Beaver Creek: Max is a factor, Ligety nabs 3rd, but Miller falls from GS perch

For the third time in three races at the alpine amusement park that is Birds of Prey, Bode Miller held the cards. For the second time in three days, the cards were not in his favor Saturday.     
    A swashbuckling but slow second run dropped Miller from first to 12th in the giant slalom, allowing Italian Massimiliano "Max" Blardone to nab the victory. Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal was second and Ted Ligety was third, giving the Americans four podium finishes in three days of racing in Colorado and Lake Louise.
    Swiss teammates Didier Cuche and Didier Defago were fourth and fifth, respectively, and Italian Davide Simoncelli sixth, while the struggles continued this week for the Austrians, who were led by Hermann Maier in 10th and Benni Raich in 11th.

BEAVER CREEK, Colorado — For the third time in three races at the alpine amusement park that is Birds of Prey, Bode Miller held the cards. For the second time in three days, the cards were not in his favor Saturday.     
    A swashbuckling but slow second run dropped Miller from first to 12th in the giant slalom, allowing Italian Massimiliano "Max" Blardone to nab the victory. Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal was second and Ted Ligety was third, giving the Americans five podium finishes in three days of racing in Colorado and Lake Louise.
    Swiss teammates Didier Cuche and Didier Defago were fourth and fifth, respectively, and Italian Davide Simoncelli sixth, while the struggles continued this week for the Austrians, who were led by Hermann Maier in 10th and Benni Raich in 11th.
    “Second run was much better, I had a very good feeling," Raich said. "First run I had a little mistake, it was not a good place to have a mistake, but I was very happy with my second.”
    Ligety hammered his injured right hand on a gate at the bottom of the course Saturday, but gamely held on to grab his first podium of the season and fifth of his career. He’s considered more of a slalom standout, but his first World Cup win was in a GS in South Korea last season, and a broken hand which has hindered his pole plant may help make him more of a threat in GS right now.
    “I hope it doesn’t affect me in tomorrow’s slalom,” Ligety said of his re-injured right hand. “I might get it checked out this afternoon. But it doesn’t feel the same as when I broke it. I didn’t have the same shooting pain, it was a little duller pain but it still doesn’t feel ideal.”
    Blardone, who won in a combined time of 2 minutes, 27.88 seconds, now has three career GS wins and nine career GS podiums. He was second after the first run, .09 back, but skied a clean second run in front of a massive Birds of Prey crowd, tied for fifth-fastest. “It’s not a difficult GS so it ends up being tough to win because you can’t afford to make any mistakes,” said Blardone, who added some body weight in the off-season and felt the extra weight helped him carry speed through the flatter upper section of the course. “If you make any mistake at all it’s almost impossible to regain time.”
    Svindal, winner of Thursday’s super combined, was by far the fastest in the second run, vaulting from 11th to second, just .04 out of a victory.
    “I’m trying my best,” Svindal said. “There’s a lot of stepping up to do. I just wanted to ski fast and to step up my second run. … It was one of my best GS runs, certainly since last March in Yongpyong [third place].
    But destiny was in Miller’s hands, just as it was when he dashed to the super combi lead Thursday, only to ski out in the slalom portion a few gates in. Friday, he stared down the barrel of the Birds of Prey downhill and threw down a run for the ages, claiming World Cup win No. 22.
    Saturday, having toasted the field in the first run of giant slalom, Miller needed just a solid run to maintain his podium perch. One big mistake derailed him, but Miller hung on in Miller-esque fashion to score some points.
    “I had no rhythm,” said Miller, who was visibly angry. Miller, who banged his knuckles against the gate, was examined by doctors but was uninjured, a team official said.
    “What makes him great is he takes no prisoners," USSA President Bill Marolt said."It’s just all-out every run, every gate, every day. That’s him and that’s his personality. We don’t want to change it, that’s just the way it is.”
    Miller bashed through a panel just after the Golden Eagle Jump and lost the race right there.
    “He came into the Golden Eagle Jump, went to pressure the skis and pressured them too hard, and the ski hooked up really quick and brought him right through the middle of the panel," said Mike Morin, U.S. men's tech coach. "He just made it around, but the panel came off, and he went flying down the pitch … it’s remarkable that he stayed in this race at all.”
    Morin said Miller was pushing the limits, as usual. He ended up with the fourth-slowest second run out of the 30 qualifiers. “He was putting it on the line," Morin said. "For sure, he wanted to put the screws to it and win by a lot. He wasn’t that pysched by his first run, he didn’t feel good, and I think he wanted to have a run that felt really good.”
    Still, Miller scored points that will help in the chase for the overall title.
    American Jimmy Cochran also made the second run, finishing 27th.
    "I’m excited about this team,” Marolt added. “You look at the way Schlopy skied, at least part of the first run, he’s right there. You know he’s on pace and skiing fast, and it’s just a matter of staying consistent. If we can do that, at the end of the year we will have had a really good year.”
    Ligety's continued evolution in GS is a bonus that should add to that excitement.
    “The most exciting thing for Ted,” Morin said, “was it truly took some heroic runs from Blardone, Svindal and Ted to actually be leaders in this race  — it was dark, fast, bumpy, and those guys definitely rose above the rest of the field today on that second run.
    “Sometimes when you see an athlete really develop in one discipline, their confidence carries over and they start to do things that they didn’t think was possible in their second discipline and their second discipline takes off too. Now Ted’s struggling with his hand a little bit and suddenly GS might be his strong discipline.
    “Ted’s going to be a threat in the slalom, GS and combined events week to week.”
    The 2006 Visa Birds of Prey races conclude Sunday with a two-run slalom.

