By Hank McKee
SkiRacing.com

Ivica Kostelic wants to hang on to the World Cup lead. Friday (Jan. 14) he blasted the soft, slushy slalom leg of the Lauberhorn super combined at Wengen Switzerland for his third World Cup win of January, padding his lead in the overall standings.

Fifth after the morning’s downhill run, the Croat skier was more than a half second faster in the slalom set by his father than American Ted Ligety, the second fastest in the tight gates.

Ligety had been 23rd after the downhill leg and finished ninth. Bode Miller, winner of the combined at Wengen last season finished sixth, his second best finish of the season after a third in the parallel city event in Munich Jan.2. Tim Jitloff posted 24th, for his first World Cup combined score.

A popular second on the day was Swiss Carlo Janka, winner of the event in 2009, and runner up last season as well. Third went to Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal. The winner of the downhill leg, Italian Christof Innerhofer was fourth while Benjamin Raich, a five time winner at Wengen, was fifth

For Kostelic, never better than fourth in combined at Wengen previously, the win gave him a little breathing room ahead of Svindal in the season long fight for the World Cup overall title. He leads 504-435. He gained the lead in the slalom at Adelboden Jan. 9, marking the ninth lead change of the season.

“I’ve been on a good wave since Munich,” said Kostelic, “These two weeks have been the most successful of my career.” But he was along way from making any predictions of the outcome of the overall World Cup. “I have opportunities like everyone else,” he said. “Aksel (Svindal) can get some good points in the combination now. We’ll go to the end of January and then we’ll see.”

Janka made the best of his second place finish calling it a “good omen.” He was second to Miller in last season’s combined and then won the downhill the next day.

Ligety pulled no punches in his assessment of the slalom hill the Maennluchen. “The course is just bottomless slush,” Ligety said. “If you had powder skis on it would be like skiing corn. I was lucky to be one of the first guys down it.”

He said the conditions helped in one regard, taking the edge off of the notoriously tricky Ante Kostelic slalom set. “With how bad the snow is, it kind of lessens the difficulty of the course, the snow is so hard to push on.”

Miller said the soft snow probably helped him as well. “I got a little unlucky in that my buckle came undone up on top, but it was really soft anyway,” indicating the need for precision in equipment wasn’t as critical as on a hard surface.

He said he was looking forward to Saturday’s downhill, though he wasn’t yet sure what skis he would be using. “We’ve been sort of jumping back and forth with our equipment,” he said. “I skied pretty well today, so I feel pretty comfortable with where the course is at, but you’ve got to hit the top flats well.”

Ligety said he would run the downhill Saturday as well, his first downhill of the season.

“I wasn’t very pleased with my downhill (in the combined) I feel I have a lot more potential than that and I had a bunch of mistakes, too. … Yeah, I think I’m going to race.”

“The guys skied solid in both the downhill and slalom,” said U.S. Head Coach Sasha Rearick. “Those were tough conditions in the second run slalom. when Ted (Ligety) went it was still really soft. It got good toward the end for Bode; (he had) decent speed but not the speed he knows he’s got.

Rearick said Steven Nyman “has stepped up as the leader of the (DH) group and is skiing well. Hopefully he’s be ready to go. He got a little tweak today (his back was sore after a DH crash). He’s in therapy right now, so I hope he’d ready to go tomorrow.”

As for other downhill prospects, Rearick said, “Bode’s been skiing good; just got to find that extra gear. Ted’s going to run the downhill and Travis Ganong, who has been making steps each say. And Wiley Maple is running his first (World Cup) downhill so that will be exciting for him. It’s going to be warm again, so start numbers will be important so we hope for good numbers tonight (in the bib draw).”

Gepa photo

The SCOOP

Men’s combined, Wengen Switzerland, Jan. 14, 2011
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
2 Janka, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Svindal, Head/Head/Head
4 Innerhofer, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
5 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6 Miller, Head/Head/Head
7 Theaux, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
8 Jansrud, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
9 Ligety, Head/Head/Head
10 Bank, Elan/Nordica/Elan

Men’s World Cup super combined, Wengen, Switzerland, Jan. 14, 2011. … It is the opening race of three of the 81st Lauberhorn. … It is the 18th of 39 races on the men’s 2011 World Cup schedule. … The 16th held. … It is the first of four scheduled combineds. … It is the 90th World Cup race held (at least in part) at Wengen. … the 21st World Cup combined. … The last six winners of the Lauberhorn combined are in attendance (Bode Miller, Carlo Janka, Jean-Baptiste Grange and Benjamin Raich twice.)

It is the 14th career win for Ivica Kostelic and his third at Wengen having won the slalom in 2002 and 2010. … It is his third combined win, the others at Kitzbuehel Jan. 24, 2010 and Reiteralm Dec. 10, 2006. … It is also his third win of the season having won the parallel city event at Munich and the Adelboden slalom. … Winning margin was .58. … Just the top two were within the same second.

It is the 16th career World Cup podium result for Carlo Janka. … his fifth in combined. … It is his third combined win at Wengen having won in 2009 and placing second last season. … It is his second podium of the season having placed second in SG at Lake Louise Nov. 28.

It is the 33rd World Cup podium for Aksel Lund Svindal. … his fifth in combined. … It is his first career podium at Wengen. … his previous best had been eighth scored four times, three in combined and once in DH.

It is the 109th top six in World Cup racing for Bode Miller. … He has tallied eight podiums at Wengen including two wins in DH and one in combined (last season). … It is his second best result of the season after the third in Munich. … It is the 67th top ten for Ted Ligety. … It is his sixth best career combined result. … It is his third best combined result at Wengen. … He was fifth in both 2008 and 2010. … He matches his sixth best result of the season after three wins and a sixth in slalom at Zagreb. … It is the first score of the season for Ryan Semple. … And the first career result for Dustin Cook. … They are the
20 and 21st Canadians to score this season. … It is the first career combined score for Tim Jitloff and his second tally of the season having been 23rd in GS at Beaver Creek Dec. 5.

Kostelic leads the World Cup overall standings 604-495 over Aksel Lund Svindal. … Silvan Zurbriggen (14th in race) is third overall with 439pts. … Ligety is the top American in fifth place with 408pts. … Manny Osborne-Paradis (did not race) is the top Canadian overall in 32nd place with 116pts. … Austria leads the men’s Nations Cup 2624-1731 over Switzerland. … France is third at 1342. … The U.S. is sixth with 758pts and Canada ninth with 615pts.