Beaver Creek: Austrians pack SG leader board

BEAVER CREEK, Colo – There is joy in Mudville. Make that Schlammville. The Austrian men's team, much maligned through the early portions of this 2008 World Cup season, emerged in no uncertain fashion Monday (Dec. 3), powering five skiers into the top six places of the delayed super G on the Beaver Creek Birds of Prey course. Hannes Reichelt got the win followed by Mario Scheiber and Christoph Gruber.
    The Austrians, long the dominant force on the World Cup had faced a distraught public at home, having produced just a single win and only four podiums total in the seven races preceding today's test. It was, as Benjamin Raich said, "A national problem."
    Problem solved.
  

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. – There is joy in Mudville. Make that Schlammville. The Austrian men's team, much maligned through the early portions of this 2008 World Cup season, emerged in no uncertain fashion Monday (Dec. 3), powering five skiers into the top six places of the delayed super G on the Beaver Creek Birds of Prey course. Hannes Reichelt got the win followed by Mario Scheiber and Christoph Gruber.
    The Austrians, long the dominant force on the World Cup had faced a distraught public at home, having produced just a single win and only four podiums total in the seven races preceding today's test. It was, as Benjamin Raich said, "A national problem."
    Problem solved.
    Reichelt, the first competitor down the hill and the 2005 SG champion on the course, posted what turned out to be the fastest time of the day. As racer after racer tried to attack his time, it was primarily his teammates who threatened. Scheiber came closest, .02 back with Gruber in third, .21 behind. Swiss sensation Daniel Albrecht made an impact and broke up the red and white party in fourth, but two more Austrians, Michael Walchhofer and Benjamin Raich tied for fifth.
    "Now we can go home with a good feeling," said Gruber.
    It was not a good day for the Americans. Ted Ligety, who had never scored a single World Cup point in super G before, led the way in 23rd place. Bode Miller ripped an edge off his ski and had no chance."It just folded the edge over the front half of the ski. … There was like nothing there." He said he basically skied the rest of the course on one ski. He continued on for the final Cup point in 30th place.
    Steven Nyman, TJ Lanning, and Andrew Weibrecht all joined the "did not finish" list and Scott Macartney was more than three seconds off the pace.
    Most competitors not wearing the Austrian uniform had difficulty on two big left hand turns set off the crest of rolls, dropping low and having to carve up hill to make the next gate. "It was a cranking big turn," said Nyman. "I don't know, maybe it wasn't communicated well enough."
    The Canadians had some better luck. Jan Hudec tied for ninth, Francois Bourque tied for 13th and John Kucera tallied 15th.

THE SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men's Super G, Beaver Creek, Colo., Dec. 3, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/binding
1 Reichelt, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
2 Scheiber, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Gruber, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
4 Albrecht, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5 Walchhofer, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
7 Staudacher, Head/Head/Tyrolia
8 Gruenenfelder, Stoeckli/Lange/Atomic
9 Gorza, Fischer/Lange/
9 Hudec, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

 
Men's Super G, Beaver Creek, Colo., Dec. 3, 2007. … It is the eighth race of the men's 41 event 2007-08 World Cup schedule. … The second of seven scheduled super G's. … It is the 33rd Cup race held at Beaver Creek. … The ninth super G. … It is the final race of the men's North American swing. … Race held under clear skies.
    It is the second career World Cup win for Hannes Reichelt. … Both of them in SG and both of them at Beaver Creek (the first Dec. 1, 2005)… He has five podiums, all in SG, dating back to December of 2002.
    It is the eighth World Cup podium for Mario Scheiber. … His fourth in super G. …  It is the fifth time he has finished second in a Cup race, without a win. … It is his second podium in SG at Beaver Creek having placed third Dec. 2, 2004.
    It is the 13th career podium for Christoph Gruber. … the eighth in super G. … It is his second SG podium at Beaver Creek, the other a second place Dec. 3, 2000. … It is the first podium sweep by Austrian men since the Garmisch DH Jan. 28, 2006.
    It is the fifth top 10 result for Jan Hudec. … His second in super G. … Thirteenth matches Francois Bouque's eighth best SG result. … He was 11th in SG at Beaver Creek Dec. 1, 2005. … It is the 17th top 15 result for John Kucera. … It is the fifth time he has finished a World Cup race in 15th place. … It was the first career SG result for Ted Ligety. … It is the seventh scoring result for Bode Miller this season.
    Winning margin is .02. … Top 18 skiers are within a second. … top 35 within two seconds. … Daniel Albrecht maintains the overall lead in the World Cup standings 272-259 over Didier Cuche. … Benjamin Raich is third at 255. … Jan Hudec is the top North American in the standings in sixth with 175pts. … Ted Ligety is seventh at 170pts. … Raich leads the super G standings 125-109 over Reichelt. … Aksel Svindal (injured) is third at 100. … Hudec leads North Americans in seventh with 61pts. … Top American is Steven Nyman is 23rd with 20pts. Austria leads the men's Nations Cup standings 1575-1035 over Switzerland. … The U.S. is third at 649. … Italy is fourth at 606 and Canada fifth at 492.

Official timekeeper

Did not finish 1st run : OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel (CAN), BRANCH Craig (AUS), WEIBRECHT Andrew (USA), LANNING Thomas (tj) (USA), PELLINEN Jouni (FIN), STEHLE Johannes (GER), MICKEL Finlay (GBR), HARI Konrad (SUI), VARETTONI Silvano (ITA), RAINER Niklas (SWE), NYMAN Steven (USA), GUAY Erik (CAN), DALCIN Pierre-Emmanuel (FRA)