— SR's Sam Flickinger, Hilary Lund and Hank McKee contributed to this report

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THE SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men’s giant slalom, Beaver Creek, Dec. 2, 2006
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Blardone, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Ligety, Rossignol/Rossignol/Ros
signol
4 Cuche, Head/Head/Tyrolia
5 Defago, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
6 Simoncelli, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
7 Palander, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
8 Schoenfelder, Fischer/Nordica/Fischer
9 Bourque, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
10 Maier, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

Men’s giant slalom, Beaver Creek, Colo., Dec. 2, 2006. … It is the sixth race of the men’s 38-event 2007 World Cup schedule. … It is the first of seven scheduled giant slaloms for the men. … It is the third of four races scheduled at Beaver Creek with a slalom remaining.
    It is the third career World Cup win for Massimiliano Blardone, all of them coming in GS. … His previous wins have come at Adelboden Jan. 11, 2005, and at Alta Badia, Dec. 18, 2005. … It is easily his strongest result at Beaver Creek, having placed no better than 13^th in the 2005 GS Dec. 3. … The last Italian GS win came from Davide Simoncelli (6^th in race) in Korean last March 4.
    It is the eighth career podium for Aksel Svindal, just his second in GS. … It is his second podium at Beaver Creek having won the combined here earlier this season. … It is the best GS performance by a Norwegian since Lasse Kjus was second at Val d’Isere Dec. 12, 2004.
    It is the fifth career World Cup podium for Ted Ligety, his second in GS. … It is his second podium at Beaver Creek as he also placed third in slalom Dec. 4, 2005. … It is the fifth podium for the U.S. in two days and for the season.
    It is the eighth career top 10 for Francois Bourque and his third career ninth-place finish. … He was sixth in GS at Beaver Creek a season ago Dec. 3, 2005. … It is the 99^th time Bode Miller has finished in the top dozen. … The winner of the GS at Beaver Creek a season ago, he had led after the first run. … It is just the third score at Beaver Creek for Thomas Grandi, his best at the site just one placing better in Dec. 2004. … It is the eighth career scoring result for Jimmy Cochran. … Both of his results at Beaver Creek are 27^th-place finishes, the other in combined earlier this week. … Five Americans were among the 22 skiers who failed to negotiate the first course.
    Winning margin was .04. … Top nine skiers were within a second. … 18 within two seconds. … Aksel Svindal leads the overall standings 221-204 over Didier Cuche (4^th in race). … Peter Fill (did not qualify for a second run) sits third. … Bode Miller leads the U.S. skier on the overall list in sixth place with 142pts. … It was the first GS, so Blardone leads those rankings.

