Nolan KasperNolan Kasper continued a streak of top competitive results coming from the U.S. men’s Europa Cup team by nabbing second today (Jan. 16) in a slalom at Kirchberg.

Kasper finished second to French racer Alexis Pinturault, the Europa Cup overall leader. Norway’s Leif Kristian Haugen got third. Andrew Phillips of the U.S. was 19th. The only other American to finish the race was Tommy Ford in 33rd.

But the team as a whole has been “on fire,” something not even the stead rainfall has been able to extinguish.

Tim Jitloff just missed making it a two podium, two day stop at Kirchberg, placing fourth in the GS yesterday. Kasper sits sixth overall and second behind Jens Byggmark of Sweden in slalom. The U.S. has ten men who have scored EC points this season.

“You watch them as a group and then watch others and in slalom our guys appear to have speed,” says EC coach Forest Carey.

Like much of Europe Kirchberg was struggling with weather. Carey said the group had gotten in three days of training before the skys opened up and it poured rain for two days. “There’s not a lot of snow left on the mountains,” he said, “and it’s barely below freezing at night.”

The group has been rotating in and out between the World Cup and the Europa Cup with some frequency. 

“World Cup starts are pretty tight,” Carey said. “When (Will) Brandenburg scored at Adelboden and Daver (Chodounsky) at Zagreb that created another spot. Until then they were pretty tight. Nolan (Kasper) has his own from the Nor-Ams, so I think we’re up to seven spots.”

He said Kasper “has been battling a little bit (on the World Cup) so he skipped Wengen. There was a nice Europa Cup slalom series so he got some good start positions and could battle to win some races and not get ground down by the World Cup with the tough start numbers. Sometime it can breathe some fresh air into you.”

He said the group was fast, particularly in slalom, but said that Kasper was the steadiest performer. “Brandenburg and (Colby) Granstrom have lightening speed, but they can be a little erratic.”

Still the coach is looking for more results from the group, and not all of them under his charge. Some of those results, he expects, will come at the World Cup level. -HM

Nolan Kasper photo from Zagreb by GEPA

Place   Kirchberg
(AUT)		   Discipline   Slalom
Date   16.01.2011   Category   European Cup
Race codex   0145   Gender   M
Valid for FIS Points   YES   TD Name   Menestrina Daniel (ITA)
       
