Lenzerheide: Miller wraps up SG title; Svindal wins, but Raich holds overall lead

Bode Miller had some lofty goals this season. Hitting double figures in victories was one of them. Thursday, he settled for a lesser goal, but it was still a cherished piece of crystal for a U.S. men's team that had been reeling post-Christmas.
    While Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway and Austria's Benni Raich ratcheted up their overall battle, Miller finished fourth Thursday to claim the World Cup super G season title.
    Two years ago in the same finish area at Lenzerheide, Miller celebrated the overall championship, the first for a U.S. racer since Phil Mahre in 1983.
    Austrian Olympic champ Fritz Strobl retired in classic style with a Mozart tribute down the Silvano Beltrametti course.

LENZERHEIDE, Switzerland — Bode Miller had some lofty goals this season. Hitting double figures in victories was one of them. Thursday, he settled for a lesser goal, but it was still a cherished piece of crystal for a U.S. men's team that had been reeling post-Christmas.
    While Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway and Austria's Benni Raich ratcheted up their overall battle, Miller finished fourth Thursday to claim the World Cup super G season title.
    Two years ago in the same finish area at Lenzerheide, Miller celebrated the overall championship, the first for a U.S. racer since Phil Mahre in 1983.
    Since then, Miller has endured a tumultuous Olympic season, some friction with the national team and a tarnished public image.
    “You tell me, what’s changed? Doesn’t feel like much,” he said Thursday in the finish area. “I have 600 points less or 800 points less or whatever, a little more achy, different ski company, that’s about it.”
    Svindal won the super G but failed to pick up much ground on rival Raich, who placed second to maintain the overall lead heading into the final two races of the season — both technical events.
    Svindal clocked a winning time of 1 minute, 17.94 seconds on the 1,989-meter (1.24-mile) Silvano Beltrametti course. Svindal also won the season’s final downhill on Wednesday.
    Austrian Olympic champ Fritz Strobl retired in classic style with a Mozart tribute down the Silvano Beltrametti course.
    Raich, an all-around skier who prefers the technical races, finished a strong second in 1:18.07 to maintain a three-point lead over Svindal with two races remaining.
    Two individual races remain — the giant slalom and slalom. Raich is considered more of a technical specialist than Svindal, but both skiers have shown proficiency across the board.
    “Benni will be a hard man to catch now,” Svindal said. “But I can’t be disappointed with my victory just because Benni was second."
    As for Saturday's GS? “That’s my best discipline," Svindal said. "I have a chance. It doesn’t mean I will win, but I have a chance.”
    Erik Guay of Canada was third Thursday in 1:18.29.
    Miller finished tied for fourth to give him 304 super G points for the season, well ahead of newly crowned downhill champion Didier Cuche of Switzerland.
    Miller won the super G title in 2005, when he also became the first American man in 22 years to claim the World Cup overall title. He was mathematically eliminated Wednesday from the race for the overall crown.
    Miller, who teamed with briefly retired U.S. coach John McBride this season for some personal attention, was solid in three disciplines but a non-factor in the slalom, an event he continues to struggle mightily to finish.
    “We knew coming into this season that we had to figure out how to pick up points in combined and slalom,” McBride said. “Combined is a no-brainer. … He needs to get that monkey off his back in slalom — more like a mountain gorilla."
    Canadian John Kucera entered the race 76 points behind Miller, but the Canadian could not find the speed and finished 15th. Starting last, Miller came through only a tenth of a second behind Svindal at the middle interval and seemed to be picking up speed. But he slipped back in the final stretch to finish tied for fourth with Marco Buechel in 1:18.33.
    “You win the super G title with two victories and a fourth place and you only have 300 points,” Miller said. “That’s not normal to win a title with that few points.”
    With Lindsey Kildow's injury that knocked her out of the downhill title race, Miller's crystal globe is a bright spot for a U.S. team that started strong in December but has struggled — save Julia Mancuso — since.
    “I’m proud. I’m more proud he didn’t let it slip away because he’s been so dominant all year,” McBride said. “Things have fallen off at the end of the year for one reason or another, but he proved for the majority of the season he’s a dominant super G skier.”
   
Miller "probably" to race in 2008
    In typical Miller fashion, he couldn’t resist taking a jab at the FIS even as well-wishers were trying to applaud his newest achievement. He lamented the fact that FIS gives athletes hard cases to store their coveted crystal globes for winning a season discipline, but for winning the overall crystal, they get just a soft bag for storage.
    “They don’t give you a box for the overall. It’s weird,” Miller said, before venting some steam over the start orders for the speed events, where racers run in reverse order of World Cup rankings.
    “If you look at my bib all year — I just looked at all my bib numbers — in downhill I’m starting between 25 and 30 every race, super G 25 and 30 every race, slalom I’m 31 every race. GS is the only one where I get to start anywhere near the front of the pack.
    “When you have a season like this, it sucks for everybody when the snow is weird and the conditions are screwed up, but it affects the guys who start further back a lot more, and I start way back there in every event.”
    Miller said asking the FIS to change is pointless. “I don’t really ever listen too much about what they are doing,” he said. “They don’t listen to what I have to say.”
    Like the majority of racers on the tour, Miller is not in favor of eliminating the super G discipline. “I think it would be a shame. Super G is one of the cooler events we have.”
    Miller said he was never really in contention for the overall due to his inconsistency this winter.
    “There’s six or seven races when I look back that could have gotten 60, 80, 100 points. I could have been on the podium in six or seven races where I was out or DNF. When you can look back and see those possibilities and they go the other way, you don’t have to look hard to figure
out why you’re not in contention for the overall. It was a tough season for me.”
    There is the omnipresent speculation of Miller going independent from the U.S. Ski Team for next season. Miller said his 2007-08 plans are not firm.
    “I’m not sure. A lot of stuff will be decided in the spring,” he said. “Right now nobody’s had time to have meetings. I’m sure a lot will be sorted out in the spring.”
    McBride acknowledged that he was happy to have "unretired" to rejoin the team, primarily as Miller's main coach.
    “I think he’s pleased that he took care of [the super G title], in light of the fact that he didn’t achieve some of his other goals," McBride said.
    “It was a pleasure working with him. He’s worked harder than I’ve seen him work in a long time, dealing with a lot of different details of his job per se, and I think his results don’t necessarily reflect that.”
    Is there any question Miller will race next season?
    “There’s always a question,” he said, “but I think I probably will.”

