Adelboden, Switzerland – Another warm and cloudy day at the Audi FIS Ski World Cup in Adelboden had the U.S. men struggling for results in slalom as Italian Stefano Gross took his first ever World Cup win.

After skirting the winner’s spot many times in the last five years, an extremely excited Gross javelined his ski across the finish in celebration when he realized he won his first World Cup. Germany’s Fritz Dopfer took second and Austria’s Marcel Hirscher added more points to his overall World Cup lead with a third place. Only .03 seconds separated the first three places.

David Chodounsky, of Crested Butte, Colo., was the top-finishing U.S. athlete in 11^th with Utah’s Ted Ligety 22^nd.

As in the previous day’s giant slalom, the slalom course was salted and rough. As much as the course workers tried to keep up with the maintenance, the men quickly beat up the course and the snow broke away beneath their skis while racing. The Americans wrestled with these conditions with only two finishers.

Chodounsky—who could almost taste the podium in Zagreb, Croatia before DNFing—fought the weird snow and finished 11^th. Ligety had a fast top section of the course, but couldn’t maintain it on the technical steeps.

Tim Kelley, of Starksboro, Vt., was the only other American man to qualify for a second run, running bullet on his second attempt before DNFing. Will Brandenburg (Spokane, Wash.), Michael Ankeny (Deephaven, Minn.), Mark Engel (Truckee, Calif.) and AJ Ginnis (Waitsfield, Vt.) did not qualify for a second run.

Next on the men’s World Cup tour, both tech and speed teams head to famed Wengen, Switzerland.

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS World Cup
Adelboden, Switzerland – Jan. 11, 2015
Men’s Slalom