Lizeroux roars to Adelboden win

By Published On: January 10th, 2010Comments Off on Lizeroux roars to Adelboden win

Julien LizerouxJulien Lizeroux ripped the second run of the Adelboden slalom Sunday (Jan. 10) to jump from the 12th position after the first run and claim his third World Cup victory. Austrian Marcel Hirscher got second with Ivica Kostelic in third and tour leader Benjamin Raich fourth.

The Americans had three chances with Jimmy Cochran finishing 15th in the first run, Bode Miller ninth and Ted Ligety seventh, within a second of first run winner Swede Matthias Hargin and early season slalom dominator Reinfried Herbst. Cochran straddled a gate just above the final pitch, Miller skied without igniting and dropped to 14th and Ligety, with a strong effort, hooked a gate at the same place as Cochran.

“I was pleased with the first run,” said U.S. coach Sasha Rearick. “We were set up.”
He said Ligety and Cochran went out on the exact same gate. “They came out of the delay there and got a little antsy,” trying to set up for the next sequence of turns,” he said.

Miller, he said, had worked hard before the race with his equipment man trying to get the right set-up. “It was a hell of an effort,” Rearick said. “He skied tactically smart. In the second run, the fog started to come back in so he switched goggles and put his lens in backwards.”

There is no subtlety to the race course at Adelboden. It drops to its finish like a brick. It is intimidating and the stands are packed. It has always been a GS staple of the World Cup season, with slalom added in 2000. To win here has always taken a little extra. Lizeroux had that extra, and it was still reverberating in him well after his run.

“I didn’t know if I was fast,” he said, “I made such a huge mistake in the first run I just knew I had to charge.  … I got to the finish and saw the green (indicator of a lead) and a time of a second. I am shaking so much.”

At the time a lead of a second was substantial, but hardly secure. With 11 skiers left to run, the last of them with more than a second already in the bank, all Lizeroux had really accomplished at the time was set himself up as the target for the big guns to shoot at. He had, however, upped the ante considerably and added to the pressure of an always intense competition.

His teammate, Steve Missillier nearly matched him, but a big error just above the finish cost him many ticks of the clock. He finished 11th. Marcel Hirscher made a run, indeed put up the second fastest second run time (tied with Marc Gini) to come within .34, and still there were skiers left to attack.

Manfred Moelgg shot out of the start, but got tangled up and spun around high on the course. Ivica Kostelic, just returned to the circuit after taking time off to rest his chronically sore back and recovering from knee surgery, dropped slowly back over the full length of the course. Raich was clean, but not fast enough and Herbst roared from the start and exited almost before Raich finished. Hargin, with a 1.15 second advantage at the start got squirrelly early, struggled to hang on to the course and worked his way down, never really regaining form and finished fifth.

“I skied well and nobody could beat Julien today,” Kostelic told Reuters. “His crazy second run. … I don’t think Julien could repeat this.”

“He (Lizeroux) was beyond our guys. That was one inspiring run. It was awesome to see someone come out on a hill that tough, point ’em down and ski like that,” said Rearick. “That was amazing.”

Coupled with the second run DNF’s of Ligety and Cochran were some rough showings for the North Americans. The Canadians just missed the second run boat with Ryan Semple, Trevor White and Patrick Biggs finishing 32-33-34. For the U.S. Tim Jitloff barely got out of the start house and Dave Chodounsky fought down but finished 40th.

“Jit has been very fast in training,” Rearick said. “We need to look at his turns and get a longer period before he pressures the ski.”

While Rearick said the conditions were “just perfect; both runs,” Canadian Mike Janyk said he hadn’t made enough adjustment.

“The number of guys that went out in the top 15 is pretty high,” he said. “During our warm-up runs the course was pretty slick, and the race wasn’t like that. The snow was pretty aggressive and grippy, so I tried to go smoother when I noticed, but it didn’t work out for me.”

