Kranjska Gora: Red-hot Raich wins GS, Ligety 4th

Defending overall champion Benjamin Raich won his third straight giant slalom at Kranjska Gora on Saturday.
    The Austrian skier, who led after the first leg, crossed the finish line on the steep and deteriorating Podkoren track in a total 2 minutes, 19.03 seconds.
    Francois Bourque of Canada came in second, 0.55 seconds off the lead. Massimiliano Blardone of Italy was third, 0.57 behind.

KRANJSKA GORA, Slovenia — Defending overall champion Benjamin Raich won his third straight giant slalom at Kranjska Gora on Saturday.
    The Austrian skier, who led after the first leg, crossed the finish line on the steep and deteriorating Podkoren track in a total 2 minutes, 19.03 seconds.
    Francois Bourque of Canada came in second, 0.55 seconds off the lead. Massimiliano Blardone of Italy was third, 0.57 behind.
    Overall World Cup leader Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway and Ted Ligety of the United States tied for fourth place, 0.62 seconds off the winning pace. Bode Miller finished 13th. Andrew Weibrecht, T.J. Lanning and Jimmy Cochran did not finish the first run, while Tim Jitloff did not qualify for the second run.
    It was Raich’s 25th World Cup title and his 11th in the giant slalom.
    “This course suits me very well,” the Austrian slalom specialist said. “It wasn’t easy as the course was very soft and bumpy sometimes, but am I am always very good here.”
    Raich won his first podium at Kranjska Gora in 1999 and has won four giant slaloms since.
    Raich was looking to at least reduce Svindal’s advantage with two more stops after Kranjska Gora left on the circuit calendar.
    “My race was very good for sure,” Raich said. “I made no mistake and found a good line. I had no problems in the soft and bumpy snow.”
    With only two more stops left on the circuit calendar, Raich was closing in on his target — defending the overall crown.
    “Some of my goals have been reached today, but I still have some more to do, so I have to hold my focus in the coming races,” Raich said.
    The victory lifted Raich atop the giant slalom standings with 319 points — three more than Svindal and 19 more than of Blardone.
    He also whittled down Svindal’s lead in the overall standings. The Norwegian has 868 points — three more than Raich and 80 more than Didier Cuche of Switzerland.
    Svindal, an all-rounder, has emerged from the shadows of countrymen Lasse Kjus and Kjetil Andre Aamodt to become the first Norwegian to win the downhill at the World Championships. He also won gold in the giant slalom last month.
    Svindal and Raich appeared poised for a stiff race for the overall title last season, but Svindal dropped out after breaking a rib before Christmas, costing him valuable points.
    Raich has an opportunity to snatch the lead back in Sunday’s slalom.
    “I won my first ever podium in a slalom race here. It would be a good time to finally win one now,” the Olympic slalom champion said.

Ligety so close again
    “It was a tight one. Ted was a few hundredths away from a podium again … but he’ll get there, but keeps just missing. He did a great job, especially considering the spring conditions we’ve got here … and the flat light. I would have thought the course would break down but, again, guys from the back [five from start bib 35 and beyond] were able to punch in there,” said GS/SL head coach Mike Morin.
    “Clearly, Ted’s a threat in giant slalom. He just had a tactical mistake at the bottom of his second run or he’d have been on the podium,” Morin added. “Course reports said guys were having problems at the bottom — it’s a steep pitch in that final section — and Ted gave up his line a bit [skiing more conservatively as he rounded a couple of gates] and it cost him …
    “Bode never got his rhythm on the first run,” which, coincidentally was set by Morin, the coach said. “He missed the tempo of the rolls and then lost some time on the bottom, too.”
    Morin was hoping for colder weather overnight. “Let’s hope it at least gets down to zero [C. or 32 F.] so the [chemicals] in the snow can have an effect. Otherwise, it’ll be really — really! — slushy for that slalom in the morning,” he said.

