WC Rewind: Overall races tighten as 2008 nears

By Published On: December 18th, 2007Comments Off on WC Rewind: Overall races tighten as 2008 nears

The men had four races and the women two this past week and the only country to claim more than one win was Anja Paerson. The tenacious Swede doubled up in downhill and super G at St. Moritz to find herself perched on top of the World Cup standings she won in 2004 and 2005. That was when she first started competing in downhill, 2004. She has now won four in World Cup competition, plus last season’s World Championship in the event and she won the bronze medal in downhill at the last Olympics.
THE MEN HAD four races and the women two this past week and the only country to claim more than one win was Anja Paerson. The tenacious Swede doubled up in downhill and super G at St. Moritz to find herself perched on top of the World Cup standings she won in 2004 and 2005. That was when she first started competing in downhill, 2004. She has now won four in World Cup competition, plus last season’s World Championship in the event and she won the bronze medal in downhill at the last Olympics.
    Offseason surgery slowed Paerson’s start last season, but she was fine by February when she not only got that downhill gold, but totaled three golds and a bronze at worlds. Her start this season had not been terrific, four top 10s, the best a seventh going into St. Moritz. But she hadn’t lost touch with the leaders, which was evident when they did the math after St. Moritz. Technical experts Nicole Hosp and Marlies Schild, are currently the top contenders and they are now dabbling in speed events in an effort to keep pace. It won’t be easy.
    Lindsey Vonn registered her second podium of the season, placing second in the downhill and taking back the red discipline leader’s bib from Canadian Britt Janyk. The cream of women’s downhill is beginning to settle out. At St. Moritz, Maria Riesch was third and Renate Goetschl fourth. With those four skiers you have the 1-3-4 finishers at Aspen, the 1-2-3-4 finishers at Lake Louise and the 2-3-4 finishers at St. Moritz. It should prove to be an amazing battle.
    Super G, with only two races contested to date, is less settled. Paerson leads those standings with a win and a seventh. Martina Schild is second with a win and a ninth, while the consistency of Riesch and Hosp (second and fifth for Riesch, a pair of sixths for Hosp) has them in the thick as well, Hosp being tied in the standings with Lake Louise runner-up Emily Brydon.
    The men’s tour entered the now traditional pre-Christmas stretch through Italy with a trio of skiers — Benjamin Raich, Didier Cuche and Daniel Albrecht — having handed the overall lead back and forth since Aksel Svindal abdicated prior to the Beaver Creek races last month. Two gnarly runs at Val Gardena’s Saslong course (downhill and super G) and two more over the pass at Alta Badia (GS and slalom) served only to tighten the ranks about seven skiers deep. Albrecht did not live up to the new standards he had set for himself at Beaver Creek. Raich was second in the GS, but missed the opportunity to extend his tour lead by DNFing the slalom. It was the first slalom he had failed to finish in a year and a day.
    The 33-year-old Cuche, however, did fine, racking up the SG win and placing second in the downhill. The SG was the oldest men’s podium in the 40 years of World Cup history with Cuche, Bode Miller and Marco Buechel having the somewhat dubious honor of contributing to the oldest men’s podium in history. For history’s sake, add 30-year-old Didier Defago in fourth.
    Still, Cuche, in not qualifying for the second run of GS, and Raich in skiing out of the slalom, and Albrecht for having a poor showing, left the door open for heroics and a chance to get into the race for the overall. Enter Michael Walchhofer, Kalle Palander and Ted Ligety.
    The Val Gardena track keeps the racers’ attention. Mostly in shadow, it has more than enough features to keep a competitor interested and it flows quite nicely from one hazard to the next. As with the ladies, it’s tough to pick a universally acclaimed SG leader yet, though Cuche has first dibs at this point. Walchhofer’s run in downhill cemented his place in history as one of five men to have won at Kitzbühel, Wengen, Val d’Isere, Garmisch and Val Gardena. He survived a near crash in the rough Ciaslat section to edge Cuche for the win by 0.18.
    Third place was the all-American story. Steven Nyman came in pumped and ready. His only career World Cup win had come on the Saslong and he looked forward to testing his mettle again. Pushing out of the start, a side hill where all of the skating is with the left ski, he got caught up in his ski poles and went down on his face. When Miller screamed too fast into the Ciaslat and hip-checked (he finished eighth) that should have been the end of the U.S. chances for glory. Scott Macartney changed that, becoming the second American male to get his first downhill podium of the season. Walchhofer has a substantial lead in the downhill standings with two wins in three races, though Cuche has two podiums to date to maintain contact.
    The Canadians, too, stepped up to the plate with Eric Guay posting fifth in SG and fourth in DH. Jan Hudec had a SG top 10 and Manuel Osborne-Paradis was sixth in the downhill.
    At Alta Badia, an event occurred that should not be forgotten. Rules got in the way of the racing when Ligety was docked a parcel of money and made to start at the back of the pack of the GS despite wearing the red bib for being four minutes late to the bib draw. Take nothing away from Kalle Palander’s win. The Finn blistered the first run and held on for his four GS win, and third at Alta Badia.
    “I will recommend to the FIS that from now on all giant slalom races should be held in Alta Badia,” Palander joked. “I like the course in Alta Badia. It’s very difficult and challenging. This year it was particularly difficult.”
Especially when starting 46th, as Ligety was made to do. “The first run was pretty bumpy,” said Ligety, “…and my run was pretty crappy. I was 1.6 [seconds] back. But on the second run I picked it up, for sure. The course held up great — they iced it some — and I could go.”
     his way up to 10th after the first run, the fastest second run moved him up to fifth and a remarkable finish under the circumstances. Palander had all sorts of problems on his second run, but held off Raich for the win. “I was, perhaps, a bit too conservative,” said Raich. Swiss Marc Berthod, just back from an ankle injury hiatus, got the last GS podium spot with a strong second run. Canadian John Kucera was fourth and left wanting more “Fourth place is frustrating, but it is certainly better than fifth and sixth,” he said.
    Skiing from the netherworld of the 58th start, in a race he nearly skipped, Jimmy Cochran more than upheld his historic family’s honor in placing tenth. He had not expected the result, saying, “I was surprised to have a second run.”
Bode Miller, with a series of very fast splits and near wins this season simply overpowered his equipment, yanking screws out of his skis and could not finish.
    Then came the slalom and in the antithesis of the men’s super G where age reigned supreme, the top three finishers were all 23 years old: Jean-Baptiste Grange, Felix Neureuther and Ligety. They had a champagne frolic at the awards presentation.
Despite having Grange “beat me down pretty good,&
rdquo; Ligety was excited to have regained some speed in slalom. It was his first slalom podium of the season and helped move him into fourth in the overall standings.
    It was the first World Cup win for Grange, though he won bronze at the World Championship in slalom in 2006. That medal, he said, bolstered his confidence big time. “The turning point in my career came in Are (Worlds 2006),” Grange said.     “I proved something to myself and showed I can do it, and that helped me excel today and handle the pressure.” He handled the pressure and the course to win by a huge 0.74 of a second.
     Cochran raced his way to eighth, his second-best career result, then flew home to attend ceremonies christening the snowmaking system at the Cochran Ski Hill.
    Behind Ligety in the overall standings sits Palander, adding a sixth in slalom to his GS win, then Italian Manfred Moelgg. The Italian gate racer did not have good luck at Alta Badia, but sits fourth in both GS and slalom standings with podiums for sixth overall and in seventh is Miller, capable of a run at anytime.
    The men have one more race in December, a downhill at Bormio, Italy, just before the change of year. And then they start the telling January stretch across the classic courses of Europe.

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About the Author: Pete Rugh