Lizeroux photos by GEPA

The SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men’s Slalom, Adelboden, Switzerland, Jan. 10, 2010

Skier, skis/boot/bindings
1 Lizeroux, Dynastar/Lange/Look
2 Hirscher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
4 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5 Hargin, Nordica/Nordica/
6 Gini, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
7 Imboden, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
8 Missillier, Dynastar/Lange/Look
9 Valencic, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
10 Zurbriggen, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol

Men’s Slalom, Adelboden, Switzerland, Jan. 10, 2010. … It is the 17th race of the men’s 35 race 2010 World Cup schedule. … The four of nine scheduled slaloms. … It is the 47th Cup race at Adelboden, all men’s races. … the eighth slalom at the site. … Adelboden hosted a men’s GS in the inaugural season of the World Cup in 1967, but the first slalom was in 2000. … Adelboden boasts of the steepest finishing pitch on the World Cup.

It is the third career World Cup win for Julien Lizeroux. … all in slalom. … It is his first win of the season and second podium in January having placed third at Zagreb. … He is the first French male to win this season, registering the fourth win for France.

It is the sixth career Cup podium for Marcel Hirscher. … His third in slalom. … His only win came earlier this season in GS at Val d’Isere. … It is his third podium of the season and the 25th for Austria.

It is the 30th career World Cup podium for Ivica Kostelic. … His 24th in slalom. … It is his second podium of the season having been second at Levi Nov. 15. … It is the third podium of the season for Croatia.

It is the 155th time Bode Miller has finished 14th or better in a World Cup race. … It is his sixth best of seven scoring finishes this season. … his result matches his sixth best of eight Cup results at Adelboden. … It is a better placing than his finish of 16th in last season’s slalom at Adelboden.

Benjamin Raich (4th in race) maintains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 639-577 over Carlo Janka (DNF 1st). … Didier Cuche (did not race) is third with 481pts. … Ted Ligety (DNF 2nd) is the top American overall in 7th with 317pts. … Manuel Osborne-Paradis (did not race) is the top Canadian overall in 11th with 268pts. … Reinfried Herbst (DNF 2nd) maintains the lead of the Cup slalom standings 245-241 over Lizeroux. … Silvan Zurbriggen (10th in race) is third at 150. … Michael Janyk (DNF 1st) is the top Canadian on the slalom list in 10th with 103pts. … Jimmy Cochran (DNF 2nd) leads Americans on the slalom list in 21st place with 41pts.  … Austria leads the men’s Nations Cup standings 2616-2260 over Switzerland. … Italy is third at 1721. … Canada is fifth at 893 and the U.S. sixth at 840.

Place   Adelboden
(SUI)
  Discipline   Slalom
Date   10.01.2010   Category   FIS World Cup
Race codex   1440   Gender   M
Valid for FIS Points   YES   TD Name   Debart Jean-Louis (FRA)
       