  
Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Run 1 Run 2 Total Time FIS Points
 1  3  194364 PINTURAULT Alexis  1991  FRA   49.33  53.38  1:42.71  6.95
 2  7  532138 KASPER Nolan  1989  USA   49.73  53.51  1:43.24  10.10
 3  1  421669 HAUGEN Leif Kristian  1987  NOR   49.85  53.84  1:43.69  12.77
 4  2  193967 MUFFAT JEANDET Victor  1989  FRA   50.01  54.44  1:44.45  17.28
 5  36  193986 PLACE Francois  1989  FRA   52.00  52.67  1:44.67  18.59
 6  42  201891 SCHMID Philipp  1986  GER   51.71  53.30  1:45.01  20.61
 7  9  220083 BAXTER Noel  1981  GBR   50.59  54.54  1:45.13  21.32
 8  54  180534 SANDELL Marcus  1987  FIN   53.32  52.21  1:45.53  23.70
 9  22  511574 TUMLER Marco  1988  SUI   52.08  53.55  1:45.63  24.29
 10  13  201896 STEHLE Dominik  1986  GER   51.61  54.11  1:45.72  24.83
 11  30  51395 DIGRUBER Marc  1988  AUT   51.66  54.10  1:45.76  25.06
 12  28  511702 LUESCHER Tim  1990  SUI   52.28  53.50  1:45.78  25.18
 13  20  501401 SAXVALL Per  1989  SWE   52.13  53.75  1:45.88  25.78
 14  25  511217 CUCHE Dimitri  1985  SUI   53.23  52.68  1:45.91  25.95
 15  10  294890 NANI Roberto  1988  ITA   51.20  54.90  1:46.10  27.08
 16  21  193866 BLANC Norman  1989  FRA   52.46  53.75  1:46.21  27.74
 17  56  220689 RYDING David  1986  GBR   53.16  53.15  1:46.31  28.33
 18  39  421849 JOHANSEN Truls  1989  NOR   52.27  54.08  1:46.35  28.57
 19  43  532554 PHILLIPS Andrew  1989  USA   53.80  52.61  1:46.41  28.92
 20  53  53922 WIESER Manuel  1990  AUT   53.22  53.23  1:46.45  29.16
 21  29  194495 FAIVRE Mathieu  1992  FRA   52.68  53.91  1:46.59  29.99
 22  73  421791 STAURSET Bjoern Tore  1988  NOR   53.42  53.64  1:47.06  32.78
 23  6  511908 SCHMIDIGER Reto  1992  SUI   54.29  54.26  1:48.55  41.63
 24  60  92534 CHONGAROV Nikola  1989  BUL   54.07  55.11  1:49.18  45.38
 25  23  421828 BUDAL Martin  1989  NOR   54.99  55.12  1:50.11  50.90
 26  69  180666 TORSTI Samu  1991  FIN   54.27  56.01  1:50.28  51.91
 27  104  53985 MATHIS Marcel  1991  AUT   54.55  55.89  1:50.44  52.86
 28  72  194262 BUFFET Robin  1991  FRA   54.80  55.66  1:50.46  52.98
 29  45  501458 LINDH Calle  1990  SWE   53.85  56.72  1:50.57  53.63
 30  80  531156 TARBERRY Ace  1988  USA   54.61  56.10  1:50.71  54.46
 31  84  180703 PALONIEMI Santeri  1993  FIN   54.63  56.12  1:50.75  54.70
 32  79  561161 JAZBEC Patrick  1989  SLO   54.96  56.23  1:51.19  57.31
 33  33  531799 FORD Tommy  1989  USA   52.40  59.46  1:51.86  61.29
 34  100  54077 KRAUTSCHNEIDER Thomas  1992  AUT   55.42  57.54  1:52.96  67.83
 35  107  54062 FEIERSINGER Christian  1992  AUT   56.15  58.02  1:54.17  75.01
 36  98  103752 TROW Andy  1991  CAN   57.47  57.69  1:55.16  80.89
 37  31  40349 RISHWORTH Mike  1987  AUS   57.19  58.90  1:56.09  86.41
 38  96  103725 PEDERSEN Cody  1991  CAN   58.54  59.02  1:57.56  95.14
Did not start 2nd run
   14  200337 LIEBL Sebastian  1989  GER         
Did not start 1st run
   102  103512 FRISCH Jeffrey  1984  CAN         
   94  511718 PLEISCH Manuel  1990  SUI         
   83  561032 JAZBEC Janez  1984  SLO         
Did not finish 2nd run
   95  150834 ZIKA Adam  1989  CZE         
   91  990116 DE ALIPRANDINI Luca  1990  ITA         
   89  103676 BROWN Philip  1991  CAN         
   76  103865 PHILP Trevor  1992  CAN         
   74  990081 CASSE Mattia  1990  ITA         
   52  290095 BALLERIN Andrea  1989  ITA         
   50  534507 CHRISTIANSON Charles  1984  USA         
   48  934502 ANKENY Michael  1991  USA         
   41  193087 SORREL Sebastien  1985  FRA         
   18  53853 SIEBER Bjoern  1989  AUT         
   17  51159 NOESIG Christoph  1985  AUT         
   5  930107 GREGORAK Will  1990  USA         
   4  511504 BONER Sandro  1988  SUI         
Did not finish 1st run
   106  220908 GEYER Jai  1990  GBR         
   105  54099 MAYRPETER Thomas  1992  AUT         
   103  6290440 ZINGERLE Alex  1992  ITA         
   101  690571 ROMANO Francesco  1991  ITA         
   99  990128 DI RONCO Jacopo  1990  ITA         
   97  92562 PRISADOV Stefan  1990  BUL         
   93  54031 LEITINGER Roland  1991  AUT         
   92  54027 BRENNSTEINER Stefan  1991  AUT         
   90  54063 FELLER Manuel  1992  AUT         
   88  511902 ZENHAEUSERN Ramon  1992  SUI         
   87  511753 ANTHAMATTEN Gabriel  1991  SUI         
   86  100010 ALEXANDER Sean  1989  CAN         
   85  40332 STEVENS Hugh  1986  AUS         
   82  421946 KRISTIANSEN Emil Bjoertomt  1990  NOR         
   81  294348 PERAUDO Adam  1987  ITA         
   78  934518 DANIELS Nick  1991  USA         
   77  501439 HEDIN Doglas  1990  SWE         
   75  501442 HOEGBOM Nils  1990  SWE         
   71  103729 READ Erik  1991  CAN         
   70  511983 AERNI Luca  1993  SUI         
   68  54107 CALOVINI Mathias  1992  AUT         
   67  194167 MUZATON Maxence  1990  FRA         
   66  53968 BERTHOLD Frederic  1991  AUT         
   65  60160 ALAERTS Kai  1989  BEL         
   64  561134 VELECIC Tomaz  1987  SLO         
   63  90131 GEORGIEV Georgi  1987  BUL         
   62  422082 SOLEVAAG Sebastian-Foss  1991  NOR         
   61  561191 GASPERIN Timi  1990  SLO         
   59  481006 ZUEV Stepan  1988  RUS         
   58  294221 FERRARINI Marco  1987  ITA         
   57  53889 HIRSCHBUEHL Christian  1990  AUT         
   55  103646 ZAITSOFF Sasha  1990  CAN         
   51  193228 GARDET Benjamin  1986  FRA         
   49  421750 HAUG Kristian  1988  NOR         
   47  534959 JITLOFF Tim  1985  USA         
   46  501203 SOEDERBERG Fredrik  1986  SWE         
   44  302982 OHKOSHI Ryunosuke  1988  JPN         
   40  54006 TIPPELREITHER Lukas  1991  AUT         
   38  103078 DONALDSON David  1986  CAN         
   37  180627 MALMSTROM Victor  1991  FIN         
   35  560371 DRAGSIC Mitja  1979  SLO         
   34  930105 GRANSTROM Colby  1990  USA         
   32  501255 OEHAGEN Johan  1987  SWE         
   27  501557 PIETILAE HOLMNER Johan  1991  SWE         
   26  511513 CAVIEZEL Mauro  1988  SUI         
   24  51050 BRENNER Hannes  1984  AUT         
   19  480736 KHOROSHILOV Alexander  1984  RUS         
   16  500909 ANDERSSON Oscar  1982  SWE         
   15  990048 BORSOTTI Giovanni  1990  ITA         
   12  194212 THOULE Nicolas  1990  FRA         
   11  202462 DOPFER Fritz  1987  GER         
   8  421954 LYSDAHL Espen  1990  NOR       

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About the Author: Hank McKee

In memoriam: The veteran of the staff, McKee started with Ski Racing in 1980. Over the seasons, he covered virtually every aspect of the sport, from the pro tours to junior racing, freestyle and World Cup alpine competition. He wrote the first national stories for many U.S. team stars, and was still around to report on their retirements. “Longevity has its rewards,” he said, “but it’s a slow process.”

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