Are: Raich wins GS, Cuche wins title

Ted Ligety gave it everything he had. And so did Benjamin Raich. Didier Cuche wasn’t so bad either, finishing third – despite losing a ski pole at the beginning of the first run – behind Raich and Ligety respectively but winning the World Cup giant slalom title.

In a snowstorm with big, fat, wet flakes and temperatures hovering right at the freezing point the men of the World Cup put on a GS show at World Cup Finals in Are, Sweden Friday.

Adding to the intensity of the race were undecided World Cup titles. With time and opportunities running out in the battle for the overall trophy, the big ball, the large crystal globe symbolizing skiing supremacy for the season had four of the top five guys in the overall standings ramping up their efforts. The fifth guy, Aksel Lund Svindal, the World Cup leader coming in had a bad first run and a worse second, finishing 19th and out of the points; Fling the doors wide open.Ted Ligety gave it everything he had. And so did Benjamin Raich. Didier Cuche wasn’t so bad either, finishing third – despite losing a ski pole at the beginning of the first run – behind Raich and Ligety respectively but winning the World Cup giant slalom title.

In a snowstorm with big, fat, wet flakes and temperatures hovering right at the freezing point the men of the World Cup put on a GS show at World Cup Finals in Are, Sweden Friday.

Adding to the intensity of the race were undecided World Cup titles. With time and opportunities running out in the battle for the overall trophy, the big ball, the large crystal globe symbolizing skiing supremacy for the season had four of the top five guys in the overall standings ramping up their efforts. The fifth guy, Aksel Lund Svindal, the World Cup leader coming in had a bad first run and a worse second, finishing 19th and out of the points; Fling the doors wide open.

Raich, with his win, moved within two points of the Cup leader 1009-1007 with a slalom remaining to contest. It was Raich’s 14th career World Cup GS win, but he also owns 14 slalom wins, including one at Are in 2001. The closest Svindal has come to a slalom win is sixth and that was back in March of 2006. He hasn’t scored in a slalom since November of 2007.

Raich told the German press agency he liked his chances of re-claiming the overall title he held after the 2006 season. “Anything can happen in the slalom,” he said. “The chances are good but you have to race and I will try to put in a good race tomorrow.”

Third finishing Didier Cuche, not a reknown slalom skier, sits third in the overall standings at 919. Fourth on the standings list is Ivica Kostelic, who is a reknown slalom skier. He, too, gave it his all, winning the second run of the Are GS. But finished eighth on the day and was eliminated mathematically from contention.

Cuche, not overly optimistic of his chances for the big globe had another incentive, as did Raich and Ligety: the giant slalom trophy. Ligety had needed to win and have the other two finish out of the points. He did what he could, nearly collecting his second win the season. Raich beat him in the race by .13 of a second, the wink of an eye. Cuche beat them both for the title, edging Raich by seven points over the eight races of the season.

“It is a great emotion,” Cuche told Reuter’s reporter Patrick Lang, “not only to win a globe, but to win it in giant slalom which is the most difficult discipline. This is one of the greatest moments of my career.”

Cuche becomes just the fifth Swiss male to win a GS title, following in the ski boots of Henni Hemmi, Joel Gaspoz, Pirmin Zurbriggen and Michael VonGruenigen.

For Ligety the result was bittersweet. He was happy with the way he skied, but after the miracle of last season when he came from behind to win the GS title, there had been some measure of hope history might repeat.

“I feel good about being second,” he said. “only a tenth out, which is a little bit of a bummer, but I feel good about being in third place for a title. I mean, it’s not a bad day.“

He said the his second run, in deteriorating conditions, was particularly pleasing. “It takes a lot of balls to really hammer down (the course) when it’s that snowy and you can’t really see the ground that well,” he said.

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The SCOOP

Equipment
Men’s Giant Slalom, Are, Sweden, March 13, 2009
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Ligety, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
3 Cuche, Head/Head/Tyrolia
4 Grange, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
5 Schoerghofer, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6 Fanara, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
7 Hirscher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
8 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
9 Janka, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
10 Blardone, Dynastar/Lange/Look

Men’s Giant Slalom, Are, Sweden, March 13, 2009. … It is the 36th race of the men’s 2009 World Cup schedule with one race remaining. … It is the eighth and final giant slalom. … It is the 75th World Cup race held at Are. … the 23rd GS. …It is the sixth of eight races slated for World Cup Finals 2009.

