Adelboden: Swiss skier Berthod overtakes 26 racers in second run for stunning SL win

ADELBODEN, Switzerland — In one of the most stunning results in recent World Cup history, Switzerland’s Marc Berthod won his first career World Cup race Sunday coming from way back in the pack to leapfrog past big guns Benni Raich, Giorgio Rocca and others.

Starting with bib No. 60, Berthod finished 27th in the first run, but skied flawlessly in the second run and as visibility worsened for the leaders in the reverse-30 format, Berthod’s time held up, ending a seven-year winless streak in slalom for the Swiss men. It was also the first World Cup win in any discipline for a Swiss man in almost three years and 103 races.

”This is so cool,” Berthod said. ”My goal this morning was to qualify for the second run and I won the race. It’s a huge surprise.”

The 23-year-old from St. Moritz won on home soil with a two-run time of 1 minute, 47.42 seconds, with Raich second, .26 back, and Austria’s Mario Matt third, .38 back. First-run leader Markus Larsson of Sweden made several mistakes in the second run and finished fifth.

It was the third career top-10 result for Atomic skier Berthod, who was second in the Beaver Creek super combined on Nov 30 and seventh in an Adelboden GS in January 2005. His previous best slalom result was 16th at Adelboden one year ago.

American Bode Miller was 11th in the first run, but fell victim to equipment woes when he lost his right ski in the second run as he sought to finish a slalom for the first time since Jan. 22, 2006, when he was 18th at Kitzbühel, Austria. The 29-year-old Miller has now completed only three of his last 19 World Cup slalom races.
Ted Ligety, second at Alta Badia, twice missed a gate and did not finish the first run. The third skier out of the start hut, Ligety skidded onto his side just a few gates into his run. The Olympic combined gold medalist hiked back up to ski the gate he’d missed but went out again a little lower down.

Sweden’s Andre Myhrer, the winner of the slalom at Beaver Creek, Colorado, in December, also skidded out with slush shooting into the air behind him on run one. Overall leader Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway also failed to finish the opening run, as did Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic and Austria’s Manfred Pranger.

It rained during the first leg and Berthod, the 60th skier to start, had to deal with deteriorating conditions on the wet and slushy Kuonisbaergli course.

The top 30 skiers in the opening leg qualify for the second but race in reverse order. That meant Berthod was fourth to start the final leg and he enjoyed better, cleaner course conditions.

Berthod watched as one skier after another was unable to better his time.

”I had a strong lead at the finish, so I was very pleased when it became a top 20 potential result, and then a top 15, and then a top five, and then a podium. And suddenly there was nobody left at the start. It was a great time for me,” Berthod said.

Berthod had the fastest second leg, 1.53 seconds quicker than Manfred Moelgg of Italy.

”He was three seconds behind me in first run but I saw he had a strong second run on the TV,” Raich said. ”Normally it’s impossible to come from so far back to win but sometimes conditions are so difficult and then it’s possible.

”When this situation occurs you need to make good runs and make the most of it. He did that.”

The last Swiss man to win a World Cup race was Didier Cuche, who won a downhill at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, in 2004. The last Swiss man to win a World Cup slalom was Didier Plaschy at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, in 1999.
Croatia’s Kostelic, who started 64th in a slalom in Aspen, Colorado, in 2001, won with the highest bib number.
Larsson still leads the slalom discipline standings with 225 points after four races. Raich moved from fifth into second with 180 points, while World Cup slalom champion Giorgio Rocca of Italy is third with 150.

Svindal maintained his lead in the overall rankings after 18 events with 639 points. Cuche is second with 571 points, while Miller is third with 540. Raich is fourth with 458.

Miller’s slalom form picks up
“Bode was skiing well, and he’s clearly back in form for slalom,” men’s head coach Phil McNichol said. “He was rolling, and it was pretty exciting and then — boom! He’s done. He had a good first-run effort, skied it smart and fought well, so we can take some encouragement from that.

“It was raining first thing this morning and then it stopped as the first run got going and it was sunny by the end of the run although the last five, six, seven guys had some fog up top. These were wet, wet spring conditions with decaying ice under it in spots. It was not an easy day,” he said. “We had 14 guys from outside the first 30 racers make it into the second run.”

While no U.S. skier finished, McNichol said, “Hopefully we can take something from this. It was pretty cool to see this Berthod kid come out of that 60th spot and get into the second run. Maybe that will inspire some guys that they can do it, too.”

The men head to Wengen, Switzerland, for the 77th Lauberhorn downhill plus two other days of racing. They face a super combined Friday and a slalom Sunday in addition to the showcase DH Saturday on the World Cup’s longest downhill run.

— USSA and The Associated Press contributed to this report

THE SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men’s slalom, Adelboden, Switzerland, Jan. 7, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Berthod, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Matt, Fischer/Nordica/Fischer
4 Palander, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
5 Larsson, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6 Rocca, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
7 Moelgg, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
8 Byggmark, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
9 Janyk, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
10 Albrecht, Nordica/Nordica/Marker

