Val d'Isere: Raich claims first combined of season

Benjamin Raich claimed the first combined of the 2008-09 World Cup season with a strong slalom run that let him overtake the best of the super G skiers on the day. The home standing Jean-Baptiste Grange grabbed second with Austrian Marcel Hirscher, from the 52nd start, collecting third.

Ted Ligety had been tied with Raich for fourth after the super G, but struggled mightily in the slalom, ending up near the bottom of the finish order.

A tight-set super G course that racers inspected in a thick fog took a heavy toll on the field with five of the first seven skiers out failing to finish. By the time the slalom started at 3:45 in the French afternoon 16 skiers had already been eliminated, including World Cup leader Aksel Svindal, defending combined champ Bode Miller, Didier Cuche and the bulk of the Americans.

 

Benjamin Raich claimed the first combined of the 2008-09 World Cup season with a strong slalom run that let him overtake the best of the super G skiers on the day. The home standing Jean-Baptiste Grange grabbed second with Austrian Marcel Hirscher, from the 52nd start, collecting third.

Ted Ligety had been tied with Raich for fourth after the super G, but struggled mightily in the slalom, ending up near the bottom of the finish order.

A tight-set super G course that racers inspected in a thick fog took a heavy toll on the field with five of the first seven skiers out failing to finish. By the time the slalom started at 3:45 in the French afternoon 16 skiers had already been eliminated, including World Cup leader Aksel Svindal, defending combined champ Bode Miller, Didier Cuche and the bulk of the Americans.

The afternoon slalom, held under the lights as daylight began to dwindle on a steep slope, took another 13 skiers from the finish list. With several skiers electing not to compete in the slalom portion, a DQ and three skiers not being close enough to the leaders to score, but 24 skiers earned any World Cup points.

The Bellevard course was run last season, but it is still new to racers in many ways. That had much to do with the larger than usual number of DNF’s according to Svindal.

“No one really knew what to expect, essentially, we were skiing sort of blind because we couldn’t see a lot this morning during inspection because of the fog,” explained Svindal. “I was pushing hard yet to check my limits on this course which I did not race last season. It surely didn’t work out the way I hoped.
 

Another factor may have been jet lag, something Raich said kept him feeling less than peak. Having won the preceeding race, a GS, in Beaver Creek, helped his confidence, he said, but also told austrian reporters, “In the super G I did not feel good. … The snow was difficult. It was completely important to fight all the way.”

For Ligety the missed opportunity was a bitter pill, but he remains highly optimistic about his chances in GS on this same Bellevard slope.

“I’m not so much disappointed as I am annoyed,” he said. It’s not so much fun when you are in a good place after the super G and then you come down and don’t capitalize. It wasn’t so easy because it was so tight and the snow was so inconsistent.”

Val d’Isere had been hit hard with snows up until Thursday night when it stopped. Slippers worked the course through out the night. Heavy fog delayed the super G start an hour and officials set the slalom for 3:45pm, pressing the daylight envelope, but also providing a chance to test the lighting system in place for February’s World Championships.

“Ted skied awesome in the super G,” said U.S. coach Sasha Rearick. “He skied technically well, tactically well, I was really pleased with his skiing today.  In the slalom he was skiing safe, and I honestly don’t know what happened there on that one gate over the roller. But he’s skiing well, he’s skiing GS well, he’s confident. He’s got a good bib number for tomorrow so he should be good.”

Rearick also said the GS track was so steep it would be difficult not to set a course a bit tighter than the World Cup norm.

 

 

 

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The SCOOP
Equipment

Men’s super combined, Val d’Isere, France, Dec. 12, 2008

1 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

2 Grange, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

3 Hirscher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

4 Larsson, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

5 Zurbriggen, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol

6 Viletta, Nordica/Nordica/Marker

7 Fill, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

8 Janka, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

9 Kryzl, Elan//Elan

10 Zrncic-Dim, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

Men’s super combined, Val d’Isere, France, Dec. 12, 2008. … It is the eighth race of the men’s 38 race 2008-09 World Cup schedule. … The first of four scheduled combineds. … The race was originally scheduled at Beaver Creek Dec. 4. … It is the first race of a three race weekend set at Val d’Isere for the men. … Val d’Isere is also the World Championships with racing beginning Feb. 3. … It is the 145th World Cup hosted – at least in part – by Val d’Isere. … The 16th combined. … the ninth men’s combined. … The U.S. has won three of those nine, including last season when Bode Miller won his 30th Cup race.

It is the 32nd career World Cup win for Benjamin Raich. … and his second consecutive win. … It is his career sixth Cup combined win. … and his first win in any discipline at Val d’Isere. … He has doubled his victory total from last season.

It is the eighth career World Cup podium for Jean-Baptiste Grange. … His second in combined having won at Wengen last season. … Five of his eight podiums are wins, three are seconds, he has never finished third in a World Cup race. … Grange and Michel Vion are the only Frenchmen to have won a World Cup combined.

It is the third career podium for Marcel Hirscher, ironically, all third place finishes. … He has three podiums in nine scored races.

It is also the only time John Kucera has finished 11th in a World Cup race. … He has been better 14 times. … It is his second best combined result having placed eighth at Kitzbuehel last January. … It is Julien Cousineau’s fourth best career result in18th. … It is his first score in combined. … He has seven scoring results to his career, matching his father Alain’s mark.

