Super G Sunday: Maier wins Garmisch, clinches super G title; Rahlves 13th

Super G Sunday: Maier wins Garmisch, clinches super G title; Rahlves 13thHermann Maier clinched the super G World Cup title and captured the lead in the overall standings with a super G win Sunday at Garmisch, one of his favorite courses.

“It´s a special place for me,” said Maier. “Garmisch is where I won my first race.”

France’s Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin, who set the early pace with a great run, settled for a surprise second place, just 0.07 seconds back in 1:18.16. Swiss Tobias Gruenenfelder was third.

The race was one of the season´s shortest, at just under 1:20. A warm wind blew into town the night before the race, bringing out a large crowd, which included the injured American Erik Schlopy and his girlfriend.

The conditions also softened the course overnight. A hole developed on the hard, right-footed cranker near the finish (in a section that on the downhill course is called “Hell”)and tripped up several racers, including Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves.

Rahlves was tops for the U.S. in 13th, with Miller 17th, Jake Fiala 25th and Bryon Friedman 35th.

Rahlves and Friedman are suffering from head colds and sore throats that have afflicted the American team.

“I was feeling good but also a little beat,” Rahlves said, explaining that finishing second Friday in the first of two downhills took a lot out of him on top of the cold he’s fought in the past week. “[Saturday in the second downhill] I had nothing. It was a battle. Today, I had a little more punch at the top.”

However, Rahlves said, he got off-line on a jump in the middle of the course and couldn’t make up time at the bottom.

“I’m dragging right now,” he said, adding he plans to take a couple of down-time days to decide if he’ll run in the next race, a giant slalom in Adelboden next weekend, because he wants to be ready for a downhill February 14 in St. Anton, Austria. “That’s one I’ll be ready for,” Rahlves said.

“Overall, I haven´t been happy with the way Garmisch has treated me,” said Miller. “But it´s never treated me well, so I´m not surprised.”

Maier, who burst into the limelight with a super G win in this Bavarian Alps resort in 1997, knocked teammate Benjamin Raich off the top of the standings with his third win of the season.

Raich crashed out on the lower section of a tricky course, catching his edge just as he went over a knoll, landing hard and sliding until he hit the safety netting lining the piste. He skied away under his own power, but only after standing and sitting and standing again, apparently dazed from the impact.

Two hours after the race was over, the Austrian federation released a statement saying that Raich may have suffered a concussion and will spend the next few days resting at home.

Maier had a winning time of 1:18.09 on a rough, icy Kandahar course. With just two super G events remaining on the schedule, Maier is assured of winning that discipline title, with 420 points. The only skier with a mathematical chance to catch him is Norway’s Lasse Kjus, with 230 points, but Kjus had season-ending knee surgery last week in Oslo.

It was an excellent day for Salomon, with two athletes on the podium, Dalcin and Gruenenfelder.

Alpine World Cup

Men’s Super G

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

February 1, 2004

1. Hermann Maier (Austria) 1:18.09

2. Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin (France) 1:18.16

3. Tobias Gruenenfelder (Switzerland) 1:18.46

4. Andreas Schifferer (Austria) 1:18.54

5. Patrik Jaerbyn (Sweden) 1:18.64

6. Didier Cuche (Switzerland) 1:18.67

7. Stephan Goergl (Austria) 1:18.71

8. Bruno Kernen (Switzerland) 1:18.73

9. Stephan Eberharter (Austria) 1:18.78

10. Fritz Strobl (Austria) 1:18.88

11. Hans Knauss (Austria) 1:18.89

12. Hannes Trinkl (Austria) 1:18.94

13. Daron Rahlves (U.S.) 1:18.95

14. Bjarne Solbakken (Norway) 1:18.98

15. Peter Fill (Italy) 1:18.99

16. Didier Defago (Switzerland) 1:19.02

17. Bode Miller (U.S.) 1:19.15

18. Aksel Lund Svindal (Norway) 1:19.27

19. Johann Grugger (Austria) 1:19.56

20. Stefan Stankalla (Germany) 1:19.64

21. Paul Accola (Switzerland) 1:19.65

22. Arnold Rieder (Italy) 1:19.68

23. Francois Bourque (Canada) 1:19.76

24. Ambrosi Hoffmann (Switzerland) 1:19.80

25. Jakub Fiala (U.S.) 1:19.84

26. Alessandro Fattori (Italy) 1:19.90

27. David Anderson (Canada) 1:19.96

28. Vincent Lavoie (Canada) 1:20.11

29. Florian Eckert (Germany) 1:20.29

30. Roland Fischnaller (Italy) 1:20.34

Other North Americans:

35. Bryon Friedman (U.S) 1:20.80

DNF: Brad Spence (Canada)

THE SCOOP

> by Hank McKee

Equipment, Men’s Super G

Garmisch, Germany, February 1, 2004

Skier, skis/boots/bindings

1 Maier, Atomic/Lange/Atomic

2 Dalcin, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

3 Gruenenfelder, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

4 Schifferer, Atomic/Lange/Atomic

5 Jaerbyn, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

6 Cuche, Atomic/Lange/Atomic

7 Goergl, Atomic/Lange/Atomic

8 Kernen, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

9 Eberharter, Atomic/Lange/Atomic

10 Strobl, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

The 26th of 36 scheduled men’s races, and the fifth of seven scheduled super G’s. … It’s the 19th win of the season for Atomic skis. … The top 16 racers were in the same second.

It’s the 45th career win for Hermann Maier and his 19th in SG, adding to his World Cup record total for wins in the discipline. … It’s his third win of the season, and his third SG win at Garmisch, but the first since 1998. … He’s one win away from matching Marc Girardelli for third on the alltime men’s World Cup win list. … It’s the 17th win of the season for the Austrians.

A career-first podium for Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin. … His previous best was fifth, also in super G, also at Garmisch, a year ago (2/23/03). … It’s the second career podium for Tobias Gurenenfelder; the other was also a third place, in the same Garmisch race last year (2/23/03)

Th 15th scoring result of the season for Daron Rahlves. … Although Rahlves has two podiums from Garmisch, both are in DH and his best SG result at the German site is seventh from 1998. … It was the 14th career scoring finish in SG for Bode Miller; his best finish in the discipline is sixth. … It’s his 18th scoring result of the season and matches his best SG result of the season, from Val Gardena. … It was the fourth scoring result of the season for Jakub Fiala, the third in SG.

Francois Bourque gets the first World Cup points of his career in his 10th start. … He was the World Junior gold medalist last season. … It was also the first World Cup points of David Anderson’s career, in his 11th start. … The seventh scoring finish of the season for Vincent Lavoie.

Maier takes over the lead for men’s overall 922-918 over Benjamin Raich, who raced but failed to finish. … Miller leads the U.S. in fifth place at 772. … Maier also holds the super G lead 420-230 over Lasse Kjus; with Kjus out for the season and no one else within 200 points with two races left, Maier has clinched the SG title. … Rahlves leads U.S. skiers in third at 218.

Austria stretches its overall Nations Cup lead to 12,312-3710 over Switzerland. … The U.S. (3444) is fourth behind Italy (3521). … Austria leads the men’s standings 7691-2154 for Italy. … The U.S. men are fifth at 1799.