Taking place in Italy on Saturday, it is one of two parallel events in December, with Carezza following next week, also in Italy.

Both the men's and women's races will be in the parallel giant slalom, won by Italy's Roland Fischnaller and Germany's Ramona Theresia Hofmeister last season in Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Both went on to win the overall parallel titles as well as the parallel giant slalom titles and should be expected to make the podium again.

Austria's Andreas Prommegger and Switzerland's Julie Zogg could also contend, with both winning the men's and women's parallel slalom titles from last season respectively.

Other main contenders in the men's parallel giant slalom include Russian pair Dmitry Loginov and Andrey Sobolev, as well as Austria's Benjamin Karl and Italy's Mirko Felicetti.

Olympic silver medallist Selina Jörg of Germany, who finished second in the standings last season, will likely be Hofmeister's closest competitor.

Zogg and her compatriot, Ladina Jenny, also showed promise in the discipline last season and will be among those with the best chance of knocking Hofmeister, who won five of the seven parallel giant slalom events in 2019-2020, from the top of the standings.

However, Czech Republic's Ester Ledecká could be Hofmeister's biggest threat with the dual athlete winning in Rogla in Slovenia last season ahead of the favourite.

Also splitting her time with skiing, Ledecká could be a contender to spring a surprise, but her form is not clear.