Henrik Kristoffersen surges atop World Cup ski standings with victory at Alta Badia
Norwegian wins giant slalom ahead of surprise runner-up Cyprien Sarrazin of France
With longtime rival Marcel Hirscher retired, things are looking up for Henrik Kristoffersen.
The Norwegian skier surged up from sixth after the first run to win the vaunted Alta Badia giant slalom on Sunday and move top of both the GS and overall World Cup standings.
Kristoffersen finished 0.31 seconds ahead of surprise runner-up Cyprien Sarrazin of France, with Zan Kranjec of Slovenia third, 0.39 back.
First-run leader Leif Kristian Nestvold-Haugen had a wild second trip down the steep Gran Risa course and finished 11th.
WATCH | Kristoffersen moves atop both GS and overall World Cup standings:
It was the 20th career World Cup victory and second this season for Kristoffersen, who also won the giant slalom at last season's world championships in Are, Sweden, and claimed silver in the event at the 2018 Olympics.
Kristoffersen's previous best finish in this race was second in 2015 and 2017, both times behind Hirscher.
Hirscher's successor?
Hirscher also won the last eight overall titles and Kristoffersen is one of the top contenders to take the Austrian's crown.
In the overall standings, Kristoffersen moved 31 points ahead of Vincent Kriechmayr, the winner of Friday's super-G in nearby Val Garden, and 47 points ahead of French rival Alexis Pinturault, who dropped from third after the opening run to finish eighth.
Kristoffersen was asked how he deals with his new favourite status.
"I don't really care," Kristoffersen said. "I just try to ski as fast as possible and try to win as many races as possible. First things have to come first. First you have to ski fast, then you can win races and then you can talk about all this other stuff. But I feel pretty good at the moment."
Sarrazin had the fastest second run to move up 20 spots. Previously, Sarrazin had finished better than 10th only once, by winning a parallel giant slalom in Alta Badia three years ago.
It was Kranjec's third top-four finish in giant slalom this season after coming third in Soelden, Austria, and fourth in Beaver Creek, Colorado.
Women's World Cup downhill cancelled by heavy snow
A women's World Cup downhill race was cancelled Sunday for the second straight day because of heavy snowfalls in the French Alps.
The International Ski Federation wrote on Twitter there was "nothing we could do against the weather."
The race was first scheduled Saturday and postponed. Organizers then switched the program for Sunday to focus on the downhill instead of a scheduled Alpine combined event.
The blank weekend at Val d'Isere means World Cup standings leader Mikaela Shiffrin kept her points lead after skipping the French venue. She chose to train for races next weekend in Lienz, Austria in her preferred disciplines of slalom and giant slalom.
The next women's downhill is Jan. 11 in Altenmarkt, Austria.