Schlopy rips at Keystone; Hitchcock earns podium

Italy’s Alessandro Roberto recorded the fastest first run and held on in the second run to win a Super Series NorAm giant slalom Tuesday at Keystone Resort. U.S. Ski Team racer Katie Hitchcock had a terrific first run and overcame some second-run trouble to finish third in a Super Series NorAm slalom Tuesday at Winter Park.

KEYSTONE, Colorado — Italy’s Alessandro Roberto recorded the fastest first run and held on in the second run to win a Super Series NorAm giant slalom Tuesday at Keystone Resort. Roberto repeated his GS victory from Monday.
    American veteran Erik Schlopy had the fastest second run to vault into fifth place, while Roger Brown was 11th and Warner Nickerson 15th.
    Roberto, who has two career World Cup top 10s in GS, managed a two-run time of 2 minutes, 27.84 seconds, almost a second faster than Steve Missilier of France (2:28.62). Frenchmen Gauthier DeTessieres and Joel Chenal tied for third in 2:28.76.
    Other leading American finishers were Tim Kelley (20th), Will Brandenburg (21st), Adam Cole (22nd) and Scott Veenis (26th).
    After receiving 4 inches of new snow early this morning, the Keystone team quickly cleared the course of snow and the competition was delayed only 15 minutes. After locking into second place during the first run of the day, Tim Jitloff was going for it on his second run when he made a tactical error and skied ofof course. Colorado native Jake Zamansky, third in Monday’s giant slalom, did not race.
    The Super Series shifts to slalom racing Wednesday and Thursday.

Hitchcock podiums in Winter Park
    U.S. Ski Team racer Katie Hitchcock had a terrific first run and overcame some second-run trouble to finish third in a Super Series NorAm slalom Tuesday at Winter Park.
    Just 12th-fastest in the second run (unofficially), Hitchcock was third in the first run to join Slovakia’s Veronika Zuzulova and Austrian star Kathrin Zettel on the podium. Zuzulova had the fastest second run to win in a combined time of 1:40.14, with Zettel, winner of the Aspen GS on Saturday, second in 1:40.59.
    Caitlin Ciccone was fifth, Kaylin Richardson eighth, Jessica Kelley 16th and Jamie Kingsbury 18th. Other top Americans were Hailey Duke (20th), Laurel Carter (22nd), Megan McJames (25th) and Courtney Hammond (27th).
    "It snowed lightly all the way," U.S. women's slalom/GS head coach Chris Knight said, "but conditions were really good. Winter Park prepared a good course and even with the snow it was a fair race. Katie had two solid runs, Caitlin was right in there, too, and so was Kaylin … and Jess started 38th, so she moved up nicely. I think they're in a good place now, but the Europa Cup girls struggled, so they've got to pick it up in the next races."
    The women run another slalom Wednesday at Winter Park before switching to two days of giant slalom competition. The Chevrolet Super Series represents the U.S. races in the NorAm Cup schedule.