Alta Badia: Palander wins, Ligety penalized

Finn Kalle Palander won the giant slalom at Alta Badia, Italy Sunday Dec. 16, with a decisive first run and a solid second. He topped Benjamin Raich for his 14th career victory, and third at Alta Badia. It was just his fourth win in GS, and three of those have come on this race hill.
    Swiss Marc Berthod was third, Canadian John Kucera was fourth and American Ted Ligety fifth. Jimmy Cochran moved up from the 58th start to claim 10th.
    Ligety was forced to start late in the pack as well, at 46th, after showing up late for the bib draw Saturday night. ''I think it's a really, really stupid rule,'' Ligety said. ''I feel like if it was one of the other guys, like Benni Raich or something, someone would have been there to protest.''

FINN KALLE PALANDER won the giant slalom at Alta Badia, Italy, Sunday Dec. 16, with a decisive first run and a solid second. He topped Benjamin Raich for his 14th career victory, and third at Alta Badia. It was just his fourth win in GS, and three of those have come on this race hill.
    Swiss Marc Berthod was third, Canadian John Kucera was fourth and American Ted Ligety fifth. Jimmy Cochran moved up from the 58th start to claim tenth.
    Ligety was forced to start late in the pack as well, at 46th, after showing up late for the bib draw Saturday night. ''I think it's a really, really stupid rule,'' Ligety said. ''I feel like if it was one of the other guys, like Benni Raich or something, someone would have been there to protest.''
    Bode Miller was faster than Palander through the first split of the first run but then one of his bindings came apart while he leaned hard into a turn, sending him off course. The ski dislodged from Miller's foot and continued down the slope by itself. Miller skied the rest of the way with one ski but was out of the race.
    ''There was so much force going on, it was just bad luck really,'' Miller said after a long discussion with his ski rep Rainer Salzgeber, the chief of Head's racing department.
    ''A screw popped out,'' Salzgeber said. ''It shouldn't happen. We would have to do an X-Ray on the ski to find out exactly what happened.''
    Several other top challengers had problems with the tight course setting by Austrian coach Christian Hoeflehner. Max Blardone, the Italian who won the GS in Bad Kleinkircheim, Austria, last weekend, made a big error six seconds into his run and nearly fell. He finished 29th, barely making the top 30 to qualify for the second run, but ripped the final heat to finish eighth.
    The U.S. showing obviously could have been better had Miller's ski held together and Ligety not been flagged for the bib draw violation, an event coach Phil McNichol was more than a little peeved at.
    "I've been frustrated all day," said McNichol. "This was an extreme example of sticking to the letter of the law with zero tolerance, and for sure an application of a rule at it's extreme level, totally above and beyond what was called for."
    The rule states if a competitor misses, or does not attend in time, a public bib draw or presentation they will automatically be enrolled according to their FIS points after start number 45, and was intended, McNichol maintains, for those who blatantly do not attend. "They say he was four minutes late, he says it was less," McNichol said. "They're supposed to be there 15 minutes before the event and he was there 11 minutes before, fighting traffic. And now they want to fine him 999 swiss francs. The intent (of the rule) is for those with no respect for the bib draw. … It is just unbelievable."
    Still, Ligety took it in stride and put down the fastest second run. He was tenth after the first run and moved on up to fifth in the second maintaining a hold on the GS standing leader's red bib. He had not expected to have to ski from the back of the pack.
    "The first run was pretty bumpy, starting at the back like that, and my run was pretty crappy. I was 1.6 [seconds] back," Ligety said. "But on the second run I picked it up, for sure. The course held up great – they iced it some – and I could go."
    Jimmy Cochran did expect to run at the back of the pack, and he claimed his second best career result in tenth. He put in the third fastest second run, behind Ligety and Massimiliano Blardone, to finish tenth, a bit of work coach said, "was a great performance."
    Cochran was a bit blown away by his finish. He had contemplated skipping the event to focus on tomorrow's slalom but decided to give it go, and was glad he did. He said he got to the finish without having much of an idea how fast he had been and was surprised to see the scoreboard and the time. "Absolutely I'm surprised. I was surprised to have a second run," he said. He hung around the finish area well after the awards presentation to sign autographs.
    It was a career best placing for Canadian John Kucera, but he found it less satisfying. “Fourth place is frustrating, but it is certainly better than fifth and sixth,” he said. “I am very happy with the way I’m skiing. I attacked the course today, making just one very small mistake, but I skied with aggression and the result is very good.”

