Adelboden: Matt takes slalom, Ligety skis out

Mario Matt won his eighth World Cup slalom race Sunday, beating Austrian teammate Benjamin Raich by 0.10 seconds. Matt, a slalom specialist, finished in a combined time of 1 minute, 48.45 seconds after completing two perfect runs on the difficult Kuonisbaergli course.
    Felix Neureuther of Germany was third, 0.14 seconds back from Matt.
    After tying for third in the first run, American Ted Ligety straddled a gate in the second run.
    Bode Miller, who went out of the giant slalom and is fifth overall in World Cup standings, made an error at one of the first gates, then lost his footing again further down for a second non-finish in two days.

Mario Matt won his eighth World Cup slalom race Sunday, beating Austrian teammate Benjamin Raich by 0.10 seconds. Matt, a slalom specialist, finished in a combined time of 1 minute, 48.45 seconds after completing two perfect runs on the difficult Kuonisbaergli course.
“This is a time of emotional competitions,” Matt said after the race. To come to Adelboden and win, before heading to Wengen, then Kitzbühel and Schladming, it’s the most exciting time of the season.”
Felix Neureuther of Germany was third, 0.14 seconds back from Matt.
        “I couldn't have taken more of a risk,” Neureuther said. “Well, perhaps on the first steep slope.”
    Rainer Schoenfelder of Austria and Manfred Moelgg of Italy finished tied for fourth, 0.69 back.
        Ivica Kostelic of Croatia, who was second after the first run, came sixth, 0.14 seconds ahead of seventh-place Julien Lizeroux of France. Marcel Hirscher marked himself out as one to watch by posting his first ever top-10 result in a World Cup event. The 18-year-old Austrian came ninth, 1.28 seconds behind Matt.
        Giorgio Rocca of Italy completed the top 10, coming in 1.29 seconds after Matt.

Ligety starts strong; Swiss heroes ski out
Matt, starting seventh in the first run, took the early lead, but was threatened by American Ted Ligety, looking for a bit of redemption following a spectacular crash in Saturday’s GS. Ligety charged aggressively down the course, taking no prisoners on his way to a tie for third with Swede Markus Larsson. “That was some of the best skiing I have seen from him since 2006,” said teammate Jimmy Cochran. “He looked like his old self.”
    Ligety showed signs of his early exit Saturday with a slight shiner under the right eye. “Definitely I’m a little sore today,” he said after the first run. “I mean, I feel like I got in a bar fight last night or something.”
    But after a strong initial run, he hadn’t lost any respect for the notoriously tough Adelboden course. “Adelboden’s definitely the hardest slalom out there,” he said. “It’s so steep and there are 4 or 5 gates in the Siedelalm pitch that are so hard to stay ahead of, and you can just have one small mistake that would be nothing normally but it’s so blown out of proportion here.”
    Many racers found that out firsthand, as 34 fell, skied out or straddled gates on the first run; including the two Swiss heroes of Saturday, GS winner Marc Berthod and runner-up Daniel Albrecht, dashing the Swiss crowd’s hopes early in the day.
Cochran continued to build momentum with his first run, moving up from starting 25th to finish 11th. “It was a fun run,” said Cochran. “That’s a fun hill. There’s still some survival moves up there for sure.” But the sky seemed to clear for his run, providing a brief window that many later racers wouldn’t have. “The light came out and made it easier for me to see the rut,” he added. “Certainly much easier than in years past when it’s been glare ice.”
    Bode Miller, who went out of the giant slalom and is fifth overall in World Cup standings, made an error at one of the first gates, then lost his footing again further down for a second non-finish in two days.
        “It's a little disappointing,” said Miller's coach, John McBride. “It's not like he [Miller] did anything drastically wrong, he just didn't execute.”
        McBride said Miller would be a contender at the World Cup races in Wengen later this week if the conditions are good. The warm weather is forecast to continue until at least the middle of the week.
The crowd favorites after the Swiss hopefuls’ early exit became Japanese racer Akira Sasaki, who notched a sixth-place first run. His attempts to address the crowd in Swiss-German brought a round of cheers from the Swiss fans.

