Ligety wins Kranjska Gora GS, Cuche injured

By Published On: January 29th, 2010Comments Off on Ligety wins Kranjska Gora GS, Cuche injured

Ted LigetyTed Ligety etched his way to his first win of the season Friday (Jan. 29) out legging Austrian 20 year old Marcel Hirscher to win a race left over from 20 days ago. When the men’s GS at Adelboden was fogged out Jan. 9, it was added to the front of the Kranjska Gora, Slovenia schedule.

The win was the fifth for Ligety and his third consecutive GS win on the Podkoren 3 race hill. Norwegians got third place from Kjetil Jansrud and fourth from first run leader Aksel Lund Svindal who had some difficulty finding the rhythm of the course.

The Swiss suffered a blow when downhill standings leader Didier Cuche, winner of four races this season including two at Kitzbuehel last week, broke a thumb and was sent back to Switzerland for surgery.

“It’s an awesome GS hill with such incredible terrain so I really like that part of it,” Ligety said. “Plus it’s always toward the end of the year and that’s when I feel like I’m skiing the best. It always feels good to race here.”

With the regularly scheduled Kranjska Gora GS set for tomorrow, that’s a good thing, which wasn’t lost on Ligety. “I feel blessed to have a hill like this to compete on.”

Without a GS to run since Alta Badia Dec. 20, Ligety has had to be satisfied battling his way through slaloms and finding speed skis that are fast on the flats. With some DNF woes in slalom, he has been, as his coach Sasha Rearick puts it, “skiing to finish, not to win.” Today he could unleash the dragon.

“I knew I had to go hard to beat Hirscher and Aksel is such a great competitor so I knew I had to go hard. I didn’t hold back at all.”

Which is what it takes to win on the World Cup circuit. The win boosted him into the lead of the GS standings 292-259 over 11th finishing Benjamin Raich and ninth finishing Massimiliano Blardone.

The best run of the second heat went to Michael Gufler of Italy. He had barely made the cut, but his second run on the untracked Podkoren3 slope at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia was a thing of beauty. Only problem was he was more than three seconds off the pace when he started. Romed Baumann, with a 1.4second lead was the first to beat his two run time, 18 racers later, by .18 of a second.

Tommy Ford, starting two skiers after Gufler, was flying , had a couple small bobbles and seemed stunned to find himself behind Gufler when he arrived at the finish. With bib 52, he was easily the best from the very back of the pack, with the exception of Gufler, the 46th bib. Ford finished 21st, the best GS result for the U.S. men this season by anyone not named Ligety.

One huge mistake cost Tim Jitloff dearly. He got off balance, went to the back seat for an instant and was flung out way to late for a good turn. It took him two gates to catch up to the course again and was work horse slow along the flattest section of the course. He finished 27th.

Bode Miller skipped the race to rest his sore ankle according to plan.

Swiss star Didier Cuche was injured in a spectacular fall in full view of the finish. He was charging hard when he caught a gate and sprawled backwards taking out the final gate and sliding across the finish line. According to the Swiss Ski Team he was taken back to Schulthess Hospital in Zurich and will undergo surgery on a broken thumb Saturday.
Cuche had broken a rib earlier this season in a crash at Val d’Isere. Cuche is currrently ranked third in the Cup’s overall standings and is leading the downhill standings.

Ivica Kostelic, a winner of two races this January, crashed off the first course but appeared unscathed.

Ligety photo by GEPA

The SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men’s giant slalom, Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, Jan. 29, 2010

Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Ligety, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
2 Hirscher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Jansrud, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5 Simoncelli, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
6 Richard, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
7 Janka, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
8 Moelgg, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
9 Blardone, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
10 Baumann, Salomon/Salomon/unknown

Men’s giant slalom, Kranjska Gora, Slovenia,  Jan. 29, 2010.
… It is the 26th race of the men’s 35 race 2010 World Cup schedule. … It is a make-up race from Adelboden Jan. 9 when fog halted the race. … It is the fifth of seven scheduled GS’s for the men with another set for tomorrow. … It is the 68th Cup race held at Kranjska Gora, the 59th for men. … It is the 33rd GS, 30th for men at the site.