A long wait for Palander
Palander, who didn’t finish the giant slalom at Beaver Creek and only finished seventh in Austria two weeks ago, was very proud to dominate for the third time in four years all his rivals on that tough slope. “There is something about this hill which I like a lot – you definitely have to ski with your guts and your heart,” he explained afterwards. “Yet I’m really surprised with my success because I was not so pleased with my skiing this morning and this afternoon I made so many mistakes that I really didn’t believe I could make it again,” the Finn added.
     “My chance was that I kept pushing hard after each problem — I took incredible risks in the middle and final parts. It’s really wonderful to win again especially against such a top champion as Benni Raich. At the start I understood that he was leading and I was worried because he is actually in great shape. But I had nothing to lose in a way so I took my chances. 
    “It means a lot to win that race a third time – I’m only one victory away from Alberto Tomba’s record and this is quite special for me. Of course I’m still 36 wins away from his fantastic marks so I can’t be compared to him. He also won many more gold medals than I but it’s great to think that, at least here, I’m on his footsteps.”
     The surprising 1999 world champion in slalom at Vail has not won a race since his last triumph here a year ago so he was very impatient to get back at the top.
    “I felt strong since Sölden but I was not able to put two great runs together so far. I’m still upset about my failure to score points at Beaver Creek where I made a stupid mistake in the flat section and skied out. I could be leading the standings now.     “Now I will try hard to win again a slalom  tomorrow ! Then I can’t wait to return home and enjoy life with my family. I have been away for five weeks now and it
’s about time to take a nice break and be with my daughter for a while.”
 
Another podium for Raich
Raich was not able to imitate his teammate Michael Walchhofer and clinch the last technical “Classic” missing in his “golden book." The Tyrolian, who already excelled in places as Kranjska Gora and Adelboden in recent seasons, will have to wait at least another year to add his name on the list of winners here.
     “I had two solid runs but I knew after my second run that it eventually would not be enough to beat Kalle today,” he said. “He took great risks and I was maybe a little too conservative,” added the Austrian who regained the lead in the overall World Cup standings with an advance of 68 points in Didier Cuche and 165 on Daniel Albrecht. 
     “It’s for sure nice to be leading the overall standings but I don’t make a big deal out of it. As I told you many times, I don’t think about the Crystal Globe when I race. There are still so many races left that it’s way too early to get excited about it now. The most important for me is to feel in good shape and achieve strong performances in my main specialities.”
     Marc Berthod confirmed the strength of the Swiss team in scoring the ninth podium of the season — and his first ever in the speciality. “It’s certainly very exciting, I didn’t really expect it this morning,” he said. “I didn’t ski so much after injuring myself at an ankle last month but I surely was very motivated today. It was hard for me to watch on TV how well all my teammates were skiing in recent weeks. This result is very important for my confidence and also my future in giant slalom.”
     Berthod has the potential to fight for another podium on Monday – as long as he manages to end both runs. The skiers to beat will be Raich, Moelgg and Palander but also France’s Jean-Baptiste Grange, Ted Ligety and reigning World Champion Mario Matt, who has not been impressive so far.

