Tommy Ford is a race horse.

While he is apparently a thoroughbred, he has now gained a reputation as a “mudder.” Ford claimed his third national championship in two days at Lake Placid Monday (March 22) in a race concluded more than six and a half hours after its scheduled start as organizers battled a steady rainfall, fog and soft conditions to get in the final men’s event of the U.S. Alpine championships, the giant slalom.

The delays – the start was lowered and somewhat amazingly the hill was watered as well as spread with fertilizer – had some skiers complaining. That was music to Ford’s ears.

“I like hearing that,” he said. “No matter the conditions it’s still ski racing.”

For him, it’s just business as usual. “I’ve been skiing in rain and crap all my life. You just can’t let it get to you.”

The race was scheduled to begin at 10am but a high fog bank thwarted efforts to get the race started on time. Officials moved the start down the mountain below the fog. They still faced problems brought about by a persistent rain and temperatures about 40degrees.
 
At 12:15 the race was started, but it took a full hour to get the first 25 skiers down the hill and the pace didn’t pick up. The first run, with 87 starters, was completed at 2:20, five minutes after the rescheduled second run inspection was to start. The second run got underway at 3:26.

As has been the case throughout the Lake Placid portion of the national meet, the early bib numbers controlled the action as soft courses deteriorated. Tommy Ford in bib three held a three quarters of a second lead after the first run. Warner Nickerson, in bib one, got second. Chris Frank worked his way up to sixth after the first run and wound up third on the day.

The anticipated showing from Ted Ligety, the World Cup GS champion, never developed. He was eighth after the first run 1.68 seconds out and declined to start the second run.

“When we inspected we were all certain we weren’t going to race,” said Nickerson, who also said the newest name for his team (consisting of he and Dane Spencer) is “DTL” standing for “Dreaming the Life.”

“And then they started hosing the hill which is so old school it’s ridiculous. Then the forerunners were going and we were like ‘Alright, I guess we’re going to do this thing.’ My first run wasn’t that good, luckily I started one so I didn’t drop that far back. Second run I got fired up, pinned it as hard as I could and tried to go as straight as I possibly could.”

As easy as that sounds, it was exceptionally difficult. The harder one tried to pressure a turn the more the snow gave away.  One who put in a second run that displayed power was Robby Kelley who punched in two impressive runs. He moved from the 34th start to 17th in the first run then churned to 10th in the second to take the race’s junior title. Colby Granstrom was the second fastest junior in 13th and Kieffer Christianson, starting even further out in bib 44, was the third fastest junior in 15th.

By the way, DTL’s Dane Spencer finished fifth.

SR photo from left, Warner Nickerson, Tommy Ford, Chris Frank

US National Championships
Men’s Giant Slalom
Lake Placid, NY
March 22, 2010
1 Tommy Ford, USA            2:09.14
2 Warner Nickerson, USA    2:09.93
3 Chris Frank, USA             2:10.74
4 David Donaldson, CAN      2:11.14
5 Dane Spencer, USA          2:11.35
6 Jon Olsson, SWE             2:11.77
7 Leif Kristian Haugen, NOR 2:11.78
8 Gabriel Rivas, FRA           2:12.64
9 Nolan Kasper, USA          2:12.67
10 Robby Kelley, USA        2:12.96
11 Niko Harmanen, FIN       2:13.44
12 Ace Tarberry, USA         2:13.81
13 Colby Granstrom, USA   2:14.03
14 Trevor Leafe, USA          2:14.41
15 Kieffer Christianson, USA  2:14.43
16 Adam Cole, USA           2:14.47
17 Kyle Kung, USA            2:14.55
18 AJ Avrin, USA               2:14.82
19 Scott Veenis, USA        2:14.88
20 Jared Goldberg, USA     2:15.17
21 Tucker Marshall, USA    2:15.54
22 Hig Roberts, USA          2:15.57
23 Dan Loman, USA          2:15.68
24 Tuomas Huttunen, FIN   2:15.93
25 Wiley Maple, USA         2:16.85
26 Spencer Nelson, USA    2:17.16
27 Mark Engel, USA           2:17.30
28 Paul Atkinson, CAN       2:17.39
29 Ben Morse, USA           2:17.43
30 Bobby Farrell, USA       2:17.44
31 Sean Higgins, USA       2:17.53
32 Ryan Cochran-Siegle, USA    2:17.77
33 Jake Perkins, USA        2:17.89
34 Bryce Bennett, USA      2:18.16
35 Robert Cone, USA         2:18.74
36 Scott Snow, USA          2:18.96
37 Taylor Wunsch, USA     2:19.14
38 Hunter Black, USA        2:19.52
39 Grant Jampolsky, USA  2:19.66
40 Nicholas Scalia, USA    2:19.78
41 Adam Barwood, NZE     2:19.89
42 Toby Lamar, USA         2:20.06
42 Sam Coffey, USA         2:20.06
44 Stefan Hughes, USA    2:20.12
45 Kyle Coxon, USA        2:21.08
46 Nicholas Stenicka, USA  2:21.83
47 Sean Horner, USA       2:21.87
48 Jake Scannell, USA     2:23.03
49 Brennan Rubie, USA    2:23.03
50 Dustin Martin, USA      2:23.52
51 Victor Major, USA        2:23.66
52 Bryan Shpall, USA       2:26.88