Moscow: Neureuther gets win, Miller & Ligety third and fourth

German Felix Neureuther collected his first international win in an exhibition parallel slalom on an enormous ramp in downtown Moscow this evening.

Neureuther outdueled World Cup slalom leader Jean-Baptiste Grange of France for the win in front of an estimated 25,000 fans.

It was a good contest for the U.S. as well, with Bode Miller edging Ted Ligety in the “small” final for third place.
Billed as a promotional event to build up the 2014 winter Olympics scheduled for Sochi, Russia, the race was staged on a ramp built of scaffolding on the streets of Moscow.

“I feel great,” Neureuther told the AFP “It’s natural to feel great when you win. It was very interesting to compete on this artificial ramp. It’s completely different to a natural slope, but still a really challenging and interesting experience.”German Felix Neureuther collected his first international win in an exhibition parallel slalom on an enormous ramp in downtown Moscow this evening.

Neureuther outdueled World Cup slalom leader Jean-Baptiste Grange of France for the win in front of an estimated 25,000 fans.

It was a good contest for the U.S. as well, with Bode Miller edging Ted Ligety in the “small” final for third place.
Billed as a promotional event to build up the 2014 winter Olympics scheduled for Sochi, Russia, the race was staged on a ramp built of scaffolding on the streets of Moscow.

“I feel great,” Neureuther told the AFP “It’s natural to feel great when you win. It was very interesting to compete on this artificial ramp. It’s completely different to a natural slope, but still a really challenging and interesting experience.”

The 24-year-old Neureuther defeated Bernard Vajdic of Slovenia in the opening round, Austria’s Mario Matt in the quarter-final and Ligety in the semis before beating Grange in the deciding races.

“It was really cool and just crazy to race on a ramp of that size,” said Ligety, of the 183foot structure. “The scene was awesome. People were packed into Red Square, they had Euro techno blasting and fireworks shooting out the side of the ramp. It was such a sweet competition to be invited to.”

“It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities that you just have to take advantage of,” said Ligety. “Putin seemed really down-to-earth and is super into skiing. It was cool just for him to take time out of his schedule to hang out with us, but now we get to fly on the Russian equivalent to Air Force One. It’s safe to say that this stuff doesn’t happen everyday – I feel pretty fortunate.”

“The start was definitely the key. You didn’t want to be the guy held up in the gate for the second run,” said Ligety. “First of all, it was tough enough just to figure out when your gate was going to open, but then you didn’t want to be looking at the other guys back all the way down. There were a lot of guys who are going to have some bruises after smashing into the start gate before it opened. But it was still fun.”