Ligety rips field for Beaver Creek GS win

Ted Ligety’s first run was a thing of beauty. The second run made that look pale.

With a courageous charge down the flanks of Beaver Creek’s Birds of Prey course, Ted Ligety picked up his sixth World Cup GS win by a phenomenal .82 of a second, dusting a strong performance from Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud.

Austria pushed a couple of its young racers into the hunt with Marcel Hirscher earning third and Romed Baumann fourth.

Ligety’s hard conditioning work seemed to pay off. Jansrud had held a lead of .94 over the rest of the field at the mid point of the second run, but faded toward the end and collapsed on his back in the finish, obviously struggling in the high altitude.

Ligety had no such problem maintaining the lead at all intervals and continued to build on his lead. The result combined with Lindsey Vonn’s win in super G at Lake Louise to give the Americans two winners on the same day for the first time since 2006 when Bode Miller won a super G at Hinterstoder and Lindsey Kildow (now Vonn) won a downhill at Val d’Isere.

“I was pretty nervous both runs,” said Ligety. “I knew I had to go for it so I wasn’t conservative at all, took a lot of risk. Rarely have I been this tired toward the bottom but I knew I couldn’t let off. I was psyched to see the green light when I came through the finish.”

After the loss of the Beaver Creek downhill to wind, and a poor showing in the super G Ligety’s win was a huge boost to the U.S.  The men’s coach Sasha Rearick said the result was “fantastic,” adding it was something he was surprised hadn’t happened earlier in Ligety’s career.

“He’s always been fast here and for him to come out and execute his plam and demonstrate to the world that he is the best GS skier in the world is fantastic,” the coach said. He added he felt the key ingredient was confidence. “Just trusting himself. I mean he skied from the top to the bottom as hard has he could, and as clean on his skis as he could and just took it down the hill.”

“It’s a special feeling when you get a win like this,” Ligety said, “I’ve never won a (World Cup) race here in America. You get one chance every year. To be able to capitalize on that is great.”

It will up to the rest of the field to try and take away the red leader’s bib from Ligety. From what we have seen in Beaver Creek, that will not be as easy feat.

Three additional Americans placed in the race, the first GS of the
season with Tim Jitloff earning 23rd, Warner Nickerson 24th and Bode
Miller squeaking through after a huge mistake early on the course to get
the final finish sport in 27th.

“We had four guys in the second run,” said Rearick. “We haven’t had four guys in the second run in GS in a long time. Warner Nickerson scoring his first World Cup points is really exciting. He has more speed than he showed us in the second run, so it’s really exciting to see him coming on. Tim Jitloff didn’t have a great series last weekk at the Nor-Ams, but just persevered through and actually had a great bottom half of both runs. Bode didn’t ski his best by any means today, but he got some points and got down to the finish. I look forward to Val d’Isere and putting the hurt down there.”

Val d’Isere, France hosts a GS and slalom Dec. 11 and 12.

The SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Men’s World Cup Giant Slalom, Beaver Creek, Colo., Dec. 5, 2010. … It is the seventh race from the original 38 race Cup schedule for men, but the fifth race to be held and the first of eight scheduled giant slaloms. … The first GS on the schedule, at Soelden in October was cancelled and will not be made up. … It is the third of three races slated this season at Beaver Creek. … the Beaver Creek downhill will be rescheduled, but that site has yet to be determined. … It is the seventh GS to be hosted by Beaver Creek. … the 41st Cup race at the site.

It is the sixth career World Cup win for Ted Ligety, all of them coming in GS. … It is his earliest win in a season, the previous earliest coming Jan. 29 last season at Kranjska Gora. … It his fourth podium at Beaver Creek and the sixth time he has had a top four result at the site. … It is the 213th U.S. win.

It is the fourth career World Cup podium for Kjetil Jansrud and the second time he has been second. … He has not yet collected a World Cup victory. … It is his best result at Beaver Creek, four of his best seven results have come at the site.

It is the 10th career World Cup podium for Marcel Hirscher, his fourth in GS.

Jean-Philippe Roy matched his 11th best career Cup result in 17th, matching his best Beaver Creek result. … It is the fourth best of eight career World Cup results for Tim Jitloff and his best at Beaver Creek by one placing. … It is the career first World Cup score for Warner Nickerson. … It is the 210th World Cup score for Bode Miller.

Mario Scheiber (did not race) maintains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 175-158 over Didier Cuche (11th in race). … Aksel Lund Svindal (5th in race) is third overall at 156. … Ted Ligety is the top North American in ninth place with 121pts.

Austria leads the men’s Nations Cup 969-654 over Switzerland with France third at 426pts. … Canada is ranked sixth with 224pts and the U.S. seventh with 211.

Gepa photo