Are: Cochran will forget GS, prepare for slalom

American Jimmy Cochran is hoping a little James Taylor and a lot of sleep will help him forget his second-run mishap Wednesday in the men’s giant slalom at the World Championships.
ARE, Sweden — American Jimmy Cochran is hoping a little James Taylor and a lot of sleep will help him forget his second-run mishap Wednesday in the men’s giant slalom at the World Championships.
    Cochran, with his usual “boy-next-door” personality, was downright blue after breaking his pole and losing his concentration early on in the final run of the GS. The 25-year-old started 27th in the first run and ended up 37th after the second, more than 7 seconds off Aksel Lund Svindal’s winning pace.
    Right before the middle section, Cochran lost balance while on his inside left ski and his right ski was thrown up into the air. He decided to finish the race, but he never recovered from the slip.    
    “My pole broke and I could kind of feel that. I thought, ‘I think I just broke my pole,’ and then the next thing I knew I was out,” Cochran said.
    “It’s pathetic,” he lamented. “Something so inconsequential that rattled me.”
    The Vermont native said the snow on course was very “grabby” and the flat light was less than ideal.
    “We haven’t seen much [snow] like this, but it’s the same for everyone. It’s still a fun hill to ski on,” he said.
    Cochran was the 27th fastest after the first run, in which 25 racers didn’t even finish. He said some sections of that run were OK, but he knew he wasn’t carrying enough speed.
    “First run was nothing special. That’s been the story with GS [this season],” he said.
    In four World Cup GS races this season, he either hasn't finish or hasn't made it to the second run. His best showing in the GS this year was at Beaver Creek in December, where he was 27th.
    He had better luck two years ago in the World Championships in Bormio, Italy, where he finished 16th in the GS.
    However, the tech specialist’s bread-and-butter discipline is the slalom and he’ll be racing in that event on Saturday. He’s had better results there this season, scoring three top-20 finishes in World Cup races.
    So how does he put Wednesday out of his head and gear up for the slalom this weekend?
    “I think I’m going to go to bed at 7:30 p.m. and sleep until about noon tomorrow [Thursday],” he half-joked. “Maybe I’ll listen to a little James Taylor. That’ll probably fix me up.”
    Seriously, Cochran said, you just have to forget about the race.
    “It’s nice in ski racing going from GS to slalom. It’s so different,” he said. “You go from having a tough year [in GS] to something you are really comfortable with. It’s a new day.”