Dave Ryding climbed back on the World Cup podium for the first time since January 2019 as a brilliant second run in Adelboden helped the alpine skier take bronze in the slalom.
Three-time Olympian Ryding had registered just one top-ten finish in three slalom World Cup races this season but a clean first run of 53.77 seconds in Switzerland put him eighth, before he attacked the course second time down the mountain.
His total time of 1:52.84 minutes was just 0.01s behind Germany’s Linus Strasser when he crossed the line and, of the seven men skiing after the Brit, only Marco Schwarz was able to surpass that – with the Austrian taking gold.
It had been two years since Ryding last notched a podium finish – that being a parallel slalom silver in Oslo on New Year’s Day 2019 – while his only previous top-three performance in a traditional slalom World Cup race came in Kitzbuehel, way back in 2017.
With the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games now a little over a year away, and Ryding hoping to represent Team GB at a fourth Games, the return to form bodes well for the man from Pendle.
Source: Team GB / Photo credit: Dave Ryding