It is the fifth career win for Ted Ligety, all in GS. … and his first of the season. … It is his third win at Kranjska Gora over the last three seasons. … It is the 208th U.S. Cup win and 101st for men. … It is the tenth U.S. win of the season, the second by a male.

It is the seventh career World Cup podium for Marcel Hirscher. … and fourth of the season. … It is the third time he has been second this season. … It is his second podium at Kranjska Gora having placed third in slalom in 2008. … It is his second GS podium, the first a win at Val d’Isere in December.

It is the second career World cup podium for Kjetil Jansrud among 36 scoring results and 93 Cup starts. …  the other also a third at Adelboden in 2009.

It is a career best result among two scoring finishes for Tommy Ford. … Outside of Ligety it is the best GS finish of the season for a U.S. male. … It is the sixth career World Cup score for Tim Jitloff. … His second of the season. … It is his first score at Kranjska Gora.

Benjamin Raich (11th in race) maintains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 927-865 over Carlo Janka (7th in race). … Didier Cuche (DSQ) is third with 746. … Ligety jumps to sixth overall with 547pts. … Manuel Osborne-Paradis (did not race) is the top Canadian in 15th with 359pts. … Ligety takes the lead of the World Cup GS standings 292-259 over both Massimiliano Blardone (9th in race) and Raich who are tied. … Jean-Philippe Roy is the top Canadian on the GS list in 25th with 43pts. … Austria leads the men’s Nations Cup 3946-3416 over Switzerland. … Italy is third with 2333. … The U.S. is fifth with 1386 and Canada sixth with 1324.

Place   Kranjska
Gora
(SLO)
  Discipline   Giant Slalom
Date   29.01.2010   Category   FIS World Cup
Race codex   1439   Gender   M
Valid for FIS Points   YES   TD Name   Gsodam Thomas (AUT)
       