THE SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men's super G, Lenzerheide, Switzerland, March 15, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Guay, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Miller, Head/Head/Tyrolia
4 Buechel, Head/Head/Tyrolia
6 Cuche, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
7 Streitberger, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
8 Gruber, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
9 Lanzinger, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
10 Bourque, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

Men's super G, Lenzerheide, Switzerland, March 15, 2007. … It is the 34th race of the men's season. … The fifth of six super G's scheduled with one cancellation. … It is the mid race of the four race (per gender) finals at Lenzerheide.
    It is the sixth career World Cup win for Aksel Lund Svindal. … His second in SG after winning Lake Louise Nov. 27, 2005. … He has four Cup wins and two World Championship gold medals this season and two wins at these Finals.
    It is the 66th career World Cup podium for Benjamin Raich. … His third in SG. … His last SG podium was in the Nov. 27, 2005 race Svindal won. … It is his ninth podium of the season, plus one from World Championships.
    It is the ninth career podium for Erik Guay. … His third in SG. … It is his fifth podium of the season and first in SG.
    It is the eighth top four of the season for Bode Miller. … The third in SG. … He won two SG's earlier this season at Val Gardena Dec. 15 and Hinterstoder Dec. 20. … It is the fifth top 10 of the season for Francois Bourque, including a ninth in SG at World Championships. … His other four top 10's are all from GS. … It is the ninth top 15 of the season for John Kucera including a placing at Worlds. … He was first and third in SG's at Lake Louise and Val Gardena respectively this season, but also 29th and 30th (Hinterstoder and Are). … It is the third best SG result of the season for Steven Nyman after a ninth at Val Gardena and a 12th at Worlds, but he will receive no World Cup points after place 15th in finals.
    Bode Miller wins the SG title 304-208 over Didier Cuche (6th in race). … John Kucera (15th in race) is third at 194. … Mario Scheiber (13th in race) finishes fourth at 190 and Svindal fifth at 181. … It is the second SG title for Miller who also won in 2003. … No other American has ever won the SG title. … Benjamin Raich maintains the lead for the overall title, but it has shrunk to three points, 1155-1152 over Svindal. … Didier Cuche is third at 1048. … Bode Miller is fourth at 822 and can no longer win, nor can he finish better than fourth. … Winning marginis .13 of a second. … The top nine skiers are all within a second. … Top 16 within two seconds.

Lenzerheide men's super G results

Did not finish 1st run:
WALCHHOFER Michael (AUT), BERTHOD Marc (SUI), REICHELT Hannes (AUT), LIGETY Ted (USA)

World Cup super G standings
After 5 races
1. Bode Miller, United States, 304 points.
2. Didier Cuche, Switzerland, 208.
3. John Kucera, Canada, 194.
4. Mario Scheiber, Austria, 190.
5. Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 181.
6. Hermann Maier, Austria, 177.
7. Christoph Gruber, Austria, 153.
8. Marco Buechel, Liechtenstein, 146.
9. Peter Fill, Italy, 143.
10. Erik Guay, Canada, 136.
(tie) Georg Streitberger, Austria, 136.
12. Hans Grugger, Austria, 180.
13. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 106.
14. Didier Defago, Switzerland, 100.
15. Fritz Strobl, Austria, 94.
16. Antoine Deneriaz, France, 85.
17. Bruno Kernen, Switzerland, 83.
18. Silvan Zurbriggen, Switzerland, 79.
19. Patrik Jaerbyn, Sweden, 78.
20. Matthias Lanzinger, Austria, 76.

Overall World Cup standings
After 34 of 36 races
1. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 1,155 points.
2. Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 1,152.
3. Didier Cuche, Switzerland, 1,048.
4. Bode Miller, United States, 822.
5. Peter Fill, Italy, 694.
6. Mario Matt, Austria, 664.
7. Marco Buechel, Liechtenstein, 635.
8. Mario Scheiber, Austria, 584.
9. Erik Guay, Canada, 529.
10. Didier Defago, Switzerland, 515.
11. Michael Walchhofer, Austria, 498.
12. Silvan Zurbriggen, Switzerland, 497.
13. Marc Berthod, Switzerland, 496.
14. Ted Ligety, United States, 490.
15. Kalle Palander, Finland, 482.