Beaver Creek men's World Cup giant slalom results

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Run 1	Run 2	Total Time	FIS Points
1	4	292000	BLARDONE Massimiliano	1979	ITA	1:15.48	1:12.40	2:27.88	0.00
2	8	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	1:16.24	1:11.68	2:27.92	0.24
3	9	534562	LIGETY Ted	1984	USA	1:15.88	1:12.07	2:27.95	0.42
4	23	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI	1:15.82	1:12.64	2:28.46	3.45
5	17	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:16.14	1:12.51	2:28.65	4.58
6	1	292120	SIMONCELLI Davide	1979	ITA	1:15.96	1:12.70	2:28.66	4.64
7	6	180251	PALANDER Kalle	1977	FIN	1:15.63	1:13.13	2:28.76	5.24
8	11	50547	SCHOENFELDER Rainer	1977	AUT	1:15.95	1:12.83	2:28.78	5.36
9	5	102814	BOURQUE Francois	1984	CAN	1:16.29	1:12.52	2:28.81	5.53
10	2	50423	MAIER Hermann	1972	AUT	1:16.00	1:12.90	2:28.90	6.07
11	7	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	1:16.40	1:12.55	2:28.95	6.37
12	12	532431	MILLER Bode	1977	USA	1:15.39	1:13.60	2:28.99	6.61
13	18	290478	ROCCA Giorgio	1975	ITA	1:16.20	1:13.22	2:29.42	9.16
14	3	100115	GRANDI Thomas	1972	CAN	1:16.82	1:12.71	2:29.53	9.82
15	43	291768	ROBERTO Alessandro	1977	ITA	1:17.32	1:12.40	2:29.72	10.95
16	39	192506	MISSILLIER Steve	1984	FRA	1:17.92	1:11.83	2:29.75	11.13
17	22	50707	MATT Mario	1979	AUT	1:17.14	1:12.67	2:29.81	11.48
18	14	50600	GOERGL Stephan	1978	AUT	1:17.00	1:12.84	2:29.84	11.66
19	26	50451	GRUBER Christoph	1976	AUT	1:16.91	1:13.11	2:30.02	12.73
20	24	292491	MOELGG Manfred	1982	ITA	1:17.31	1:12.82	2:30.13	13.39
21	62	500656	LARSSON Markus	1979	SWE	1:17.94	1:12.22	2:30.16	13.57
22	40	201702	NEUREUTHER Felix	1984	GER	1:17.63	1:12.56	2:30.19	13.75
23	21	292250	SCHIEPPATI Alberto	1981	ITA	1:16.58	1:13.66	2:30.24	14.04
24	31	50041	WALCHHOFER Michael	1975	AUT	1:17.21	1:13.27	2:30.48	15.47
25	25	50931	BECHTER Patrick	1982	AUT	1:17.19	1:13.43	2:30.62	16.31
26	27	510993	ALBRECHT Daniel	1983	SUI	1:17.84	1:12.91	2:30.75	17.08
27	29	534040	COCHRAN Jimmy	1981	USA	1:17.65	1:13.22	2:30.87	17.79
28	28	560406	GORZA Ales	1980	SLO	1:17.06	1:13.87	2:30.93	18.15
29	36	292056	GUFLER Michael	1979	ITA	1:17.88	1:13.55	2:31.43	21.13
30	52	192653	FREY Thomas	1984	FRA	1:17.86	1:13.62	2:31.48	21.42

 

Did not start 1st run :

CHENAL Joel (FRA)

Did not finish 1st run :

FRANCIS Kevin (USA), DEVILLE Cristian (ITA), BAXTER Noel (GBR), MYHRER Andre (SWE), KARLSEN Truls Ove (NOR), UOTILA Sami (FIN), ROY Jean-Philippe (CAN), NICKERSON Warner C (USA), ROTHROCK Tom (USA), COVILI Frederic (FRA), BYGGMARK Jens (SWE), GINI Marc (SUI), ZAMANSKY Jake (USA), VAJDIC Bernard (SLO), DEFLORIAN Mirko (ITA), KUCERA John (CAN), RAJALA Jukka (FIN), SCHEIBER Mario (AUT), BERTHOD Marc (SUI), BUECHEL Marco (LIE), SCHLOPY Erik (USA), REICHELT Hannes (AUT)

Did not qualify 1st run :

MYHRE Lars Elton (NOR), RICHARD Cyprien (FRA), COUSINEAU Julien (CAN), GUAY Stefan (CAN), VALENCIC Mitja (SLO), DE TESSIERES Gauthier (FR
A), BANK Ondrej (CZE), RAINER Niklas (SWE), EISATH Florian (ITA), GUAY Erik (CAN), FANARA Thomas (FRA), FILL Peter (ITA)