  
Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Run 1 Run 2 Total Time FIS Points
 1  7  534562 LIGETY Ted  1984  USA   1:12.12  1:09.90  2:22.02  0.00
 2  1  53831 HIRSCHER Marcel  1989  AUT   1:12.70  1:09.66  2:22.36  2.11
 3  12  421483 JANSRUD Kjetil  1985  NOR   1:13.01  1:09.52  2:22.53  3.16
 4  5  421328 SVINDAL Aksel Lund  1982  NOR   1:12.11  1:10.73  2:22.84  5.08
 5  11  292120 SIMONCELLI Davide  1979  ITA   1:12.77  1:10.23  2:23.00  6.07
 6  14  191423 RICHARD Cyprien  1979  FRA   1:13.42  1:09.64  2:23.06  6.44
 7  2  511313 JANKA Carlo  1986  SUI   1:12.83  1:10.49  2:23.32  8.06
 8  15  292491 MOELGG Manfred  1982  ITA   1:13.13  1:10.48  2:23.61  9.85
 9  4  292000 BLARDONE Massimiliano  1979  ITA   1:13.02  1:10.60  2:23.62  9.91
 10  8  51215 BAUMANN Romed  1986  AUT   1:13.87  1:10.31  2:24.18  13.38
 11  6  50625 RAICH Benjamin  1978  AUT   1:13.82  1:10.43  2:24.25  13.82
 12  46  292056 GUFLER Michael  1979  ITA   1:15.27  1:09.09  2:24.36  14.50
 13  19  510997 BERTHOD Marc  1983  SUI   1:14.20  1:10.59  2:24.79  17.16
 14  31  292967 EISATH Florian  1984  ITA   1:14.86  1:10.07  2:24.93  18.03
 15  9  51007 SCHOERGHOFER Philipp  1983  AUT   1:13.50  1:11.51  2:25.01  18.53
 16  25  420148 KARLSEN Truls Ove  1975  NOR   1:14.12  1:10.93  2:25.05  18.77
 17  10  290693 PLONER Alexander  1978  ITA   1:14.00  1:11.06  2:25.06  18.84
 18  21  192506 MISSILLIER Steve  1984  FRA   1:14.18  1:10.91  2:25.09  19.02
 19  23  292250 SCHIEPPATI Alberto  1981  ITA   1:14.86  1:10.24  2:25.10  19.08
 20  22  500656 LARSSON Markus  1979  SWE   1:14.38  1:10.75  2:25.13  19.27
 21  52  531799 FORD Tommy  1989  USA   1:15.20  1:10.18  2:25.38  20.82
 21  24  511352 VILETTA Sandro  1986  SUI   1:14.42  1:10.96  2:25.38  20.82
 23  42  51159 NOESIG Christoph  1985  AUT   1:15.07  1:10.40  2:25.47  21.38
 24  27  150398 BANK Ondrej  1980  CZE   1:15.22  1:10.30  2:25.52  21.69
 25  18  510890 ZURBRIGGEN Silvan  1981  SUI   1:14.56  1:10.97  2:25.53  21.75
 26  36  150644 KRYZL Krystof  1986  CZE   1:14.74  1:11.01  2:25.75  23.11
 27  33  53853 SIEBER Bjoern  1989  AUT   1:15.04  1:11.14  2:26.18  25.78
 27  29  534959 JITLOFF Tim  1985  USA   1:14.54  1:11.64  2:26.18  25.78
 29  38  290910 LONGHI Omar  1980  ITA   1:15.19  1:11.87  2:27.06  31.23
Disqualified 2nd run
   3  510030 CUCHE Didier  1974  SUI         
Disqualified 1st run
   50  193986 PLACE Francois  1989  FRA         
   35  103512 FRISCH Jeffrey  1984  CAN         
Did not qualify 1st run
   72  150594 TREJBAL Filip  1985  CZE         
   69  303097 ISHII Tomoya  1989  JPN         
   64  380290 SAMSAL Dalibor  1985  CRO         
   63  561148 SKUBE Matic  1988  SLO         
   62  491151 DE LA CUESTA Paul  1988  SPA         
   61  53985 MATHIS Marcel  1991  AUT         
   60  561117 KUERNER Miha  1987  SLO         
   59  560425 VAJDIC Bernard  1980  SLO         
   58  532138 KASPER Nolan  1989  USA         
   57  193967 MUFFAT JEANDET Victor  1989  FRA         
   56  30149 SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier  1980  ARG         
   55  180570 ROMAR Andreas  1989  FIN         
   54  202462 DOPFER Fritz  1987  GER         
   51  561032 JAZBEC Janez  1984  SLO         
   49  191778 PICHOT Sebastien  1981  FRA         
   47  51258 ZACH Michael  1986  AUT         
   45  421650 BJERKESTRAND Iver  1987  NOR         
   41  201702 NEUREUTHER Felix  1984  GER         
   40  102912 SPENCE Brad  1984  CAN         
   39  533397 ZAMANSKY Jake  1981  USA         
   34  290896 HELL Wolfgang  1980  ITA         
   32  180292 LEINO Jukka  1978  FIN         
   30  560406 GORZA Ales  1980  SLO         
   26  192504 MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas  1984  FRA         
   20  191746 DE TESSIERES Gauthier  1981  FRA         
Did not finish 1st run
   73  90047 GEORGIEV Stefan  1977  BUL         
   71  410270 CAFE Tim  1987  NZE         
   70  561085 KRIZAJ Andrej  1986  SLO         
   68  102456 BIGGS Patrick  1982  CAN         
   67  511383 FEUZ Beat  1987  SUI         
   66  410266 GRIFFIN Benjamin  1986  NZE         
   65  302982 OHKOSHI Ryunosuke  1988  JPN         
   53  294348 PERAUDO Adam  1987  ITA         
   48  534038 NICKERSON Warner  1981  USA         
   44  192943 OBERT Anthony  1985  FRA         
   43  194364 PINTURAULT Alexis  1991  FRA         
   37  501324 OLSSON Matts  1988  SWE         
   28  421669 HAUGEN Leif Kristian  1987  NOR         
   17  510727 DEFAGO Didier  1977  SUI         
   16  380260 KOSTELIC Ivica  1979  CRO         
   13  50742 REICHELT Hannes  1980  AUT       

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About the Author: Hank McKee

In memoriam: The veteran of the staff, McKee started with Ski Racing in 1980. Over the seasons, he covered virtually every aspect of the sport, from the pro tours to junior racing, freestyle and World Cup alpine competition. He wrote the first national stories for many U.S. team stars, and was still around to report on their retirements. “Longevity has its rewards,” he said, “but it’s a slow process.”