Ted Ligety places 27th on the day, but is among three skiers who do not receive Cup points because of the percent back of the winner their times are.

Carlo Janka won the super G leg, Silvan Zurbriggen the slalom leg.

Aksel Svindal maintains the lead of the overall standings 345-293 over Raich. … Grange is third at 231. … Top American in Ligety in 10th at 185.

 

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1	17	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	1:11.41	51.07	2:02.48	0.00
2	16	192665	GRANGE Jean-Baptiste	1984	FRA	1:12.23	50.59	2:02.82	3.44
3	52	53831	HIRSCHER Marcel	1989	AUT	1:12.87	50.30	2:03.17	6.99
4	12	500656	LARSSON Markus	1979	SWE	1:11.83	51.36	2:03.19	7.19
5	9	510890	ZURBRIGGEN Silvan	1981	SUI	1:13.09	50.11	2:03.20	7.29
6	49	511352	VILETTA Sandro	1986	SUI	1:12.97	50.54	2:03.51	10.43
7	15	292455	FILL Peter	1982	ITA	1:11.71	51.99	2:03.70	12.35
8	27	511313	JANKA Carlo	1986	SUI	1:11.00	52.71	2:03.71	12.45
9	51	150644	KRYZL Krystof	1986	CZE	1:13.80	50.28	2:04.08	16.20
10	13	380292	ZRNCIC-DIM Natko	1986	CRO	1:12.66	51.44	2:04.10	16.40
11	3	102873	KUCERA John	1984	CAN	1:11.21	53.15	2:04.36	19.03
12	8	51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT	1:12.29	52.32	2:04.61	21.56
13	30	293006	INNERHOFER Christof	1984	ITA	1:12.39	52.97	2:05.36	29.16
14	28	421400	MYHRE Lars Elton	1984	NOR	1:14.15	51.74	2:05.89	34.52
15	31	290998	STAUDACHER Patrick	1980	ITA	1:12.17	53.76	2:05.93	34.93
16	33	50041	WALCHHOFER Michael	1975	AUT	1:12.67	53.72	2:06.39	39.59
17	11	191459	LIZEROUX Julien	1979	FRA	1:15.10	51.50	2:06.60	41.71
18	54	102239	COUSINEAU Julien	1981	CAN	1:15.97	50.96	2:06.93	45.05
19	66	700724	BABUSIAK Jaroslav	1984	SVK	1:15.54	54.08	2:09.62	72.29
20	58	560447	SPORN Andrej	1981	SLO	1:14.09	55.73	2:09.82	74.31
21	70	90131	GEORGIEV Georgi	1987	BUL	1:16.47	53.85	2:10.32	79.37
22	63	20174	VIDOSA Roger	1984	AND	1:16.82	53.57	2:10.39	80.08
23	60	150495	VRABLIK Martin	1982	CZE	1:17.31	53.11	2:10.42	80.39
24	67	201702	NEUREUTHER Felix	1984	GER	1:16.84	54.13	2:10.97	85.95
25	38	292291	THANEI Stefan	1981	ITA	1:12.18	59.67	2:11.85	94.86
26	5	480736	HOROSHILOV Alexandr	1984	RUS	1:13.18	59.63	2:12.81	104.58
27	10	534562	LIGETY Ted	1984	USA	1:11.41	1:05.82	2:17.23	149.33
28	74	501017	MYHRER Andre	1983	SWE	1:16.13	1:06.01	2:22.14	199.04

Did not start 1st run: ROUX Christophe (MDA), GAYME Maui (CHI)

Did not start 2nd run: ZAHROBSKY Petr (CZE), LANNING T.J. (USA), MAIER Hermann (AUT), GUAY Erik (CAN), GRUBER Christoph (AUT)

Did not finish 1st run: PICHOT Sebastien (FRA), DIXON Robbie (CAN), BYDLINSKI Maciej (POL), BLARDONE Massimiliano (ITA), JANSRUD Kjetil (NOR), TREJBAL Filip (CZE), SAMSAL Dalibor (CRO), GINI Marc (SUI), PERKO Rok (SLO), GUFLER Michael (ITA), MARSAGLIA Matteo (ITA), CLAREY Johan (FRA), KRIZAJ Andrej (SLO), GRAF Bernhard (AUT), WEIBRECHT Andrew (USA), KELLEY Tim (USA), REICHELT Hannes (AUT), BYGGMARK Jens (SWE), THEAUX Adrien (FRA), MILLER Bode (USA), SVINDAL Aksel Lund (NOR), OLSSON Hans (SWE), RAINER Niklas (SWE), PAQUIN Pierre (FRA), CUCHE Didier (SUI), GORZA Ales (SLO)

Did not finish 2nd run: COCHRAN Jimmy (USA), SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier (ARG), HEEL Werner (ITA), BOUILLOT Alexandre (FRA), BERTHOD Marc (SUI), MOELGG Manfred (ITA), EISATH Florian (ITA), DEFAGO Didier (SUI), BOURGEAT Pierrick (FRA), ALBRECHT Daniel (SUI), KOSTELIC Ivica (CRO), SCHOENFELDER Rainer (AUT), JERMAN Andrej (SLO)

Disqualified 2nd run: ZUEV Stepan (RUS)