Stefano Ghisolfi and Jessica Pilz climb to perfection in Chamonix

Winning in Chamonix is ​​every athlete's dream. Triumphing there, below Mont Blanc and high above that amazingly packed town square represents the pinnacle of World Cup climbing which, last night, celebrated the well-deserved victory of Stefano Ghioslfi. After an outstanding Semifinal - and after a first stage last week in Villars where he just missed out on one of the podiums - the Italian demonstrated all his determination and apparent weightlessness to flow towards the final’s only top.

Only last week’s winner in Switzerland, Austria’s Jakob Schubert, and German ace Alexander Megos could spoil the show as they had both climbed higher than Ghisolfi in the Semis, but the route proved too insidious even for them.

Domen Skofic settled for fourth on countback after having fallen off the same hold as Megos, and he was followed by competition revelation William Bosi, the two Japanese Shuta Tanaka and Taisei Homma and then Switzerland’s Sascha Lehmann.

With this victory, the second Italian win in Chamonix in a row after Marcello Bombardi last year, Ghisolfi has finally broken the 'spell' of victories in China only and he will certainly be one of the absolute protagonists of this new competition season.

A spell was broken in the women’s competition, too, with Jessica Pilz finally winning her first World Cup stage. In Villars it was apparent that the Austrian had improved significantly compared to last season, and in Chamonix she dominated both the semi-final and in the final, grabbing the only top with a mere 7 seconds remaining. In winning the competition Pilz beat the nigh unbeatable Slovenian Janja Garnbret and South Korea’s Jain Kim, silver and bronze respectively, and they were followed by the America’s Ashima Shiraishi who improved four positions in the finales, places, Mei Kotake, Anak Verhoeven, Akiyo Noguchi and Hannah Schubert.

CHAMONIX LEAD
Results male
1 Stefano Ghisolfi ITA Top
2 Jakob Schubert AUT 48+
3 Alexander Megos GER 46+
4 Domen Skofic SLO 46+
5 William Bosi GBR 43+
6 Shuta Tanaka JPN 43+
7 Taisei Homma JPN 40+
8 Sascha Lehmann SUI 30+
9 Jakub Konecny CZE
10 Sean Bailey USA
11 Francesco Vettorata ITA
12 Tomoa Narasaki JPN
13 Marcello Bombardi ITA
14 Sebastian Halenke GER
15 Yannick Flohé GER
16 Hannes Puman SWE
17 Keita Dohi JPN
18 Hyunbin Min KOR
19 Yuki Hada JPN
20 Kokoro Fujii JPN
21 Hanwool Kim KOR
22 Yuval Shemla ISR
23 Javier Cano Blazquez ESP
24 Luka Potocar SLO
25 Sam Avezou FRA
25 Hidemasa Nishida JPN
27 Romain Desgranges FRA
28 Yoshiyuki Ogata JPN
29 Kai Lightner USA
30 Jeremy Bonder FRA
31 Thomas Joannes FRA
32 Georg Parma AUT
33 Dimitri Vogt SUI
34 Jorg Verhoeven NED
35 Loïc Timmermans BEL
36 Nao Monchois FRA
37 Mikhail Chernikov RUS
38 Vladislav Shevchenko RUS
39 Jan Hojer GER
40 Simon Lorenzi BEL
41 Pietro Biagini ITA
42 Philipp Martin GER
43 Campbell Harrison AUS
44 Arthur Guinet FRA
45 Martin Bergant SLO
46 Alban Levier FRA
47 Jernej Kruder SLO
48 Ramón Julian Puigblanque ESP
49 Rudolph Ruana USA
50 Eric Lopez Mateos ESP
51 Arsène Duval FRA
52 Michael Piccolruaz ITA
53 YuFei Pan CHN
54 Kai Harada JPN
55 James Pope GBR
56 Nicolas Collin BEL
57 Maciej Dobrzanski POL
58 Stephane Hanssens BEL
59 Carlos Granja ECU
59 Alex Khazanov ISR
61 Christoph Hanke GER
61 Lucas Uchida CAN
63 Sven Lempereur BEL
64 HaiBin Qu CHN
65 Rustam Gelmanov RUS
65 Sangwon Son KOR
65 Martin Tekles GER
68 Manuel Cornu FRA
69 Alistair Duval FRA
70 Nathan Martin FRA
71 Minoru Nakano JPN
72 Cesar Grosso BRA
73 Fedir Samoilov UKR
74 Milan Preskar SLO
75 Felipe Ho Foganholo BRA
76 Max Rudigier AUT
77 Mark Brand NED
77 John Brosler USA
79 Sergio Pastor Martínez ESP
80 Sergii Topishko UKR
81 Josh Levin USA
82 Romaric Geffroy FRA
83 Vojtech Trojan CZE
84 Szymon Pecikiewicz POL
85 Rishat Khaibullin KAZ
86 David Barrans GBR
87 Aleksandr Shikov RUS
88 Jean Ouriques BRA
89 Sébastien Berthe BEL
90 Artyom Devyaterikov KAZ
90 Florian Klingler AUT
90 Adrien Lemaire FRA
93 Jonatan Flor Vazquez ESP
94 Jerome González Gutiérrez ESP
95 Timothy Kang USA
96 Jason Holowach CAN
97 Stefano Carnati ITA
98 Mickael Mawem FRA
99 Galo Hernandez ECU
100 Tomas Binter CZE
100 Or Miniely ISR
102 Hugo Parmentier FRA
103 Pedro Ferreira Nicoloso BRA
104 Alexey Panfilov KAZ
105 Nikita Devyaterikov KAZ
106 Nickolaie Rivadeneira ECU
107 Mykhayil Tkachuk UKR
108 Sean Faulkner CAN
109 Benjamin Vargas CHI
110 Emilio Rios CHI
111 Alexey Molchanov KAZ

