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And it’s surely not a coincidence that since 2017, only established specialists have managed to excel on the challenging “Erta” slope overlooking the beautiful village of San Vigilio, which is part of the celebrated “Skirama-Kronplatz” area.
A quick look at the winners’ list is enough to fully understand and appreciate the joy and pride of Austria’s Julia Scheib, who celebrated her fourth season’s win in the Italian competition after top stars such as Federica Brignone (2017), Viktoria Rebensburg (2018), Mikaela Shiffrin (2019,2023), Tessa Worley (2021) Sara Hector (2022), Lara Gut-Behrami (2024) and then Alice Robinson (2025).
Scheib, who brilliantly started the season with her smashing triumph at Soelden, was very determined to give her best this winter after several disappointing results on this slope in recent seasons – she never did better than 9th so far in San Vigilio! Following her series of victories in Soelden, Mont-Tremblant and Semmering, Julia travelled with great confidence and strong determination to South Tyrol, ready to give once more her best during the race. A solid 3rd after the morning leg, she raised her level in the afternoon to clearly finish ahead of her rivals who had skied faster than her in the first run – Camille Rast, the fresh winner at Kranjska Gora0 was 2nd at 37/100 while reigning Olympic Champion Sara Hector was 3rd at 46/100 after having clocked the fastest time in the morning. USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin came in a strong 4th, only 40/100 shy from the podium,
The charming 27-year-old athlete from Styria was particularly pleased with her performance and became the first Austrian to excel in that race. She greatly appreciates the demanding “Erta” slope that she discovered back in January 2018 when she started in her maiden World Cup race – even qualifying for the second run that she didn’t finish unfortunately! A week later, she confirmed her potential capturing gold at the FIS Junior World Championships at Davos, in Switzerland.
“It means a lot to me to win that difficult competition, it’s certainly the most demanding slope on the circuit, especially this year with the higher start. The course conditions were really perfect and I could take great risks in the second run,” Julia explained afterwards. “I’m enjoying an amazing season so far, I never expected to accumulate so many great results this winter, I’m really having a great time,” she added. “It’s a very important step in the direction of the GS World Cup globe, but for the moment, I prefer to be focusing on the next races and the upcoming Olympics,” Scheib also told the press.
The great crowd attending the competition lived a moment of great emotion following the return in competition of the defending overall World Cup champion Federica Brignone - nine months after her horrible accident early April during the National Italian Championships. The Italian veteran, who suffered a double fractures to her left tibia and fibula along ligament damages during her crash in a giant slalom, achieved a fantastic comeback on the “Erta” slope, grabbing a superb 6th place with a delay of only 1,23 seconds on the winner – with less than two full weeks of technical training since her return on snow in November!
“It surely was one of my most emotional racing days, I even had a hard time to breathe this morning and I felt incredibly nervous at the start,” the 35-year-old champion admitted afterwards. “I didn’t expect anything special today, I saw this race as a test to verify my potential and chances to compete next month at the Olympics at Cortina d’Ampezzo,” she added. “I’m really surprised and extremely moved too, the public here was amazing,” also said the reigning GS World Champion. “I still feel a lot of pain in my legs but I was really excited to race again here today.”
While Poland's Maryam Gasienica Daniel equaled her best ever World Cup result with her solid 5th place she clinched last December at Semmering, other favorites faced harder times on the "Erta" course. Alice Robinson, a two time winner this season who suffered a nasty crash earlier this month at Zauchensee, had to be content with a more modest 13th place several seconds behind the podium.

Lara Colturi, weakened for some time by an unpleasant flu, finished even further, at a distant 20 position. While excelling in slalom, the champion from Albania hasn't found back her best form in giant slalom so far.
Italy’s golden girl Deborah Compagnoni, winner of six FIS and Olympic Gold medals during her brilliant career in the 1990s, was involved in the award ceremony along with Danny Kastlunger, the happy chairman of the Organizing Committee. He was more than pleased with the result of the event which attracted once more a great crowd and many top guests in the various VIP lounges located above the arrival area.

"Everything went again really well today, the visitors enjoyed a pretty exciting day I think," Danny Kastlunger commented afterwards. "It was our tenth competition since 2018 and possibly our best with the higher start hut and the excellent course conditions. Our volunteers did a great job again allowing the racers to perform at a very high level, Federica Brignone’s spectacular comeback created a huge interest around Italy and the ski community," he added. "Yet our goal is not only to put together a thrilling race but also to organize a pleasant event for all our visitors and the teams present at San Vigilio and also at nearby Brunico, where thousands of happy people are attending the bib draw on Monday evening."

More busy weeks are now ahead for the local organizers as many teams plan to come to San Vigilio to train on its beautiful "Erta" slope before the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics at Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Next year's World Cup race in San Vigilio is scheduled for Tuesday January 19th!