Riml: Levi racing conditions are "awesome"

LEVI, Finland — Olympic alpine combined champion Ted Ligety and six other U.S. skiers will be racing north of the Arctic Circle in Lappland this weekend as the alpine World Cup schedule opens with a slalom for women and another for men.

LEVI, Finland — Olympic alpine combined champion Ted Ligety and six other U.S. skiers will be racing north of the Arctic Circle in Lappland this weekend as the alpine World Cup schedule opens with a slalom for women and another for men.
    World Championship Sports Network, which plans to cover every World Cup race this season — including alpine, nordic, freestyle and snowboarding, will have the women's slalom Saturday and the men's slalom Sunday online at www.wscn.com from 12-3 p.m. MST.
    Unseasonally warm temperatures and then heavy rain washed out the traditional season-opening giant slaloms Oct. 28-29 in Soelden, Austria. This weekend will mark the first time the men's World Cup tour comes to Levi, about two hours north of the nordic center of Rovaniemi. The women have raced here twice — in 2004 and again last winter.
    "Conditions are awesome. We finally found some winter and we'll definitely have races," women's head coach Patrick Riml said Thursday night. "The slope is in outstanding shape. It's about minus-eight [Celsius, or the upper teens Fahrenheit] and it's supposed to stay this way into the weekend. We're excited to get going … finally."
    Lindsey Kildow, Resi Stiegler and NorAm slalom champion Sterling Grant are scheduled to race Saturday. Running Sunday will be Ligety, Bode Miller, Jimmy Cochran and Tom Rothrock.
    Kildow and Grant trained earlier this week at Keystone, Colorado, on injected snow, which was similar to what they'll have in Levi. Stiegler stayed in Europe for some additional training and came here Monday. "Resi's had two days of training and is looking pretty good," Riml said.
    Ligety, Cochran and Rothrock helped officially open Keystone's season last Friday and got in several days of race training on North Peak under the U.S. Ski Team's exclusive deal with Keystone for early season training; except for the skiers in Finland, all alpine athletes, from A team to development skiers, are training slalom and giant slalom at Keystone. Miller also stayed in Europe when Soelden was canceled so he also could get some extra training.
    "The organizers have built up the start," Riml said, "so there's a little pitch out of the start, then a little flat and a couple of rolls before a big breakover, and then it's fairly steep for about 10 gates…and then mid-steep to the finish.
    "It's a really good slalom hill. They've prepared the warmup hill, the training hill, with water so we'll have the same conditions as racing. It'll be hard and icy; it really looks good."
    After Levi, the World Cup heads for North America with the women racing next at the Sirius Satellite Radio Aspen Winternational Nov. 25-26 in Aspen, Colorado while the men race Nov. 30-Dec. 3 at the Visa Birds of Prey events in Beaver Creek, Colorado.

     Germany's Gerg may miss Levi opener
    Annemarie Gerg, who posted three top-five finishes in World Cup slaloms last season, may miss this weekend's opener in Levi, according to Eurosport.
    The 31-year-old has had a knee problem throughout the off-season.|
    "She can only function with a decreased training program," German women's coach Mathias Berthold said.
    Meanwhile Maria Riesch, who has been out since December, will make her comeback at the Finnish resort where she recorded her only World Cup slalom victory in 2004.
    The 21-year-old missed much of last season with knee and shoulder injuries, stalling her promising career.