Federica Brignone and Marta Bassino get off to a strong start

Kranjska Gora, results

Mikaela Shiffrin in the lead after the first run of the encore giant slalom in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. The U.S. continues her chase to ‘hook up, at 82 wins, Lindsey Vonn, and does so with a near-perfect first half of the race, starting with bib number one. Second was an excellent Federica Brignone, at 24 hundredths: the Carabinieri from Valle d’Aosta did not change her attitude compared to the first race, determined and gritty, attacking on every trajectory to chase podium number 50 in her career on the maximum circuit.

Third was Canadian Valérie Grenier, winner of the first giant slalom, thanks to a great finish that brought her just 39 hundredths from the top, followed by Marta Bassino, in provisional fourth place. The Piedmontese from Borgo san Dalmazzo, on the other hand, was not able to show off all her qualities on a fairly fast track, but she is still only 0″73 and in the running for her eighth consecutive podium in the specialty on the maximum circuit. Right behind Ticino’s Lara Gut-Behrami, fifth at 4 hundredths behind Bassino, Sweden’s Sara Hector, who paid 85 hundredths to Shiffrin, and Slovakia’s Petra Vlhova, seventh at 87 hundredths. Rounding out the top ten were Paula Moltzan, eighth at 1″11 ex aequo with Norway’s Mina Holtmann, with Slovenia’s Ana Bucik tenth at 1″23 behind.