— The Associated Press, USSA and Patrick Lang contributed to this story

The SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men's GS, Alta Badia, Italy, Dec. 16, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Palander, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
2 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Berthod, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Kucera, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5 Ligety, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
6 Moelgg, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
7 Larsson, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
8 Blardone, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
9 Myhre, Nordica/Nordica/
10 Cochran, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker

Men's Giant Slalom Alta Badia, Italy, Dec. 16, 2007. … It is the 13th race of the men's 41 event 2007-08 World Cup schedule. … It is the fourth of eight giant slaloms on the schedule. … There is one in January at Adelboden, one in February at Vancouver and two in March remaining. … It is the 24th World Cup at Alta Badia. … The 23rd GS.
    It is the 14th career World Cup win for Kalle Palander. … His fourth in GS with three of them now occurring at Alta Badia. … It is his first win of the season, but his third podium having placed second at Reiteralm in slalom Nov. 11 and third at Soelden Oct. 28. … He has twice the wins of any other Finnish alpine racer.
t is the 71st career World Cup podium for Benjamin Raich. … His 24th in GS. … He has never won at Alta Badia, but was second Dec. 19, 2004 to Thomas Grandi. … It is his third podium of the season having won the Bad Kleinkirchheim slalom Dec. 9 and been second in the Lake Louise SG Nov. 25.
    It is the fourth career World Cup podium for Marc Berthod. … His first in GS. … He won a slalom Jan. 7, 2007 at Adelboden and was second in two combineds last season. … His best previous result in GS was fifth at last seasons finals. … In his only other scoring result at Alta Badia he was 24th last season.
    It is the third best career result for John Kucera and his best in GS. … He had previously won a super G at Lake Louise Nov. 26, 2006 and been third in super G at Val Gardena Dec. 15, 2006. … He has been seventh or better in half of his eight scoring results this season. … His top two results this season, here and at Beaver Creek Dec. 2, have come in GS. … It is the 15th career World Cup top five for Ted Ligety. … the seventh in GS. … It is his second best of three finishes at Alta Badia, having been second Dec. 18, 2006 in slalom and seventh in GS Dec. 17, 2006. … He was made to start late (46th) as a penalty for being late to the public bib draw. …. He has been 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th in the four GS held this season. …. It is the second best career result for Jimmy Cochran. … He started 58th and made the top 10. … Three of his four best results have come at Alta Badia having been 13th last season and 14th Dec. 19, 2004. … Erik Schlopy got the last available points in 28th, for his 60th career scoring finish.
    Winning margin is .42 of a second. … Top six racers are within a second. … Top 15 within two seconds. … Benjamin Raich leads the overall standings 521-453 for Didier Cuche. … Daniel Albrecht is third at 356. … Bode Miller is fourth at 306. … Ted Ligety maintains the lead in the GS standings 235-212 over Raich. … Kalle Palander is now third at 200pts with Italians Manfred Moelgg and Massimiliano tied for fourth at 182 each.

Did not finish 1st run : KAUKONIEMI Tuukka (FIN), THEAUX Adrien (FRA), BRANDENBURG Will (USA), VALENCIC Mitja (SLO), JANSRUD Kjetil (NOR), BAUMANN Romed (AUT), JANKA Carlo (SUI), SCHOERGHOFER Philipp (AUT), RAINER Niklas (SWE), LANZINGER Matthias (AUT), CHENAL Joel (FRA), DEFAGO Didier (SUI), BOURQUE Francois (CAN), MILLER Bode (USA)

Did not finish 2nd run : BECHTER Patrick (AUT), BYGGMARK Jens (SWE)

Did not qualify 1st run : STAUDACHER Patrick (ITA), KANG Min Heuk (KOR), DIXON Robbie (CAN), DOPFER Fritz (GER), PITTSCHIELER Kurt (ITA), SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier (ARG), OLSSON Matts (SWE), COUSINEAU Julien (CAN), NEUREUTHER Felix (GER), LEINO Jukka (FIN), LONGHI Omar (ITA), BARRETT Scott (CAN), VAJDIC Bernard (SLO), BANK Ondrej (CZE), JITLOFF Tim (USA), FREY Thomas (FRA), SPENCER Dane (USA), GRANGE Jean-Baptiste (FRA), MISSILLIER Steve (FRA), ROY Jean-Philippe (CAN), FILL Peter (ITA), CUCHE Didier (SUI)