ALPINE NATIONALS: Bode Miller wins national championship giant slalom{mosimage}CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine – Bode Miller won the giant slalom at the 2006 U.S. alpine championships on Tuesday, beating out Vermonters Jimmy Cochran and Chip Knight to complete an all-New England podium.

Miller slayed the second run of the race after he and Cochran were reportedly joking around at the start.

“Bode was saying how he was coming for me,” said Cochran, who said they pretended to wrestle. “Ted (Ligety) was saying ‘give him the stiff arm’ and I said I might just duck, go for the legs. … He was confident, you could tell. It’s his hill. … Bode, he’s just in his own world when he wants to be.”

Miller spent formative years attending Carrabassett Valley Academy, the ski school at the start of the access road to Sugarloaf.

“Sometimes on days like this you’re just as fired up as you possibly can be, other times it helps to have somebody poke at you a little,” said Miller. “It never really hurts. All of us, there’s no ill nature with anyone, (we’re) all just trying to get each other fired up to race harder.”

The race was held under sunny skies at Sugarloaf/USA, and as the rest of the mountain turned to slush, the race hill remained a sheet of boilerplate. The headwall of the Narrow Gauge run was so icy, in fact, that spectators below could see it glistening in the sun.

Knight, whose future on the team is uncertain, was on the podium for the second day in a row. He had tied for third in the previous day’s slalom.

Ted Ligety, the 2004 Sprint/Ski Racing Junior of the Year and the 2006 Olympic men’s combined champion, was fourth. Next week he will travel to Austria to test Atomic, Rossignol and Volkl skis.

Julia Mancuso, also an Olympic gold medalist, will travel to Austria to test skis as well.

Miller has said he would like to test skis also, and has mentioned brands as diverse as Blizzard, even though it isn’t in the U.S. Ski Team’s manufacturer’s pool at this time.

The top junior in the race was Andrew Weibrecht, who started late in the order after having been sanctioned the night before for a frustrated outburst in the previous day’s slalom, when he failed to finish.

In other news, Bryon Friedman has gotten back on snow this week for the first time since a dreadful injury more than a year ago at Chamonix.

Men’s giant slalom
Sugarloaf, Maine
March 28, 2006
1. Bode MILLER, USA 2:08.15
2. James COCHRAN, USA 2:09.23
3. Chip KNIGHT, USA 2:09.75
4. Ted LIGETY, USA 2:10.32
5. Warner NICKERSON, USA 2:10.84
6. Evan WEISS, USA 2:11.95
7. Andrew WEIBRECHT, USA 2:11.99
8. Charles CHRISTIANSON, USA 2:12.30
9. Steven NYMAN, USA 2:12.46
10. Scott MACARTNEY, USA 2:12.53
11. Richard DYKSTERHOUSE, USA 2:12.55
12. Scott VEENIS, USA 2:12.74
13. Tom ROTHROCK, USA 2:13.43
14. Paul EPSTEIN, USA 2:13.49
15. Peter ANDERSON, USA 2:13.63
16. Andrew WAGNER, USA 2:13.64
17. Yasuhiro IKUTA, JPN 2:13.71
18. Erik JOHNSON, USA 2:13.78
19. Eric MANN, USA 2:13.79
20. Drew ROBERTS, USA 2:13.83
21. Justin JOHNSON, USA 2:13.85
22. Erik GILBERT, USA 2:14.15
23. Kevin FRANCIS, USA 2:14.21
24. Mark HEINRICH-WALLACE, USA 2:14.47
25. Zachary SCHWARTZ, USA 2:15.05
26. Tommy FORD, USA 2:16.20
27. Ethan WEIBRECHT, USA 2:16.42
28. Philipp LEITNER, AUT 2:16.65
29. Joey SWENSSON, USA 2:16.90
30. Bump HELDMAN, USA 2:17.05
31. Shane COLLINS, USA 2:17.28
32. Joshua Stephen BRYAN, USA 2:17.51
33. Eirik BURAAS, NOR 2:18.05
34. Brendan BROUSSEAU, USA 2:18.42
35. Eric ANDERSEN, USA 2:18.48
36. Linton JUDYCKI, USA 2:18.52
37. Randall BLOOM, USA 2:18.59
38. Travis GANONG, USA 2:18.77
39. Martin HARRIS, USA 2:19.11
40. Jacob LUND, USA 2:19.32
41. Taggart SPENST, USA 2:19.58
42. Toby LAMAR, USA 2:19.86
43. Jonathan HUNTER, USA 2:20.04
44. Timothy KELLEY, USA 2:21.61
45. Braden LONG, CAN 2:21.62
46. Alex ACOSTA, USA 2:24.60
47. Cory MCCONNELL, USA 2:27.30
48. Taylor VEST-BURTON, USA 2:28.59
49. Massimo Maria BARBATO, ITA 2:30.16
DNS 1st: Mark SYROVATKA, CAN; Marco SULLIVAN, Cody MARSHALL, USA.
DNF 1st: Philippe CHARTRAND, Alexander HOPPER, Greg MOSER, Alexandre LIBERT, Cody WORKMAN, Cale WEINBERG, James O’NEILL, CAN; Carlo SALMINI, ITA; Eric HOLMER, Errol KERR, Todd David THIBODEAU, Benjamin MANTER, Marsh GOODING, Dylan BRYANT, Stefan HUGHES, Ryan WILSON, Jason MCNEILL, John TELLER, Sean MCNAMARA, Austin JOHNSON, Ben BABBITT, Nathan ASOIAN, Zachary BROWN, Colin DEVORE, Samuel SWEETSER, Greg BARTELS, Erik FISHER, Karl JOHNSON, Alexander Stone TARBERRY, Tony CESOLINI, David CHODOUNSKY, Tague THORSON, Benjamin DRUMMOND, Greg HARDY, USA; Bradley WALL, AUS.
DSQ 1st: Mike DEA, CAN; Chris COLPITTS, Carl RIXON JR, USA.
DNF 2nd: David GHENT KYLE, Trevor JACKSON, CAN; John KEMP, Ace TARBERRY, Christopher BECKMANN, Chris FRANK, USA.
DSQ 2nd: Will BRANDENBURG, TJ LANNING, USA.

Equipment
Men’s Giant Slalom, Sugarloaf, Maine, March 28, 2006 Skier, skis/boots/bindings 1. Miller, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic 2. Cochran, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker 3. Knight, Fischer/Lange/Marker

It is the eighth US National Championship for Bode Miller, his second of the 2006 event. … He is now sixth on the all-time win list behind Andrea Mead Lawrence (10), Cindy Nelson (9), Tamara McKinney (9), Tiger Shaw (9) and Dick Durrance (9). … No other competitor has won U.S. titles in all five disciplines. … Five Americans (Bob Cochran, Andrea Mead-Lawrence, Beverly Anderson, Buddy Werner and Jean Saubert) and two foreign athletes (Nancy Greene and Chiharu Igaya) won U.S. titles in four disciplines before the introduction of super G.

It is the sixth national championship podium for James Cochran and his third of the 2006 event having previously placed second in both slalom and combined.

It is the fourth national; championship podium for Chip Knight and his second of the 2006 event having previously placed third in slalom.

Winning margin was 1.08 seconds. … Fourth place was 2.17 seconds out.