Copper time trial helps decide Levi starters Tuesday

The finish line at the Levi World Cup in Finland. GEPA

The U.S. start list for the men’s Levi World Cup slalom opener was settled by time trial at Copper Mountain Tuesday. Will Gregorak, Tim Kelley and Michael Ankeny — finishing in that order — were fastest of seven vying for the three spots. They’ll join Ted Ligety, David Chodounsky Nolan Kasper and Will Brandenburg in the Arctic Circle on Nov. 16.

Robby Kelley, Andrew McNealus, Mark Engel and Hig Roberts rounded out the field. Times were reported to be relatively close, aside from McNealus who failed to finish either of the two runs. The major separators came in the form of a fast first run for Tim Kelley and a fast second run for Gregorak — other than that, it was fairly bunched together.

“All seven guys were fast enough to go,” said Tim Kelley, who qualified second. “All seven guys are skiing awesome. I’m sure all seven of us will start a World Cup this season.”

The race was decided in a best-two-of-three-runs format. The first running order went off FIS points; second run was reverse finish order, and third run was random pull out of a hat. The course was nearly full-length running 47-48 seconds in total.

Tim Kelley in the 2008 Levi World Cup. GEPA

A slalom time trial is typical this time of year in helping determine the starters in Levi.

“I like it,” said Tim Kelley. “I like having three runs because if you make a mistake on one run it doesn’t really kill you. It allows guys to go for it a little more and hang it out there more. The only bummer is it’s Colorado. The snow is way different than Levi, so you could have a guy skiing really well on harder snow but didn’t get to go because of the grippier Colorado snow.”

For Kelley, it will be just his second start in Levi. The other came is 2008. “Time goes by fast,” he said. “I love the hill there. It’s just full gas. It’s pretty easy up top and you can just really hammer. It’s a got a steep pitch down into the finish and it’s just a really cool spot up in the Arctic Circle.”