THE SCOOP
By Hank McKee

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Equipment
Men's GS, Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, March 3, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Bourque, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
3 Blardone, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Ligety, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
6 Cuche, Head/Head/Tyrolia
7 Reichelt, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
8 Gruber, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
9 Scheiber, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
10 Chenal, Fischer/Lange/Look

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Men's giant slalom, Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, March 3, 2007. … It is the 28th race of the men's 38-race World Cup schedule. … It is the fifth of seven orifinally scheduled men's GS's, with the opener at Sölden having been canceled. … One GS remains to be contested. … It is the 61st World Cup race at Kranjska Gora. … The 27th men's GS.
    It is the 27th career World Cup win for Benjamin Raich, tying him with Phil Mahre for 15th all-time. … It is his 11 career GS win, tying him with Gustavo Thoeni and Anja Paerson for 12th all-time. … It is his fourth win of the season, and second in GS, the first coming at Adelboden Jan. 6. … He is both the overall and GS defending champion.
    It is the fourth career podium for Francois Bourque and matches his career-best placing from Hinterstoder GS Dec. 21 this season. … It is the 12th Canadian podium of the season. … The second in GS, both from Bourque. … Only Allison Forsyth, Thomas Grandi, Nancy Greene, Kathy Kreiner or Genevieve Simard have more Canadian GS podiums.
    It is the 11th career World Cup podium for Massimiliano Blardone. … All in GS. … It is his third podium of the season. … It is his second career podium at Kranjska Gora, having been second Dec. 21, 2005.
    It is the 10th top-five result for Ted Ligety. … His third in GS. … He was second in slalom at Kranjska Gora on Dec. 22, 2005. … It is the third time he has placed fourth this season, including in combined at Reiteralm Dec. 10 and in the World Championship GS Feb. 14. … He also has two podiums this season. … It is the fourth-best of five completed GS's this season for Bode Miller. … He was second at Alta Badia, fourth at Hinterstoder and 12th at Beaver Creek. … It is the third-best of four GS results this season for Thomas Grandi. … He was 14th at Beaver Creek, 15th at Alta Badia.
    Raich takes over first place in the GS standings, holding a 319-316 edge over Aksel Svindal (fourth in race). … Massimiliano Blardone is third in the GS rankings at 300. … Francois Bourque is the
top North American in fifth at 213 and Ted Ligety is sixth at 186. … Svindal still holds the overall standings lead but it has shrunk to three points, now standing at 868-865 over Raich. … Didier Cuche (sixth in race) is third at 788. … Bode Miller is fourth overall with 663 points. … Winning margin is .55 of a second. … Top six are within the same second. … Top 17 skiers within two seconds. 

Kranjska Gora men's World Cup giant slalom results

Did not finish 1st run:
WEIBRECHT Andrew (USA), BIGGS Patrick (CAN), COCHRAN Jimmy (USA), MYHRER Andre (SWE), NORDH Fredrik (SWE), FREY Thomas (FRA), JANKA Carlo (SUI), ZACH Michael (AUT), STRUGER Peter (AUT), LANNING Thomas (tj) (USA), NEUREUTHER Felix (GER), DE TESSIERES Gauthier (FRA), EISATH Florian (ITA), LARSSON Markus (SWE), ROY Jean-Philippe (CAN), MISSILLIER Steve (FRA), KUCERA John (CAN), BERTHOD Marc (SUI), BUECHEL Marco (LIE), SCHIEPPATI Alberto (ITA), DEFAGO Didier (SUI), ALBRECHT Daniel (SUI)

Did not qualify 2nd run:
NOBLE Andrew (GBR), SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier (ARG), SENONER Lucas (ITA), PLONER Alexander (ITA), KANTOLA Petteri (FIN), MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas (FRA), NILSEN Andreas (NOR), JITLOFF Tim (USA), PITTSCHIELER Kurt (ITA), BANK Ondrej (CZE), GINI Marc (SUI)