Federica Brignone and Petra Vlohva share the winner's crown

In the giant slalom race in Sestriere, Italy, a hundredths of a second thriller ended in favor of Federica Brignone and Petra Vlohva. Just one hundredth of a second separated third-placed Mikaela Shiffrin from victory.

With the last 11 riders in the second run, the new best times just tumbled away. Marta Bassino took the lead with a 0.56 sec. advantage. She was again beaten by her compatriot Sofia Goggia, who started the race after her, by 9 hundredths. Eighth in the first run, Sweden's Sara Hector started the race and was 11 hundredths faster than Goggia at the finish. After that Meta Hrovat made a dream run and had a remarkable 0.62 sec. advantage. But the New Zealander Alice Robinson made this performance look weak. She risked her neck and took the lead again with 0.48 sec. advantage.

Then it was Wendy Holdener's turn and the question was whether she could top the performance of her predecessor, because her lead over the New Zealander was only 0.03 seconds. But she skied the middle section without getting stuck and was in the lead by 0.40 seconds at the 2nd intermediate time, which she did not relinquish, even though the Swiss could not quite keep up the pace from the middle section until the end.

After Holdener, top favorite Mikaela Shiffrin was at the start. She now had to risk everything to be able to take the victory. She visibly had to fight, it was not the ease that one knows from her. Nevertheless, at the 2nd intermediate time she was 0.52 seconds faster than Wendy Holdener thanks to the closest line choice and took the lead with 0.37 sec.

Victoria Rebensburg, who started after Shiffrin, was unable to take advantage of her good starting position and lost more than a second to the American and even fell behind Meta Hrovat. Then Petra Vlohva had started and with an intelligent choice of line she was able to extend her lead over Shiffrin to six tenths in the middle section. But after that she lost time continuously and managed to take the lead by a razor-thin hundredth, much to the annoyance of Mikaela Shiffrin.

Federica Brignone was the last to tackle the race. She was 17 hundredths faster than Vlohva in the first run. First she extended the lead to 0.31 sec, but then she was almost three tenths behind in the middle section and improved again and led by 0.04 sec at the last intermediate time. It was an up and down of emotions for the local spectators and a race on a knife edge. The sensation was perfect when at the finish line the time lit up green with 0.00 sec. and it was clear that Federica Brignone and Petra Vlohva had finished the race in the same time and they both had the victory.

Final ranking at the Giant Slalom in Sestriere: