Switzerland's Marco Odermatt had another extraordinary escape act to win a 12th straight giant slalom and equal the men's overall season victory record with a 13th success on Saturday in Colorado.
Placed third after the first run, Odermatt overcame mistakes early in the second run and like the previous day was in a league of his own in the lower part in Aspen.
He won .34 of a second ahead of countryman Loic Meillard, and Norway's Timon Haugen completed the podium in third. First run leader Alexander Steen Olsen still led halfway through the second run but then slipped and faded to 17th.
"I really don't know what to say anymore," Odermatt said. "I knew I had to attack but I saw myself out twice. It's incredible, it works every time. I did very well in the last split again."
Odermatt has won all nine giant slaloms this season and the last three of the past campaign.
With 13 season wins across the disciplines he equalled the men's record from himself last year, Austrians Hermann Maier and Marcel Hirscher, and Swede Ingemar Stenmark.
Odermatt can gain sole position of the record in the remaining races, and with two giant slaloms left in the season can equal Stenmark's record of 14 straight victories in one discipline.
World and Olympic champion Odermatt has already clinched the overall and giant slalom World Cup titles, and tops the downhill and super-g standings.
With now 1,902 points, Odermatt is also closing on his own overall men's record of 2,042 points he achieved last term. A victory is worth 100 points, and apart from the two giant slaloms Odermatt is also to contest the final downhill and super-g races.
Compatriot Lara Gut-Behrami took another big step towards a second women's overall title, eight years after a first, with a super-g victory in Kvitfjell, Norway.
She moved 305 points clear of Mikaela Shiffrin who has been sidelined with injury since late January but may return next weekend for slalom and giant slalom races in Are, Sweden.
Gut-Behrami took the overall lead from Shiffrin during the American's absence, and added another 100 points in Kvitfjell where she edged Austrian Cornelia Hütter by 12 hundredths of a second for a career best eighth season success. Mirjam Puchner, also of Austria, was another hundredths back in third.
“There’s no strategy, it’s just I am trying to enjoy more what I am doing. I know I am not going to race a 1000 races more. So, I am trying to enjoy the way I am skiing, the good feeling I have and to have fun while I am skiing,” the 32-year-old Gut-Behrami said.
The third super-g success of the campaign gave Gut-Behrami a 25-point lead over Hütter with two races left in the discipline. She could clinch the small crystal globe on Sunday in Kvitfjell.
Gut-Behrami also tops the downhill and giant slalom standings in what could be another trophy-laden campaign for her just like for Odermatt.
Kvitfjell was originally to stage a downhill on Saturday but adverse weather denied a mandatory training run. Instead, one of the two cancelled super-g races last weekend in Italy was staged.
