian saw her intermediate time go green halfway through the second round, a sign that she had taken control of the race. Stable and fully in control in the last third of the Rettenbach track, she opened up a lead of 40 hundredths of a second over her closest pursuer while there were still six competitors to start.
Grenier, 27, finished seventh in her first race of the season, the Sölden giant slalom in October, where Gut-Behrami also won.
The Women’s Giant Slalom World Cup circuit will move to Mont-Tremblant, which will host two races next weekend. A weekend of competition where Grenier will be the crowd favorite for the first time in her career in her favorite discipline.
“That’s obviously where I’d like to have my best result and I hope the trend continues. I want to use this to my advantage. »
Laurence St-Germain and Justine Lamontagne will take part in the slalom on Sunday.