After placing three of four racers on yesterday’s World Cup super combined podium in Val d’Isere, France, it was Austria again today (Dec. 12) with top billing as Michael Walchhofer grabbed his first victory of the season in today's super G.

It was a veteran’s course, as almost half the field (32 of 69 racers) didn’t make it down the technical Face de Bellevarde slope in poor visibility conditions.

"This is unexpected but great. It was very steep and I couldn't see a thing,” said Walchhofer of the day’s challenging conditions with overcast skies and light snow flurries. "It's definitely not my kind of slope but I concentrated on trying to make as few mistakes as possible and it paid off."

"I have a love-hate relationship with that hill,” Walchhofer told the AFP. “You have to ski with guts on the course, take a chance and just go for it. No one can come down there without making a mistake. “

American Ted Ligety was .28 seconds behind to claim second place, followed by Italy’s Warner Heel in third. Heel’s teammate Patrick Staudacher was just off the podium in forth, followed by yesterday’s winner Austrian Benjamin Raich (fifth) and teammate Mario Scheiber (sixth).

“It’s really bumpy up there and obviously, with the visibility as bad as it is, there is no way to differentiation between the bumps and the terrain. You can’t see anything,” said Ligety after securing his first World Cup speed podium. “It never felt good the entire way down the course, but to be in second place now is pretty good.”

Ligety overcame and early mistake that sent him on a ten-meter hip slide to grab the impressive result . “It’s just a struggle today, I mean nobody is going to feel good,” continued Ligety who was visibly frustrated after falling in the slalom leg of yesterday’s super combined. “I was lucky enough to use my GS skills and have a decent enough run.”

“Ted’s a phenomenal technical skier and he brought it out today,” said U.S. head coach Sasha Rearick. “This was a very tough race, one of the toughest I’ve ever seen.”

American Bode Miller, the only other American to finish, tied for ninth with Swiss Didier Cuche.

“Bode skied solid,” said Rearick. “I think this was his fifth run on his super G skis since he’s come back, and for him to come down in the top ten is a good day.”

Walchhofer, a former downhill World Champion, sealed his 15th career World Cup victory (his second in super G) and took control of the overall super G race ahead of Raich and Ligety.

The challenging course and poor visibility proved to be too much for a lot of people, including six Americans who didn’t make the grade. Marco Sullivan, Erik Fisher, Tommy Ford, Jake Zamansky, Jeremy Tansue and Andrew Weibrecht all failed to cross the finish line.

Lake Louise World Cup super G winner Manuel Osborne-Paradis (21th) was the lone Canadian to finish the race. His teammates Robbie Dixon, Francios Bourque, Erik Guay and Louis-Pierre Helie all fell victim to the steeps of the Bellevarde.

Last weeks triple winner in Beaver Creek, Swiss Carlo Janka, logged back-to-back DNFs (he also failed to finish in yesterday’s combined) as he misjudged a turn and couldn’t correct his line.  "The light was very dark, I was too late and I went away from the slope and that was that," he told the AFP.  "It's disappointing that it's happened twice. I look forward to Sunday's giant slalom and hope I can get a better result than today."

World Cup racing wraps up tomorrow in Val d’Isere with a giant slalom.
- by Eric Williams

Image by Gepa

The SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Men's super G, Val d'Isere, France, Dec. 12, 2009
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Walchhofer, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Ligety, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
3 Heel, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
4 Staudacher, Head/Head/Head
5 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6 Scheiber, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
7 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
8 Gorza, Fischer/Lange/Fischer
9 Miller, Head/Head/Head
9 Cuche, Head/Head/Head

Men's super G, Val d'Isere, France, Dec. 12, 2009. … It is the ninth race of the men's 35 race 2009-2010 World Cup calendar. … The second of six scheduled super G's. … The 149th World Cup held at least in part at Val d'Isere (counting split combineds). … The 26th super G. … the 14th for men. … It is the middle race of a three race series at Val d'Isere for the men this season. … Katja Seizinger holds the site SG win mark at three.

It is the 15th World Cup career win for Michael Walchhofer. … but just his second in SG, the previous at Val Gardena Dec, 17, 2004. … It is his third Cup win at Val d'Isere, in three disciplines having won a DH and a combined in Dec., 2005. … It is the fourth win of the season for Austria and third for Austrian men.

It is the 18th World Cup podium for Ted Ligety. … His first in SG. … His previous best in SG had been seventh scored at Beaver Creek a season ago. … His previous best at Val d'Isere in any discipline had been 10th in combined in Dec. 2005. … It is the best SG result for a U.S. male in more than a year, since Bode Miller was second at Kvitfjell March 2. 2008.

It is the sixth career World Cup podium for Werner Heel. … His third in super G with the other three coming in DH. … He had not been closer than 16th in any previous Cup race at Val d'Isere. … It is his second podium of the season having placed second in DH at Lake Louise. … It is the fifth podium of the season for Italy without recording a win.

It is the 132nd World Cup top 10 for Bode Miller. … More than 65percent of his completed races have been top 10 finishes. … It is his 19th top 10 in SG. … His 11th top 10 in a Cup race at Val d'Isere. … It is the 44th Cup scoring result for Manuel Osborne-Paradis. … His tenth in SG. … It is his first SG score at Val d'Isere.

Top three skiers are within the same second. … top 13 within two seconds.

