The World Cup According to Grande: The World Cup finals slalom review

World Cup Finals Slalom and the Globe race.

Once again, I have been a little slow on the recap of a World Cup event. It is a very busy time here at Mission Ridge. With athletes at Nor Am Finals, US Nationals, Western Region Championships, J3 Olympics, we are spread thin and working hard. In addition, we just hosted 2 races here at Mission Ridge and have another USSA series next weekend. After that, we are hosting the Western Region Spring Series, which promises to bring US Ski Team members and possibly even Olympians Stacey Cook and Will Brandenburg. It will be very good racing and hopefully we can pack it all in to a short period of time. The snow is great here and the weather is cooperating nicely so far.

But on to the men’s slalom in Garmisch. I have to say that I was wrong, but not by far. Felix Neureuther lived up to expectations in his home town and won his second FIS World Cup slalom. And with him gaining confidence I would watch for him to move to the fore-front of World Cup slalom skiing next season. He has fought injury and illness since his last year as a junior and seems to finally have put that behind him. Lizeroux was not too far off the win and Herbst not too far away from being out of the points. We did not end up with the high-drama I predicted but it was pretty close. At the end, they were only 22 points apart. If Lizeroux finished 2nd and Herbst finished 10th, Lizeroux would have won the title. Julien was just 0.16 from 2nd place and Herbst was just 0.06 ahead of 10th. Do the math, that is not a lot of time over 2 runs of tough slalom. It easily could have happened. And as Bode has often said, “you can do all you can and still end up on the wrong side of the hundredths.” Aksel expressed the same sentiment earlier when speaking of Erik Guay deserving to win the Super-G title.  Spyder clothing has “hundies matter” printed on the inside of their speed suits. We all know it’s a possibility and sometimes we forget that it is not all in your control. It is why this sport is the most difficult there is. It is physically intense, it is tremendously fitness oriented, it is technically demanding and it challenges your guts on every run in all disciplines. How fast are you willing to go in any situation? It is tactically challenging, therefore mentally challenging in the physical plane. And beyond that, it is mentally challenging within your own mind. How hard am I willing to push? Can I execute on race day? Do I push too hard on race day? Do I make mistakes on race day that I don’t make in training? Can I read terrain and speed away from my home hill? These are all reasons I love this sport and cannot get enough of it.

In a minor back-story in the men’s race, Jimmy Cochran moved into 20th on the WCSL which puts him in striking distance of the top 15 for next season. Beaver Creek gets back into the slalom game next season which can really help him. And with Levi and Zagreb early in the year, Jim can make a charge for that top 15 bib. If that happens, it will change his World Cup life. He ends up at bib draws; gets more face time and probably more confidence. It also means he is making more money and that will help him relax a little.  Good luck Jim! Have a great spring and summer. Get in great shape and work hard on snow all summer long. It will be worth an early season charge next year.

THE WOMEN

The women’s slalom brought a lot of the same excitement to the Gudiberg hill as the men’s race.  The local favorites in the Riesch sisters and Fanny Chmelar were cheered loudly by the crowd and Maria and Fanny did not disappoint. But Maria barely held on to her slalom globe by edging Fanny off the podium by 0.17 seconds. Could you imagine the back-story if Fanny beat Maria out for 3rd, thus handing the globe to Kathrin Zettel? That would be a tough one to handle throughout the off-season.

A similar scenario happened in the men’s SG globe battle in Bormio a few years back.  Cuche just needed to score 15th or better to win the globe.  And Hannes Reichelt (AUT) needed to win the race and have Cuche out of the points to win the globe (only top 15 score WC points at the Finals). I was standing on the roof of the hay shed on the San Pietro jump in Bormio and watched Cuche ski very conservatively. I would even say he skied very tight, almost scared. And then watched Daniel Albrecht, his Swiss teammate, who skied well and into 11th. By the end of the race, Cuche sat in 16th and Reichelt in 1st and the globe belonged to Hannes and to Austria. It was almost scandalous after the race. Press talking about why the Swiss coaches did not inform Dani of the situation? They were sure the Swiss would have told Dani to slow down and not score points? To finish behind Cuche no matter what? Well, I think that would have been less than sportsmanlike. And Dani had his own career and race to think of. It is an individual sport, after all. Luckily, Didier came to the rescue of the growing scandal and announced that he had choked and not skied well. Had he skied just a little faster, he would have won the globe. He even went as far to say that had he won it because Dani had sand-bagged, then he would not have felt satisfied with that particular globe.  In the end, sportsmanship prevailed and all was forgotten and forgiven.

As it turned out, Maria edged Fanny for the last podium spot and won the slalom globe by a mere 3 points. There was a lot of tension there for sure.  I want to bring up the course setting issue one more time. Christian Schwaiger of Germany set the 2nd run. While I cannot find a printed rule of how the course setters are actually selected, I have been under the impression for the last 8 years that the home country was precluded from setting a course at a World Cup. I was also told this by my superiors at the US Ski Team while I was employed there. I set 14 World Cup races in 7 years and helped on many others. It was also my job to go out on every first run course set the day before the race, measure and inspect the whole thing and report on it to the athletes that night at the pre-race meeting. In addition, I compiled a “book” on every course setter and venue throughout the 7 years on the World Cup. Recording course setters, hill features, vertical drops, minimum and maximum numbers of gates and included comments on each course set we saw over the year. At any rate, NEVER in those 7 years did a USST coach set in the United States nor did ANY home-team coach set in their home country. On top of that, all of the 5 best German female slalom skiers are either in Garmisch or can get there very quickly from home and therefore train in Garmisch all of the time. This is the type of inequity this “rule” is supposed to prevent. I cannot believe the Austrian team did not make more of a stink about this oversight.

But, the season ends and Maria held on by the skin of her teeth. Congratulations to her and the whole tour on a great season. I look forward to writing more this spring about the various National Championship races and Spring FIS Series throughout the world. Spring and summer camps and physical testing will all be on the agenda. Keep tuned in, you can expect 1-2 blogs per week over the next month or so.

Image of Riesch by Gepa

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Greg “Grande” Needell grew up ski racing at Stratton Mountain,
Vermont. After graduating from SMS he skied for NCAA Division 1 St.
Lawrence University in Canton, NY where he was co-captain in 1986. Greg
returned to SMS to coach there for five years serving as the Head
Women’s Coach as well as the Head J2 Men’s Coach. He then moved to
Mission Ridge in Wenatchee, Washington in 1992 to become the Program
Director and Head Coach of the Mission Ridge Ski Club. In 1997, Greg
became the Head Coach at Mammoth Mountain, California.

In 2002 Needell was asked to join the U.S. Ski Team staff as a World
Cup SL and GS coach. From 2002 to 2008 Needell helped lead the U.S. Ski
Team Men to 43 wins, 105 podiums and 264 top ten finishes. Now at the
helm of Alpine Race Consulting, Needell offers his knowledge and
experience to clubs nationwide.

Click here for “The World Cup According to Grande” archive.