Laurie Taylor attacked in the first run. Then Levi bit back in the second.
In a misty Levi, Finland, the men’s Alpine skiing season went into its second round with a slalom.
Embed from Getty ImagesOnly one Brit saw the finish.
A season opener with new weight
For years, Dave Ryding carried this team. Now the group has to stand on its own.
Levi was the first test, and it was a fair one. Last year, Taylor finished fourth here, his career best, with only 0.04 seconds off the podium. This slope suits him. Ryding was seventh. Billy Major came in 27th.
Four Brits on the Start List
This year, the British ski team sent four racers to the Levi Black slope.
Taylor started 19th, ranking 21st overall in his discipline in last year’s season. Major wore bib 36. The two Carrick-Smith twins, Freddy and Zak, born in 2007, started 66th and 73rd.
Two seasoned racers and two youngsters: a team in transition.
Taylor’s first run: Seventh and in the fight
Taylor opened with real intent, hoping to replicate last year’s result.
He fired out of the start and showed speed on the upper section. His run was not about finding the rhythm in this new season, but about attacking.
A small recovery briefly broke his flow in the steep section with one no-touch pole, but he never backed off. He carried that speed onto the pitch and finished the run seventh, 1.03 seconds behind.
He was within reach of the leaders. Lucas Pinheiro Braathen led Clément Noël by 0.65 seconds, with Joshua Sturm in third.
It was the kind of run that makes a second-run charge possible. Last year, he did exactly that.
Major steadies the ship as the Carrick-Smiths debut the discipline
Billy Major qualified 22nd. His run was solid and clean rather than spectacular. He managed to stay under two seconds off the leader. That secured his place in run two.
After Freddy’s spectacular 12th place at the Sölden GS, his twin came close to making history of his own.
Nineteen-year-old Zak Carrick-Smith started from bib 73 and finished 33rd, just short of the top 30 who qualify for run two. From that bib, on that slope, it is a result with a lot of promise in it.
It also marks him as one to watch this season.
Run two: Where it slipped away
The second run, set by the French, was tough. It had tricky hairpins over rolling terrain and a combination leading into the steep part. The surface got slicker as temperatures dropped. Straddles became a theme of the day.
Taylor was one of them.
He attacked from the start and made several impressive recoveries. His splits were competitive in the first and third sectors. But the mistakes piled up as he pushed, and a straddle caused him to be disqualified.
Major battles to 15th
Embed from Getty ImagesMajor struggled to find the speed he wanted through the upper section of run two. He handled the steep pitch with control and held on to finish 15th.
A couple of key gates cost him speed he never got back, ending his race 2.16 seconds behind the winner.
Still, points on the board in the opening race matter.
The winners and the bigger picture
Pinheiro Braathen won in 1:48.04, his second win in two races after Sölden. Noël was second, 0.56 back. Loïc Meillard, the Olympic slalom champion, took third. Fabian Ax Swartz was fourth and Alex Vinatzer fifth, after the fastest second run of the day.
Taylor was 7th after run one, and a fifth-place result for him was within reach. It is the kind of day a ski racer will want back.
What comes next
Gurgl is next on the calendar; the skiers will compete in Austria on the 21st and 22nd of November 2026.
For Britain, the lesson from Levi is a positive one. Taylor has the speed to be in the top 10. Major has shown he can bank points even on a bad day. And a 19-year-old nearly made the second run from bib 73.
The post-Ryding era has started. It just needs one clean run from Taylor to get going.
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