It is the 34th career World Cup win for Benjamin Raich. … He is fifth all-time among men. … It is his 14th career GS win. … And his third career win at Are having won a slalom in 2001 and a GS in 2006. … It is his fourth Cup win of the season and third in GS, also winning at Beaver Creek and Val d’Isere in December. … He is third on the all-time list for GS wins among men behind Ingemar Stenmark’s 46 and Alberto Tomba’s 15.

It is the 16th World Cup podium for Ted Ligety. … His tenth in GS. … It is his fourth World Cup podium of the season (he also won bronze in GS at World Championships).

It is the 48th career World Cup podium for Didier Cuche. … His 11th in GS. … It is his sixth Cup podium of the season (he also scored two medals at Worlds). … And his second at World Cup Finals having finished second in downhill two days ago.

Aksel Lund Svindal (18th in race) maintains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 1009-1007 for Benjamin Raich with one slalom race remaining. … Didier Cuche is third at 919 and Ivica Kostelic fourth at 869. … Ted Ligety is the top American on the overall chart in ninth with 601pts. … Cuche wins the giant slalom title 474-462 over Raich. … It is Cuche’s first GS title, his second discipline title having won the downhill crown in 2008. … Ligety finishes third in GS  at 421. … Cuche’s margin of 12 is the least since 2005 when Raich beat Bode Miller for the GS crown by three points. … The largest margin since is 47 last season when Ligety won in the final race.

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Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Run 1	Run 2	Total Time	FIS Points
1	1	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	1:09.94	1:09.01	2:18.95	0.00
2	5	534562	LIGETY Ted	1984	USA	1:10.65	1:08.43	2:19.08	0.82
3	2	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI	1:10.80	1:08.86	2:19.66	4.50
4	11	192665	GRANGE Jean-Baptiste	1984	FRA	1:11.26	1:08.42	2:19.68	4.62
5	10	51007	SCHOERGHOFER Philipp	1983	AUT	1:11.42	1:08.67	2:20.09	7.22
6	12	191750	FANARA Thomas	1981	FRA	1:11.21	1:08.90	2:20.11	7.35
7	13	53831	HIRSCHER Marcel	1989	AUT	1:11.17	1:09.04	2:20.21	7.98
8	14	380260	KOSTELIC Ivica	1979	CRO	1:12.41	1:07.94	2:20.35	8.87
9	4	511313	JANKA Carlo	1986	SUI	1:11.12	1:09.24	2:20.36	8.93
10	3	292000	BLARDONE Massimiliano	1979	ITA	1:10.82	1:09.58	2:20.40	9.18
11	15	51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT	1:11.58	1:08.86	2:20.44	9.44
12	17	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:12.53	1:08.06	2:20.59	10.39
13	21	192506	MISSILLIER Steve	1984	FRA	1:12.17	1:08.47	2:20.64	10.70
14	19	50742	REICHELT Hannes	1980	AUT	1:12.24	1:08.47	2:20.71	11.15
15	7	421483	JANSRUD Kjetil	1985	NOR	1:11.88	1:08.92	2:20.80	11.72
16	22	191746	DE TESSIERES Gauthier	1981	FRA	1:12.69	1:08.14	2:20.83	11.91
17	23	292120	SIMONCELLI Davide	1979	ITA	1:12.08	1:08.82	2:20.90	12.35
18	24	180534	SANDELL Marcus	1987	FIN	1:12.58	1:08.33	2:20.91	12.41
19	6	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	1:11.93	1:09.03	2:20.96	12.73
20	16	292491	MOELGG Manfred	1982	ITA	1:12.39	1:08.86	2:21.25	14.57
21	18	292455	FILL Peter	1982	ITA	1:12.19	1:09.08	2:21.27	14.69
22	28	191459	LIZEROUX Julien	1979	FRA	1:13.72	1:08.59	2:22.31	21.28
23	8	50600	GOERGL Stephan	1978	AUT	1:12.48	1:10.06	2:22.54	22.74
24	20	510997	BERTHOD Marc	1983	SUI	1:12.33	1:24.41	2:36.74	112.67
Disqualified 2nd run
	9	191423	RICHARD Cyprien	1979	FRA
Did not finish 2nd run
	30	292514	HEEL Werner	1982	ITA
	26	293006	INNERHOFER Christof	1984	ITA
Did not finish 1st run
	31	194364	PINTURAULT Alexis	1991	FRA
	29	50041	WALCHHOFER Michael	1975	AUT
	27	102263	GUAY Erik	1981	CAN
	25	101895	ROY Jean-Philippe	1979	CAN