It was a great alpine skiing world cup weekend for us here in Finland. Our own alpine skiing star, Kalle Palander, won Giant Slalom in Alta Badia in Italy. This was the third victory for Palander in Alta Badia. Although Alta Badia’s race is one of the most difficult alpine skiing races in the alpine skiing world cup, Palander has no clue what makes him victorious in this particular race. First time Kalle Palander won in Alta Badia was in 2003 and then next one was in 2006. The most successful skier in Alta Badia is Alberto Tomba who has won this difficult race four times (1987, 1990, 1991, 194).

The second one in Alta Badia was Austrian Benjamin Raich, 0.42 seconds behind Palander, and the third one was Swiss Marc Berthod, 0.45 seconds behind Palander. For Kalle Palander this was 14th victory in the world cup, from which four are from Giant Slalom races.

Kalle Palander was truly amazed with his victory. He repeated word “unbelievable” often and was very surprised with his victory. “I cannot believe that I had velocity enough to win. I was really amazed after the finish line”, said Palander in Finnish media. Palander tried too much and made few mistakes during his run, but he was still able to win.

Ted Ligety, who leads Giant Slalom sup, was penalized for being late from getting his number, was fifth in Sunday’s race. Ligety has 235 points, Raich 212 points and Palander 200 points. Raich leads the whole cup with 241 points ahead of Kalle Palander who is in position seven.