Confident Cochran again leads U.S. charge
The second run found the French on top of the leaderboard, with Joel Chenal taking the early lead, then being replaced by Julien Lizeroux.
    Cochran threw himself down the hill, almost coming unglued several times, but managed to keep himself reeled in, and briefly held second place.
    “It’s all about rolling the dice and taking risks and not just settling for a solid run,” said Cochran. “That’s the name of the game. It’s really easy after a decent first run to say ‘OK, I’m just going to ski solid and finish and score some points’, and the guys who win don’t do that. They say, ‘screw it, I want to win, I’m going to risk it all, all or nothing’. That’s what it takes to win a slalom these days. Well, that, and maybe a little luck.”
    Cochran finished eighth on the day, 1.27 seconds back of Matt, and continues to build momentum going into the “classic” stretch of the season. “I feel like now, I can hang it out there a little more and ski like I have nothing to lose,” he added.     “I’m just going to stick to my guns, and have fun and arc some turns.”
    Ligety was looking for a podium, and came charging out of the starthouse but straddled a gate just at the top of the course. “Slalom is a game of millimeters,” he said. “And whether you’re a millimeter one way or the other way is the difference of whether you straddle a gate or not.”
    But he wasn’t down on his performance on the Adelboden weekend. “Right now I’m skiing the best slalom of my life, and I had an awesome first run and was counting on having an equally good second run. But that’s slalom.” Ligety plans on skiing speed and technical events at both Wengen and Kitzbühel in the next two weeks.
 

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The SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men's Slalom, Adelboden, Switzerland, Jan. 6, 2008
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Matt, Fischer/Nordica/Fische
2 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Neureuther, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Schoenfelder, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
4 Moelgg, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
6 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
7 Lizeroux, Fischer/Lange/Fischer
8 Cochran, Volkl/Tecni
ca/Marker
9 Hirscher, Blizzard/Tecnica/
10 Rocca, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

Men's Slalom, Adelboden, Switzerland, Jan. 6, 2008. … It is the 17th race of the men's 41 event 2008 World Cup schedule. … The fourth of 11 scheduled slaloms. … It is the 44th World Cup race held at Adelboden, but just the sixth slalom, all of them held since the turn of the century. … The other races at the site are traditional giant slaloms.
    It is the ninth career World Cup win for Mario Matt and eighth in slalom (the other in combined). … It is his first win since Kranjska Gora March 4, 2007. … He had been third in slaloms at Adelboden twice before, Feb. 20, 2000 and Jan. 7, 2007. … The win is the fifth of the season for the Austrian men and second in slalom. … Matt had been second earlier this season in GS at Beaver Creek Dec. 2.
    It is the 71st career World Cup podium for Benjamin Raich. … His 36th in slalom. … It is his third second place finish of the season against a single win in slalom at BadKleinkirchheim Dec. 9. … He has not finished a race other than downhill outside of the top eight.
    It is the fourth career World Cup podium for Felix Neureuther. … all of them in slalom. … It is his second straight podium in slalom having placed second at Alta Badia Dec. 17. … He and Maria Riesch have contributed all six of the German podium placings this season.
    Jimmy Cochran matches his second best result and best of the season. … Michael Janyk collected his second finish and first scoring result of the season.
    There were some strong "back-of-the-pack" performances with Marcel Hirscher placing ninth from the 48th start, and Joel Chenal 12th from start 61.
    Winning margin is a tenth of a second. … Third is .14 of a second. … Top eight racers are within a second. … Top 15 within two seconds. … Benjamin Raich strengthens his lead for the World Cup overall standings tp 640-525 over Didier Cuche (did not race). … Daniel Albrecht (DNF 1st run) is third at 446. … Bode Miller (DNF 1st run) is the top American in fifth at 406 as Manfred Moelgg (4th in race) increases his total to 408 to claim fourth in the standings. … Raich also leads the slalom standings 216-188 over Felix Neureuther. … Moelgg is third at 181. … Jimmy Cochran is the top American on the slalom list in 13th place with 82pts.
    Austria leads the men's Nations Cup 3118-2020 over Switzerland. … Italy is third at 1525 and the U.S. fourth at 1268. … Canada is fifth at 950.

