Ligety wins Kranjska Gora GS, Cuche injured
Ted 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.
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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 |