Manuel Feller wins the Palisades-Tahoe slalom race

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Manuel Feller won the World Cup slalom race in Palisades Tahoe in California. The Austrian, who clearly leads the discipline classifications, achieved his fourth victory this season. The Swiss are disappointing.

Feller's outstanding results this winter are a reward for careful planning that goes above and beyond what is usual for Tyroleans. His problem area, the back, often requires restraint. Giant slalom training is only possible on a very limited scale, if at all.

Feller has come to terms with his situation. He accepts that his weakness drives a large part of his athletic agenda. He's known this for more than a decade. No one could fool someone like him, who had his first of four herniated discs at the age of 20. Once criticized as an exotic bird, Feller has learned the meaning of discipline. “I had to learn how to deal with chronic pain.”

Manuel Feller in the slalom in Palisades Tho. Image: Cornerstone

The last time the physical problems became severe was at the end of last season. The cause was a fall while driving to participate in the World Cup slalom race in Courchevel in February, which resulted in painful bone marrow edema in the right hip. Feller didn't want to make a big deal about this incident, especially since the whole thing didn't hinder him much in the race. He even set the best time in the first round, but dropped the decision to seventh place due to a driving error.

Break ideas

The pain returned with a delay and the problems continued until the summer. “Maybe it would have been better to finish my season after the World Cup.” The new setback requires solutions. Feller's thoughts were not only about the possibility of abandoning the training camp in Chile. His ideas were more expansive. They took a break this season.

Feller decided otherwise. He traveled to South America – and found joy in his job again. He had more snow days behind him than he had in many years of preparation. Most importantly, he skated pain-free again.

Feller received confirmation that he was doing the right thing at the first opportunity after winning the slalom at the Gurgel World Cup opener in Ötztal in mid-November. It was the start of his most successful season to date. Sunday's victory at Palisades-Tahoe was his fourth in the slalom this winter. Consistency is also reflected in discipline rankings. Feller leads the standings before the last three winter races with 204 points, ahead of German Linus Strasser.

In his sixth complete success in the World Cup, Feller moved from third place to the top after the first round. He overtook Frenchman Clément Noel, who was in second place, after half time and Strasser. Bavarian leads the provisional standings by four-tenths, or nearly half a second.

Linus Strasser (right) comes in third place, and Clement Noel (left) in second place. Image: Cornerstone

The Swiss have fallen behind prematurely

In terms of standings, Daniel Jol in 8th, Luca Erni and Ramon Zenhäuser in 12th came out of the affair rather satisfactorily after the first round. But the deficit was so large that the trio could not compete with the best in decision-making.

On the contrary, all three things went the other way. Luca Erni dropped to 17th place in the final standings, while Ramon Zenhauser, who had a cold, found himself in 21st place behind his teammate Tanguy Neff. Yul missed a goal and was eliminated. In the end, the best finalist from the Swiss-Ski team was Loïc Meillard, who rose from 17th place to 9th place. (seda)