Half way through the super combined World Cup at Beaver Creek, Colorado Friday (Dec. 4), the downhill leg, the Swiss had the top four skiers led by speed skiers Didier Defago and Didier Cuche. Carlo Janka, who owns a combined win from Wengen last season, sits third and Patrick Kueng fourth.

American Andrew Weibrecht continued to show his ability to score well regardless of start position coming from the 48th start to post the fifth best finish and Bode Miller claimed seventh despite burning his skis.

Even with the sun coming onto the Birds of Prey course at Beaver Creek temperatures remained cold enough to produce freezer burn, a problem virtually none of the down hillers escaped. The degree of damage did vary, however, and Bode’s skis were trashed enough to become difficult to control.

“I burned the edges pretty bad today. I went with a really old ski and it had a super thin edge. And when you go with a thin edge the base material takes a lot more of the friction. … It definitely sucks when you burn your edges. You feel it at the bottom … grabbing and catching. “

While Weibrecht is not renown for his slalom skills, Miller has to rank among the favorites, finishing a shade over a second off the time of Defago.

He’ll have to contend with Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud, the sixth place finishers .84 off the pace, Aksel Svindal the ninth finishers 1.16 back and top ranked slalom skiers who sat closer to two seconds back.

“I’ve got to go all out,” Miller said. “There’s not enough of a buffer right now to go ski against any of those slalom skiers.”

Julie Shipman photo