Alpiners primed for 9 U.S. races in 14 days

When the Sirius Satellite Radio Aspen Winternational gets under way Saturday with a women's giant slalom on Ajax Mountain, it starts nine days of high-level competition — a mini-Olympics, if you will — with the best ski racing has to offer at four Colorado resorts.
    Nine days … 14 races … in Aspen, Beaver Creek, Keystone and Winter Park. Starting Saturday.

WHEN THE SIRIUS Satellite Radio Aspen Winternational gets under way Saturday with a women's giant slalom on Ajax Mountain, it starts nine days of high-level competition — a mini-Olympics, if you will — with the best ski racing has to offer at four Colorado resorts.
    Nine days … 14 races … in Aspen, Beaver Creek, Keystone and Winter Park. Starting Saturday.
    Champions at every level, from the Olympics down through the World Championships, the World Cup, NorAm and Europa Cup, and aspiring club champions will be in action as the men's and women's tours make their lone World Cup visit to the United States and the Chevrolet Super Series opens its winter-long schedule; the Super Series races are the U.S. side of the annual NorAm Cup races at U.S. and Canadian resorts. Aspen and Beaver Creek will host World Cup events while Keystone and Winter Park will stage the season's first Chevrolet Super Series races.
    Olympic gold medalists Ted Ligety and Julia Mancuso, double reigning world champion Bode Miller and a fistful of NorAm champs — led by overall champions Megan McJames and Jake Zamansky, men's super G champ Erik Fisher and, among others, women's defending downhill champion Julia Littmann — will highlight the U.S. Ski Team.
    "It's going to be a lot of fun wrapped in a lot of racing — but with emphasis on fun, too," said Calum Clark, veteran event organizer who is coordinating plans for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. "We're expecting some outstanding racing because we have the world's best skiers, but we'll have apres-ski fun, too, with live music and entertainment, U.S. Ski Team members signing autographs and public bib draws."
    Headlining the free live music in Aspen will be English Beat, which will perform Saturday night after the awards ceremony at Gondola Plaza while the Visa Birds of Prey schedule includes a midweek concert Nov. 30 at the Vilar Center by popular singer-songwriter Edwin McCain and Maia Sharp, whose songs have been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, The Dixie Chicks, and, among others, Trisha Yearwood (tickets are $26 each).

The racing lineup

Nov. 25 – World Cup: women's GS in Aspen
Nov. 26 – World Cup: women's slalom in Aspen
Nov. 27 – Super Series: men's GS-1 at Keystone
Nov. 28 – Super Series: men's GS-2 at Keystone
            – Super Series: women's SL-1 at Winter Park
Nov. 29 – Super Series: men's SL-1 at Keystone
            – Super Series: women's SL-2 at Winter Park
Nov. 30 – World Cup: men's super combined at Beaver Creek
            – Super Series: men's SL-2 at Keystone
            – Super Series: women's GS-1 at Winter Park
Dec. 1 – World Cup: men's downhill at Beaver Creek
            – Super Series: women's GS-2 at Winter Park
Dec. 2 – World Cup: men's GS at Beaver Creek
Dec. 3 – World Cup: men's SL at Beaver Creek

NBC will broadcast coverage of Sunday's slalom from Aspen that afternoon at 5 p.m. ET and the GS Dec. 3 at 1 p.m. ET and at 5 p.m. ET on Versus (formerly OLN). On the men's side, coverage of the Birds of Prey races will be over three consecutive Sundays — the giant slalom Dec. 3 at 6 p.m. ET on Versus, the men's DH at 5 p.m. ET Dec 10 on NBC with the men's super combined at 5 p.m. on Versus; and on Dec. 17, the men's downhill is set for Versus at 5 p.m. ET with the men's slalom at 6 p.m.