Ted Ligety put down a courageous first run in a thick snowfall and held on for second in the first run of the opening men's giant slalom at Soelden Sunday (Oct. 28). Frenchman Thomas Fanara, skiing after the sun came out and the snow faded away, grabbed away the lead by a scant four hundredths with Italian Manfred Moelgg, skiing even later, sitting third .16 back.

American Tim Jitloff rolled in eighth with a strong run to set himself up well for a shot at a career best effort.

Canadian Dustin Cook, skiing from the 54th start, posted 27th and will get a second run and a chance for his first World Cup points. Jean-Philippe Roy was 29th and will also get a second run.

Robby Kelley said he was skiing as he wanted on the Soelden pitch, but had a handful of bad errors that left him well out of the running.

Snow had fallen heavily just before the race and at the time the first run started, the road up to the glacier site from Soelden had been closed. With the exception of Ligety, none of the early starters fared well as visibility was poor and there was considerable fresh snow on the course despite the best efforts of work crews. Number one starter Philipp Schoerghofer finished 51st, number two Cyprien Richard was 30th and number three Hannes Reichelt was 13th.

Gepa photo.