Results female
1 Jessica Pilz AUT Top
2 Janja Garnbret SLO 50+
3 Jain Kim KOR 48+
4 Ashima Shiraishi USA 44
5 Mei Kotake JPN 42+
6 Anak Verhoeven BEL 41
7 Akiyo Noguchi JPN 40+
8 Hannah Schubert AUT 40+
9 Tjasa Kalan SLO
10 Manon Hily FRA
11 Vita Lukan SLO
12 Mina Markovic SLO
13 Anne-Sophie Koller SUI
14 Miho Nonaka JPN
14 Salomé Romain FRA
16 Tina Johnsen Hafsaas NOR
17 Nina Arthaud FRA
17 Aya Onoe JPN
19 Claire Buhrfeind USA
20 Katharina Posch AUT
21 Mia Krampl SLO
22 Julia Fiser AUT
23 Nolwenn Arc FRA
24 Ekaterina Kipriianova RUS
25 Iuliia Panteleeva RUS
26 Michelle Hulliger SUI
27 Nolwen Berthier FRA
27 Futaba Ito JPN
27 Nikki Van Bergen NED
30 Lana Skusek SLO
31 Seuran Han KOR
32 Julia Chanourdie FRA
32 Heloïse Doumont BEL
32 Claudia Ghisolfi ITA
35 Camille Pouget FRA
36 Yuki Hiroshige JPN
37 Lynn Van Der Meer NED
38 Emily Phillips GBR
39 Christine Schranz AUT
40 Ievgeniia Kazbekova UKR
41 Laura Rogora ITA
42 Hannah Slaney GBR
43 Petra Klingler SUI
44 Eliska Adamovska CZE
44 Asja Gollo ITA
44 Kenza Slamti FRA
47 Mathilde Becerra FRA
48 Urska Repusic SLO
49 Stasa Gejo SRB
50 Vanda Michalkova SVK
51 Elena Krasovskaia RUS
52 Katherine Choong SUI
53 LaMu Renqing CHN
54 Sofya Yokoyama SUI
55 Alannah Yip CAN
56 Celine Cuypers BEL
56 Hung Ying Lee TPE
58 Minseon Kim KOR
59 Magdalena Röck AUT
60 Erina Miura JPN
61 Silvia Cassol ITA
61 Kajsa Rosen SWE
63 Chloe Caulier BEL
63 Giorgia Tesio ITA
65 Maja Rudka POL
65 Jara Späte SUI
67 Andrea Kümin SUI
68 Luiza Emeleva RUS
69 Rebecca Frangos CAN
70 Léna Grospiron FRA
70 Evgeniia Malamid RUS
72 Martina Zanetti ITA
73 Rhoslyn Frugtniet GBR
74 Eliska Novotna CZE
75 Jennifer Wood GBR
76 Alejandra Contreras CHI
77 Giulia Medici ITA
78 Ida Kups POL
79 Andrea Rojas ECU
80 Itziar Zabala Zurinaga ESP
81 Lia Wieckowski CAN
82 Thais Makino Shiraiwa BRA
83 Margaryta Zakharova UKR
84 Natalia Kalucka POL
85 Margarita Agambayeva KAZ
86 Tiffany Melius AUS
87 Rahil Ramezani IRI
88 Aleksandra Kalucka POL
89 Alexandra Zhiznevskaya KAZ
90 Patrícia Antunes BRA
90 Luana Riscado BRA
92 Assel Marlenova KAZ