Carlo Janka leads the overall World Cup standings 460-426 over Benjamin Raich (fifth in race). … Didier Cuche (tied for ninth in race) is third with 384pts, Walchhofer fourth and Ligety fifth at 268.

Walchhofer leads the SG standings 160-125 over Raich. … Ligety is third at 112 and Osborne-Paradis fourth at 110. … The Swiss men still lead Austria in Nations Cup points 1478-1451. … USA is fifth at 527, Canada seventh at 427.

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Total Time	FIS Points
1	17	50041	WALCHHOFER Michael	1975	AUT	1:20.78	0.00
2	4	534562	LIGETY Ted	1984	USA	1:21.06	3.67
3	20	292514	HEEL Werner	1982	ITA	1:21.53	9.84
4	2	290998	STAUDACHER Patrick	1980	ITA	1:21.92	14.96
5	18	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	1:21.95	15.35
6	23	51005	SCHEIBER Mario	1983	AUT	1:21.97	15.62
7	21	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	1:22.21	18.76
8	30	560406	GORZA Ales	1980	SLO	1:22.43	21.65
9	25	532431	MILLER Bode	1977	USA	1:22.45	21.91
9	22	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI	1:22.45	21.91
11	32	53831	HIRSCHER Marcel	1989	AUT	1:22.48	22.31
12	16	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:22.61	24.01
13	33	292491	MOELGG Manfred	1982	ITA	1:22.73	25.59
14	7	510890	ZURBRIGGEN Silvan	1981	SUI	1:22.85	27.16
15	27	191746	DE TESSIERES Gauthier	1981	FRA	1:22.97	28.74
16	56	421483	JANSRUD Kjetil	1985	NOR	1:22.99	29.00
17	19	293006	INNERHOFER Christof	1984	ITA	1:23.09	30.31
18	55	50451	GRUBER Christoph	1976	AUT	1:23.43	34.77
18	31	51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT	1:23.43	34.77
20	35	560447	SPORN Andrej	1981	SLO	1:23.55	36.35
21	10	102899	OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel	1984	CAN	1:23.67	37.92
22	9	50753	KROELL Klaus	1980	AUT	1:23.68	38.05
23	13	350032	BUECHEL Marco	1971	LIE	1:23.88	40.68
24	51	191778	PICHOT Sebastien	1981	FRA	1:23.93	41.33
25	15	510767	HOFFMANN Ambrosi	1977	SUI	1:24.10	43.57
26	38	292291	THANEI Stefan	1981	ITA	1:24.37	47.11
27	49	561085	KRIZAJ Andrej	1986	SLO	1:24.38	47.24
28	58	501026	RAINER Niklas	1983	SWE	1:25.46	61.41
29	64	420148	KARLSEN Truls Ove	1975	NOR	1:25.70	64.56
30	63	480736	HOROSHILOV Alexandr	1984	RUS	1:26.42	74.01
31	48	201606	KEPPLER Stephan	1983	GER	1:26.58	76.11
32	34	150421	ZAHROBSKY Petr	1980	CZE	1:26.70	77.68
33	65	20174	VIDOSA Roger	1984	AND	1:27.33	85.95
34	66	700724	BABUSIAK Jaroslav	1984	SVK	1:27.62	89.75
35	46	293141	VARETTONI Silvano	1984	ITA	1:28.22	97.63
36	69	60159	VAN BUYNDER Frederik	1988	BEL	1:30.15	122.95
Did not start 1st run
	3	500150	JAERBYN Patrik	1969	SWE
Did not finish 1st run
	68	90047	GEORGIEV Stefan	1977	BUL
	67	430429	BYDLINSKI Maciej	1988	POL
	62	531799	FORD Tommy	1989	USA
	61	192504	MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas	1984	FRA
	60	370022	JENOT Olivier	1988	MON
	59	511383	FEUZ Beat	1987	SUI
	57	191964	POISSON David	1982	FRA
	54	380292	ZRNCIC-DIM Natko	1986	CRO
	53	220695	CRAWFORD Douglas	1987	GBR
	52	533397	ZAMANSKY Jake	1981	USA
	50	292831	PIERUZ Aronne	1983	ITA
	47	201811	STECHERT Tobias	1985	GER
	45	201987	STRODL Andreas	1987	GER
	44	534939	FISHER Erik	1985	USA
	43	291459	PARIS Dominik	1989	ITA
	42	561067	PERKO Rok	1985	SLO
	41	201542	STRODL Peter	1982	GER
	40	533762	TRANSUE Jeremy	1983	USA
	39	191591	BERTRAND Yannick	1980	FRA
	37	51332	SCHEIBER Florian	1987	AUT
	36	103090	HELIE Louis-Pierre	1986	CAN
	29	50742	REICHELT Hannes	1980	AUT
	28	530939	WEIBRECHT Andrew	1986	USA
	26	192746	THEAUX Adrien	1984	FRA
	24	560332	JERMAN Andrej	1978	SLO
	14	102263	GUAY Erik	1981	CAN
	12	533131	SULLIVAN Marco	1980	USA
	11	511313	JANKA Carlo	1986	SUI
	8	510747	GRUENENFELDER Tobias	1977	SUI
	6	102814	BOURQUE Francois	1984	CAN
	5	102961	DIXON Robbie	1985	CAN
	1	50858	STREITBERGER Georg	1981	AUT