Hirscher over Ligety in Alta Badia

Men’s World Cup competition continued in the Dolomites Sunday with the third day of racing dominated by Marcel Hirscher. The Austrian overall champ was again superb, commanding a third victory in four giant slaloms this season.

On the Gran Risa piste of Alta Badia, Hirscher finished with a combined time of 2 minutes, 30.17 seconds, amounting to 1.45 seconds quicker than his American rival Ted Ligety, who skied to second. Frenchman Thomas Fanara, who had been knocking on the podium door all season, was third, just three-hundredths behind Ligety.

In both runs, the track became rutted and bumpy, resulting in a significant advantage for the earlier skiers. Wearing bib No. 1, Hirscher was first to start in the first run and last to start the second, showcasing his ability to charge the more cut-up conditions. He was simply quicker and cleaner from edge to edge than his competition, seeming to fly over ruts and bumps like they weren’t even there. Finishing the runs first and third, respectively, was more than enough to secure the win.

“For me, my feelings skiing the second run does not fit with my time,” said Hirscher. “When I crossed the finish line, I thought, ‘Oh my god, that must be a mistake’ because my feeling in the run was really bad. It was so bumpy and so rough, a really tough race.”

Of Ligety, Hirscher said these just haven’t been his races, his conditions, but the American is always dangerous and Hirscher wouldn’t be surprised to see him back competing for the top spot as soon as the next race.

“Right now, I haven’t had as much training as I would like to,” said Ligety. “It’s tough to have full confidence when you have to get on World Cup trails because they’re never easy. You have to push your limits and go hard, and I just haven’t been in the right place to go to that gear. I’m happy to salvage second place.”

For Ligety, it was a tale of two runs. He was seventh in the morning, clearly unable to find his groove. In the second run, he looked more like his normal self, more dynamic and active.

“It’s tough in all of Europe. You see green pasture on one side of the valley and a lot of snow on the race hill,” said Ligety. “The snow … is not ideal. Normally they do an amazing job prepping the hill here. I think, being so warm, it’s just hard to get it to that usual surface. It was really bumpy, even running fourth. There was big holes and big bumps. Maybe I wasn’t quite in the right mindset to go so hard when I was getting bounced around.”

As for the GS title, which Ligety still hopes to defend, there are four races down and four to go. Ligety trails Hirscher by 74 points.

“Last year at this time, I was a long way back and was able to turn it around. Hopefully I can do that again this year. With Munich getting canceled, it should give us a little more time to get some volume in training-wise.”

Meanwhile, in the overall, Kjetil Jansrud finished a characteristic 14th place for GS, quietly picking up 18 World Cup points. It had been suspected that the second run, set by the Norwegians, was potentially designed to benefit Jansrud, who’s currently locked in a tight overall battle with Hirscher. With gates set upwards of 28 meters apart, the faster speeds could potentially have aided the Norwegian in picking up a few extra points.

The only performance perhaps as impressive as Hirscher was that of the 21-year-old Croatian Filip Zubcic, who earned just his second-career qualification, skiing from bib 64 to 17th in the second run and ultimately finishing seventh on the day. He did a long stint in the leader’s box until Ligety knocked him out.

“It’s an awesome result,” said Zubcic. “This was the best race of my life. It’s like a dream. In the last training, I skied pretty good, but wasn’t sure for top 10. It’s unbelievable.”

Tim Jitloff was the second-best American making a great recovery through the upper double gate in his second run to hang in there for 12th. Brennan Rubie, David Chodounsky and Mark Engel also made starts for the Red, White and Blue, but failed to qualify for second run. Canadian Trevor Philp from the University of Denver finished 14th.

Other notable performers included Alexis Pinturault, fourth, and Felix Neureuther coming off injury and skiing to his best GS result of the season, fifth.

The men’s World Cup continues in Italy tomorrow with a night slalom at Madonna di Campiglio before the holiday break.

The Scoop

By Hank McKee

1. Hirscher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2. Ligety, Head/Head/Head
3. Fanara, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
4. Pinturault, Head/Head/Head
5. Neureuther, Nordica/Nordica/Marker
6. Nani, Volkl/Fischer/Marker
7. Zubcic, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
8. Dopfer, Nordica/Nordica/
9. Caviezel, Head/Head/Head
10. Sandell, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer

Men’s World Cup giant slalom, Alta Badia, Italy, Dec. 21, 2014:

• It is the 12^th race of the men’s 36 race (with one cancellation) World Cup schedule. … It is the fourth of eight scheduled giant slaloms. … It is the 36^th World Cup race hosted at Alta Badia … the 31^st GS.
• Winning margin is 1.45 seconds. … Seventh is more than two seconds out, eighth is three seconds out.
• It is the 27^th career World Cup win for Marcel Hirscher … his 12^th in GS. … It is his third win at Alta Badia, second in GS.
• It is the 49^th career World Cup podium for Ted Ligety … his 39^th in GS. … It is his sixth podium scored at Alta Badia.
• It is the sixth career World Cup podium for Thomas Fanara … all of them in GS and none of them wins. … It is his second time finishing third at Alta Badia, the previous Dec. 16, 2012 when Ligety won and Hirscher was second.
• It is the second best result for Tim Jitloff at Alta Badia. … He placed fifth in GS Dec. 22, 1013. … It is also his second best result of the season after a ninth in GS at Beaver Creek. … It is the third career scoring finish for Trevor Philp, all in GS.
• Kjetil Jansrud holds the lead of the World Cup overall standings 610-540 over Hirscher. … Dominik Paris (did not race) is third overall with 345pts. … Ted Ligety is fourth with 326pts. … Manuel Osborne-Paradis (did not race) leads Canada in 17^th with 153pts.
• Hirscher leads the GS standings 360-286 over Ligety. … Alexis Pinturault (fourth in race) is third in the standings with 230pts.
• Austria leads the men’s Nations Cup 1837-1155 over France. … Italy is third with 1122pts. … The US is sixth at 828 and Canada eighth at 384pts.

Results