Palander, Schlopy tops in Super Series GS at Keystone{mosimage}KEYSTONE, Colo. -- Former World Championships medalist Erik Schlopy, fine-tuning his gate-running before the VISA Birds of Prey World Cup races at week's end, had two solid runs Monday to finish second in the first Chevrolet Super Series giant slalom of the season on River Run, Keystone's new race venue.

Kalle Palander of Finland took a big first-run lead and held on to win with a two-run time of 2 minutes, 20.24 seconds, with Schlopy, GS bronze medalist in '03 at worlds, runner-up in 2:20.74.

The field was stacked with European World Cup racers also priming for Birds of Prey races at Beaver Creek. Other Americans in the top 20 were Jimmy Cochran, tied for fourth, Ted Ligety (8th), Chip Knight (11th), Jake Zamansky 13th; and Tom Rothrock (20th).

The men run another GS Tuesday and then face two slaloms. The Super Series races are the U.S. portion of the NorAm Cup series, with races in Canada and the United States.

The Birds of Prey World Cup races, which begin Thursday with a super G, kick off the 10 Weeks to Torino series of major snowsport events in this country, including Olympic qualifying competitions, leading to the Olympics Feb. 10-26 in Torino, Italy.

Chevrolet Super Series
NorAm Cup
Keystone, Colo. - Nov. 28, 2005
Men's GS-1
1. Kalle Palander, Finland, 2:20.24
2. Erik Schlopy, Park City, Utah, 2:20.74
3. Fredrik Nyberg, Sweden, 2:20.88
4T. Jimmy Cochran, Keene, N.H., and Davide Simoncelli, Italy, 2:21.29 each

Other U.S. skiers in the top 20
8. Ted Ligety, Park City, Utah, 2:22.05
11. Chip Knight, Stowe, Vt., 2:22.31
13. Jake Zamansky, Aspen, Colo., 2:22.53
19. Tom Rothrock, Cashmere, Wash., 2:23.57

-- Courtesy USSA News Bureau