From La Plagne, France
Lyndon Rush had the fastest time of the day in his second heat, and that run gave him the gold medal today in La Plagne. The Canadian out-pushed and out-drove the rest of the field to finish the first half of the season on a high note. Beat Hefti’s second World Cup race this season gets him his second medal with a silver. The USA’s Steven Holcomb put down a huge second run, the third fastest out of the remaining 20 sleds, and that was good enough to get him into the medals with a bronze. Simone Bertazzo and Oskars Melbardis finish fourth and fifth, respectively.
Rush, who has had finishes all over the board this season, credits his crew for his win: “We have a great support group that sets our sleds up. With the guys who do our work on our equipment, they get the credit.”
Outside of those racing for medals, the big story of the race was Thomas Florschuetz. The German won last year, but almost didn’t make the second heat today. His second heat time, second fastest of the day, moved him from tied for 19th all the way up to sixth.
With all the tight racing, you expected some jostling around of position, but outside of Florschuetz you didn’t really get much of it. Americans Cory Butner and Nick Cunningham finish 12th and 14th, Canadians Chris Spring and Justin Kripps finish 15th and 16th, and a tough start for John Jackson puts the Brit 8th.
Results:
| Pos | Names | Nation | Draw | Run 1 | Run 2 | Total |
| 1 | Rush/Lumsden | CAN 1 | 8 | 60.63 | 60.55 | 2:01.18 |
| 2 | Hefti/Baumann | SUI 1 | 11 | 60.65 | 60.80 | 2:01.45 |
| 3 | Holcomb/Langton | USA 1 | 2 | 60.82 | 60.66 | 2:01.48 |
| 4 | Bertazzo/Costa | ITA 1 | 9 | 60.68 | 60.98 | 2:01.66 |
| 5 | Melbardis/Dreiskens | LAT 1 | 10 | 60.83 | 60.85 | 2:01.68 |
| 6 | Florschuetz/Kuske | GER 1 | 1 | 61.18 | 60.57 | 2:01.75 |
| 7 | Kasjanov/Belugin | RUS 2 | 13 | 60.89 | 60.96 | 2:01.85 |
| 8 | Jackson/Tasker | GBR 1 | 16 | 60.70 | 61.22 | 2:01.92 |
| 9 | Van Calker/Jansma | NED 1 | 18 | 60.78 | 61.19 | 2:01.97 |
| 10 | Zubkov/Trunenkov | RUS 1 | 7 | 61.03 | 60.96 | 2:01.99 |
| 11 | Machata/Poser | GER 2 | 6 | 61.04 | 60.99 | 2:02.03 |
| 12 | Butner/Olsen | USA 2 | 5 | 61.05 | 61.01 | 2:02.06 |
| 13 | De Bruin/Van Der Zijde | NED 2 | 19 | 61.06 | 61.03 | 2:02.09 |
| 14 | Cunningham/Drbal | USA 3 | 3 | 61.13 | 61.02 | 2:02.15 |
| 15 | Spring/Rosenke | CAN 2 | 4 | 61.14 | 61.13 | 2:02.27 |
| 16 | Kripps/Samuel | CAN 3 | 12 | 61.08 | 61.30 | 2:02.38 |
| 17 | Peter/Keel | SUI 2 | 14 | 61.18 | 61.27 | 2:02.45 |
| 18 | Arndt/Putze | GER 3 | 15 | 60.95 | 61.76 | 2:02.71 |
| 19 | Loacker/Adolf | AUT 1 | 22 | 61.16 | 51.57 | 2:02.73 |
| 20 | Servelle/Lefort | MON 1 | 25 | 61.15 | 61.73 | 2:02.88 |
| 21 | Costerg/Heinrich | FRA 2 | 21 | 61.21 | ||
| 22 | Zalims/Broks | LAT 2 | 20 | 61.24 | ||
| 22 | Kupczyk/Niewiara | POL 1 | 24 | 61.24 | ||
| 24 | Abramovitch/Kireev | RUS 3 | 17 | 61.52 | ||
| 25 | Serise/Vandoorne | BEL 1 | 27 | 61.62 | ||
| 26 | Deen/Simons | GBR 2 | 23 | 61.81 | ||
| 27 | Luty/Kasperowicz | POL 2 | 26 | 62.04 | ||
| 28 | Hladik/Dvorak | CZE 1 | 28 | 62.06 | ||
| 29 | Godefroy/Ricard | FRA 1 | 29 | 62.45 | ||
| 30 | Grigore/Craciun | ROU 1 | 30 | 62.63 | ||
| 31 | Radjenovic/Novakovic | SRB 1 | 31 | 62.75 |