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Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Run 1	Run 2	Total Time	FIS Points
1	7	50707	MATT Mario	1979	AUT	55.21	53.24	1:48.45	0.00
2	4	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	55.70	52.85	1:48.55	0.56
3	2	201702	NEUREUTHER Felix	1984	GER	55.91	52.68	1:48.59	0.79
4	24	50547	SCHOENFELDER Rainer	1977	AUT	55.62	53.52	1:49.14	3.88
4	3	292491	MOELGG Manfred	1982	ITA	55.63	53.51	1:49.14	3.88
6	12	380260	KOSTELIC Ivica	1979	CRO	55.25	53.97	1:49.22	4.33
7	19	191459	LIZEROUX Julien	1979	FRA	56.52	52.84	1:49.36	5.12
8	25	534040	COCHRAN Jimmy	1981	USA	56.37	53.35	1:49.72	7.14
9	48	53831	HIRSCHER Marcel	1989	AUT	56.84	52.89	1:49.73	7.20
10	17	290478	ROCCA Giorgio	1975	ITA	56.76	52.98	1:49.74	7.26
11	20	560425	VAJDIC Bernard	1980	SLO	56.69	53.09	1:49.78	7.48
12	61	190677	CHENAL Joel	1973	FRA	57.92	52.03	1:49.95	8.44
13	18	501017	MYHRER Andre	1983	SWE	56.51	53.57	1:50.08	9.17
14	39	293098	RAZZOLI Giuliano	1984	ITA	56.70	53.40	1:50.10	9.28
15	6	501101	BYGGMARK Jens	1985	SWE	56.97	53.21	1:50.18	9.73
16	35	150398	BANK Ondrej	1980	CZE	57.60	52.90	1:50.50	11.53
17	47	192506	MISSILLIER Steve	1984	FRA	57.70	52.82	1:50.52	11.64
18	5	500656	LARSSON Markus	1979	SWE	55.44	55.15	1:50.59	12.04
19	38	301709	YUASA Naoki	1983	JPN	57.08	53.54	1:50.62	12.21
20	40	501111	HARGIN Mattias	1985	SWE	57.35	53.53	1:50.88	13.67
21	26	500124	HANSSON Martin	1975	SWE	57.33	53.67	1:51.00	14.34
22	42	191640	ANSELMET Alexandre	1980	FRA	57.15	53.99	1:51.14	15.13
23	30	420148	KARLSEN Truls Ove	1975	NOR	57.79	53.60	1:51.39	16.54
24	37	92591	ALBRECHT Kilian	1973	BUL	57.52	53.92	1:51.44	16.82
25	8	102435	JANYK Michael	1982	CAN	56.53	54.99	1:51.52	17.27
26	21	301312	SASAKI Akira	1981	JPN	55.66	59.94	1:55.60	40.22
27	46	560371	DRAGSIC Mitja	1979	SLO	57.84	59.57	1:57.41	50.40
28	53	192504	MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas	1984	FRA	57.96	1:04.88	2:02.84	80.94

 

Did not start 1st run : PICHOT Sebastien (FRA)

Did not finish 1st run : WINSLOE Leighton (NZE), ROUX Christophe (MDA), PITTSCHIELER Kurt (ITA), ROY Jean-Philippe (CAN), DOPFER Fritz (GER), BAXTER Alain (GBR), BYLUND Peter (SWE), PAQUIN Pierre (FRA), BECHTER Patrick (AUT), BJOERGVINSSON Bjoergvin (ISL), BAXTER Noel (GBR), VOGEL Markus (SUI), IKUTA Yasuhiro (JPN), STEHLE Dominik (GER), SEMPLE Ryan (CAN), BAUMANN Romed (AUT), KRYZL Krystof (CZE), IMBODEN Urs (MDA), LEINO Jukka (FIN), DREIER Christoph (AUT), VALENCIC Mitja (SLO), TREJBAL Filip (CZE), BIGGS Patrick (CAN), JANSRUD Kjetil (NOR), MILLER Bode (USA), LAHDENPERAE Anton (SWE), BROLENIUS Johan (SWE), KOLL Alexander (AUT), THALER Patrick (ITA), MINAGAWA Kentaro (JPN), ALBRECHT Daniel (SUI), BERTHOD Marc (SUI), PALANDER Kalle (FIN), GINI Marc (SUI)

Did not finish 2nd run : LIGETY Ted (USA), GRANGE Jean-Baptiste (FRA)

Did not qualify 1st run : SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier (ARG), SANDELL Marcus (FIN), OMMINGER Andreas (AUT), STUTZ Paul (CAN), VILETTA Sandro (SUI), ANDERSSON Oscar (SWE), HERBST Reinfried (AUT), DEVILLE Cristian (ITA)