Men’s slalom, Adelboden, Switzerland, Jan. 7, 2007. … It is the 18th race if the men’s 38-event World Cup schedule. … The fourth of 11 scheduled slaloms. … The first of four January slaloms for the men.    It is the first career win for Marc Berthod… His only other podium came in super combined earlier this season at Beaver Creek when he was second. … He has just 12 scoring results in his history, the first also coming at Adelboden Jan. 11, 2005 (GS). … Four of his 12 results have come at Adelboden. … It is the first Swiss win of the season though the team had four second-place finishes all within two-tenths of the win. … Berthod started 60th and was 27th after the first run. … According to the FIS stat guide, only Ivica Kostelic has won a World Cup slalom from a higher start position.
It is the 60th career podium for Benjamin Raich. … His 30th in slalom. … It is his sixth podium at Adelboden and fourth straight at Adelboden, having been first SL, third GS last season and first GS, second SL this.
    It is the 16th career podium for Mario Matt, all of them in slalom. … But his first podium since March 13, 2005, when he won the slalom at Lenzerheide.
    The result matches the fifth best of career for Michael Janyk. … And 14 of his 15 scoring results are in slalom. … It is his third-best result of the season, having placed second in slalom at Beaver Creek Dec. 3 and seventh at Levi Nov. 12.
There were 22 first-run DNFs plus five in second run. … Aksel Lund Svindal (first-run DNF) retains the lead in the World Cup overall standings 639-571 over Didier Cuche (did not compete). … Bode Miller (second-run DNF) is third overall at 540. … Markus Larsson (fifth in race) maintains the lead in the slalom standings 225-180 over Benjamin Raich. … Giorgio Rocca is third at 150. … Michael Janyk in fourth is the top North American on the slalom list at 145. … Top U.S. skier is Ted Ligety (first-run DNF) in 12th position with 80 points. … Winning margin was .26 of a second. … Top nine skiers were within the same second. … Top 17 within two seconds.

Adelboden men’s World Cup slalom results

Did not finish 1st run:
RAINER Niklas (SWE), SKUBE Matic (SLO), STANEK Jendrek (GER), ZARDINI Edoardo (ITA), GORZA Ales (SLO), NILSEN Andreas (NOR), SCHMID Hannes Paul (ITA), STUTZ Paul (CAN), ANDERSSON Oscar (SWE), FILL Peter (ITA), ANSELMET Alexandre (FRA), YUASA Naoki (JPN), COCHRAN Jimmy (USA), VAJDIC Bernard (SLO), BROLENIUS Johan (SWE), HANSSON Martin (SWE), SVINDAL Aksel Lund (NOR), PRANGER Manfred (AUT), KOSTELIC Ivica (CRO), GRANDI Thomas (CAN), MYHRER Andre (SWE), LIGETY Ted (USA)

Did not finish 2nd run:
LLORACH Gaetan (FRA), MILLER Bode (USA), THALER Patrick (ITA), BOURGEAT Pierrick (FRA), SCHOENFELDER Rainer (AUT)

Disqualified 2nd run:
MISSILLIER Steve (FRA), VOGL Alois (GER)

Did not qualify 1st run:
VON HOHENLOHE Hubertus (MEX), TESTORELLI Moreno (SUI), LANNING Thomas (tj) (USA), SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier (ARG), HANADA Masashi (JPN), TISSOT Maxime (FRA), GEORGIEV Stefan (BUL), KUCERA John (CAN), BJOERGVINSSON Bjoergvin (ISL), KARLSEN Truls Ove (NOR), SEILER Jan (SUI), BURAAS Hans-Petter (NOR), LEINO Jukka (FIN), KAUKONIEMI Tuukka (FIN), IMBODEN Urs (MDA), MYHRE Lars Elton (NOR), TREJBAL Filip (CZE), BAXTER Noel (GBR), ALBRECHT Kilian (BUL), RAZZOLI Giuliano (ITA), GRUBELNIK Drago (SLO), ROTHROCK Tom (USA), KOLL Alexander (AUT), DREIER Christoph (AUT), OMMINGER Andreas (AUT), ZURBRIGGEN Silvan (SUI)

Men’s World Cup slalom standings (after 4 of 11 races)
1. Markus Larsson, Sweden, 225.
2. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 180.
3. Giorgio Rocca, Italy, 150.
4. Michael Janyk, Canada, 145.
5. Jens Byggmark, Sweden, 143.
6. Kalle Palander, Finland, 141.
7. Andre Myhrer, Sweden, 100.
(tie) Marc Berthod, Switzerland, 100.
(tie) Mario Matt, Austria, 100.
10. Felix Neureuther, Germany, 99.
11. Thomas Grandi, Canada, 95.
12. Ted Ligety, United States, 80.
13. Daniel Albrecht, Switzerland, 76.
14. Jean-Baptiste Grange, France, 72.
15. Cristian Deville, Italy, 65.
(tie) Manfred Pranger, Austria, 65.
17. Julien Lizeroux, France, 62.
18. Ivica Kostelic, Croatia, 60.
19. Silvan Zurbriggen, Switzerland, 55.
20. Akira Sasaki, Japan, 54.

Men’s World Cup overall standings (after 18 of 38 races)
1. Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 639 points.
2. Didier Cuche, Switzerland, 571.
3. Bode Miller, United States, 540.
4. Peter Fill, Italy, 464.
5. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 458.
6. Kalle Palander, Finland, 387.
7. Michael Walchhofer, Austria, 348.
8. Marco Buechel, Liechtenstein, 326.
9. Mario Scheiber, Austria, 308.
10. Ted Ligety, United States, 292.
11. Hermann Maier, Austria, 287.
12. Didier Defago, Switzerland, 283.
13. John Kucera, Canada, 275.
14. Steven Nyman, United States, 260.
15. Markus Larsson, Sweden, 250.
16. Massimiliano Blardone, Italy, 240.
17. Marc Berthod, Switzerland, 215.
18. Rainer Schoenfelder, Austria, 209.
19. Christoph Gruber, Austria, 206.
20. Francois Bourque, Canada, 202.