  
Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Run 1 Run 2 Total Time FIS Points
 1  1  191459 LIZEROUX Julien  1979  FRA   56.35  55.53  1:51.88  0.00
 2  9  53831 HIRSCHER Marcel  1989  AUT   55.77  56.45  1:52.22  1.82
 3  4  380260 KOSTELIC Ivica  1979  CRO   55.63  57.05  1:52.68  4.29
 4  11  50625 RAICH Benjamin  1978  AUT   55.54  57.16  1:52.70  4.40
 5  6  501111 HARGIN Mattias  1985  SWE   55.20  57.79  1:52.99  5.95
 6  23  511127 GINI Marc  1984  SUI   56.61  56.45  1:53.06  6.33
 7  25  910000 IMBODEN Urs  1975  MDA   56.52  56.73  1:53.25  7.35
 8  18  192506 MISSILLIER Steve  1984  FRA   56.11  57.39  1:53.50  8.69
 9  19  560355 VALENCIC Mitja  1978  SLO   56.69  56.94  1:53.63  9.39
 10  13  510890 ZURBRIGGEN Silvan  1981  SUI   56.91  56.90  1:53.81  10.35
 11  10  201702 NEUREUTHER Felix  1984  GER   56.30  57.56  1:53.86  10.62
 12  21  421400 MYHRE Lars Elton  1984  NOR   56.21  57.74  1:53.95  11.10
 13  24  50981 HOERL Wolfgang  1983  AUT   57.30  56.78  1:54.08  11.80
 14  16  532431 MILLER Bode  1977  USA   56.14  58.12  1:54.26  12.76
 15  42  150398 BANK Ondrej  1980  CZE   57.59  56.84  1:54.43  13.68
 16  26  500656 LARSSON Markus  1979  SWE   57.21  57.43  1:54.64  14.80
 17  30  291145 DEVILLE Cristian  1981  ITA   57.03  57.88  1:54.91  16.25
 18  44  150594 TREJBAL Filip  1985  CZE   56.99  58.12  1:55.11  17.32
 19  20  560425 VAJDIC Bernard  1980  SLO   57.24  57.94  1:55.18  17.70
 20  64  192943 OBERT Anthony  1985  FRA   57.44  57.77  1:55.21  17.86
 21  48  301312 SASAKI Akira  1981  JPN   57.20  58.08  1:55.28  18.23
 22  51  193347 TISSOT Maxime  1986  FRA   57.33  58.39  1:55.72  20.59
 23  28  501223 BAECK Axel  1987  SWE   57.09  1:02.36  1:59.45  40.60
Disqualified 1st run
   72  193986 PLACE Francois  1989  FRA         
Did not qualify 1st run
   75  30149 SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier  1980  ARG         
   74  511896 MURISIER Justin  1992  SUI         
   65  561148 SKUBE Matic  1988  SLO         
   62  191425 TISSOT Stephane  1979  FRA         
   58  380290 SAMSAL Dalibor  1985  CRO         
   56  380292 ZRNCIC-DIM Natko  1986  CRO         
   55  534508 CHODOUNSKY David  1984  USA         
   54  102456 BIGGS Patrick  1982  CAN         
   50  420148 KARLSEN Truls Ove  1975  NOR         
   49  102403 SEMPLE Ryan  1982  CAN         
   43  191640 ANSELMET Alexandre  1980  FRA         
   40  102912 SPENCE Brad  1984  CAN         
   39  102922 WHITE Trevor  1984  CAN         
   37  510997 BERTHOD Marc  1983  SUI         
   35  50547 SCHOENFELDER Rainer  1977  AUT         
   31  293006 INNERHOFER Christof  1984  ITA         
   29  50931 BECHTER Patrick  1982  AUT         
   27  102239 COUSINEAU Julien  1981  CAN         
Did not finish 2nd run
   46  501101 BYGGMARK Jens  1985  SWE         
   38  92591 ALBRECHT Kilian  1973  BUL         
   22  534040 COCHRAN Jimmy  1981  USA         
   17  534562 LIGETY Ted  1984  USA         
   15  50707 MATT Mario  1979  AUT         
   7  292491 MOELGG Manfred  1982  ITA         
   5  50605 HERBST Reinfried  1978  AUT         
Did not finish 1st run
   76  990081 CASSE Mattia  1990  ITA         
   73  910001 ROUX Christophe  1983  MDA         
   71  501324 OLSSON Matts  1988  SWE         
   70  180570 ROMAR Andreas  1989  FIN         
   69  511513 CAVIEZEL Mauro  1988  SUI         
   68  302982 OHKOSHI Ryunosuke  1988  JPN         
   67  201422 KOGLER Stefan  1981  GER         
   66  501116 LAHDENPERAE Anton  1985  SWE         
   63  102727 STUTZ Paul  1983  CAN         
   61  480736 HOROSHILOV Alexandr  1984  RUS         
   60  202462 DOPFER Fritz  1987  GER         
   59  50824 DREIER Christoph  1981  AUT         
   57  293797 GROSS Stefano  1986  ITA         
   53  180292 LEINO Jukka  1978  FIN         
   52  534959 JITLOFF Tim  1985  USA         
   47  300804 MINAGAWA Kentaro  1977  JPN         
   45  301709 YUASA Naoki  1983  JPN         
   41  192504 MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas  1984  FRA         
   36  150644 KRYZL Krystof  1986  CZE         
   34  560371 DRAGSIC Mitja  1979  SLO         
   33  51215 BAUMANN Romed  1986  AUT         
   32  511313 JANKA Carlo  1986  SUI         
   14  290732 THALER Patrick  1978  ITA         
   12  102435 JANYK Michael  1982  CAN         
   8  501017 MYHRER Andre  1983  SWE         
   3  293098 RAZZOLI Giuliano  1984  ITA         
   2  50624 PRANGER Manfred  1978  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.”