Wengen: Grange adds slalom win, Ligety third

A little confidence can do wonders. Jean-Baptiste Grange, bolstered by his early season successes and a combined win here yesterday, smoked the field of the 78th Lauberhorn for a World Cup slalom win at Wengen.
    Last season's sensation Jens Byggmark came in second while American Ted Ligety put in the fastest second run of the day to move up from 17th after the first run and finish third. Bode Miller finished fifth behind Andre Myhrer.

Jean-Baptiste Grange, bolstered by his early season successes and a combined win here yesterday, smoked the field of the 78th Lauberhorn for a World Cup slalom win at Wengen.
    Last season's sensation Jens Byggmark came in second while American Ted Ligety put in the fastest second run of the day to move up from 17th after the first run and finish third. Bode Miller finished fifth behind Andre Myhrer.
    Skied in the steady snowfall that caused race organizers to swap out the slalom for the originally scheduled downhill for Saturday, the race saw several top contenders fail to complete the second run as tour leader Benjamin Raich, Adelboden winner Mario Matt and Kalle Palander all failed to negotiate the second run.
"It was a tough, wet day," said U.S. Head coach Phil McNichol. "We saw a bunch of guys go out in the second run. The surface was good, but it was that thick heavy wet snow all day. It soaked through the gloves. They did a great job with the course. Rarely do you see the top 15 guys all make it through the first run at Wengen."
    Ligety, coach said, "put himself together pretty good," winning the second run by nearly a half second to climb up to the podium.
    "Ted made a big mistake in the first run, but I knew he'd put down a good second run," McNichol said. "It wasn't like he was overly aggressive or took a ton of risk, either. He's just skiing clearly solid."
    Ligety said despite being so far down the first run finish order, he felt, time wise, he was in good position.
    "I knew that I was close enough to the podium that I had a chance if I really laid it down. It was so close from 3rd place on after the first run that there was a chance for anybody. With Grange so far ahead and skiing as well as he was, I knew it was a tough proposal [to beat him]. I was actually in a perfect position being in 16th place and getting a slightly cleaner course than those other guys helped as well."
    Having that all work out was especially satisfying in slalom, he said. "It's nice for sure to be on the podium. My slalom has been kind of a struggle this year, as far as making it to the finish line, so whenever I make it to the finish line, it's a good day. Especially having only finished twice this year and both times being on the podium is a good feeling for sure. I've known I have the speed this year, and I have been super confident in my training, but sometimes just making it to the bottom of the course is difficult."
    The win for Grange surprised him just a bit, as he had been taken out of his routine due to the win in combined. "It (the hill) is perfect for me," said Grange, "very steep and technically demanding, too. I felt comfortable this morning even though I spent much energy yesterday with all my obligations and presentations I had to go through until late in the evening. I could not rest and relax as much as I use to, so I am pretty pleased." His margin was the largest of the season.
    While it was the first French win in a Wengen slalom since Jean-Noel Augert in 1972, the U.S. results were pretty pleasing, too. The squad put two men into the top five for the second day in a row and McNichol said he couldn't remember the last time he saw Bode Miller have two good slalom runs. "So that was pretty cool.
    "What was really exciting was Cody Marshall," who scored his first World Cup points with a finish of 19th. "That was the real deal on one of the tougher slalom hills on the circuit," said McNichol. "This is, what, his fifth (World Cup) start. You see a skier like Rainer Schoenfelder finish 30th (first run) and then Cody pops in from 50th. I'll tell you Tim Kelley skied really solid, too. He was 26th at the split but made a tactical error at the bottom and dumped all his speed. He's getting close, too."
    Marshall said he was glad to have gotten his first points at the historic site of Wengen. "It's definitely pretty special here, and I am excited that my first time qualifying got to be in Wengen. I think it's always going to be a special place for me." 

And if Bode and Cody can get another result, the U.S. quotas will increase for the stretch run.

– Jack Shaw and Patrick Lang contributed to this story

The SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men's Slalom, Wengen, Switzerland, Jan. 12, 2008
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Grange, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
2 Byggmark, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Ligety, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
4 Myhrer, Nordica/Nordica/
5 Miller, Head/Head/Tyrolia
6 Lizeroux, Fischer/Lange/Fischer
7 Albrecht, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
8 Rocca, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
9 Herbst, Blizzard/Tecnica/Marker
10 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer

Men's Slalom, Wengen, Switzerland, Jan. 12, 2008. … It is the 19th of 40 races on the 2008 World Cup schedule. … It is the fifth of 11 scheduled slaloms. … The race and the downhill were flip-flopped on the schedule by weather predictions. … It is second race of the '78th annual Lauberhorn. … It is the 81st race held at least in part at Wengen. … It is the 29th World Cup slalom held at Wengen. … Race is run in a heavy snowfall.
    It is the third career World Cup win for Jean-Baptiste Grange. … His second in slalom. … His second in two days having also won the combined at Wengen. … It is his third win of the season, the other coming at Alta Badia in slalom Dec. 17. … It is the first French win of the Wengen slalom since Jean-Noel Augert Jan. 23, 1972. … Just four Frenchmen have won the Wengen slalom the other two being Patrick Russel Jan. 11, 1970 and Jean-Claude Killy Jan. 15, 1967.
    It is the fifth career World Cup podium for Jens Byggmark, all of them in slalom. … It is his second podium of the season having also finished second at BadKleinkrichhem. … He is the only Swedish male to have earned a podium this season.
    It is the tenth career World Cup podium for Ted Ligety. … His sixth in slalom. … It is his fourth podium of the season including a second in GS at Soelden, and thirds in GS at Bad Kleinkirchheim and in slalom at Alta Badia. … He was 17th after the first run and posted the fastest second leg.
    It is the 80th career top five f
or Bode Miller in World Cup competition. … the 16th in slalom. … It is his best slalom result since winning a night slalom at Sestriere Dec. 13, 2004. … He started 31st. … was 15th after the first run. … It is the 16th top 20 result for Michael Janyk. … All of them in slalom. … It is his best result of the season having placed 23rd at Alta Badia and 25th at Adelboden (slaloms). … It is the first career scoring result for Cody Marshall. … He won a Nor-Am slalom at Sunday River, Maine Jan. 5.
    Winning margin is .80 of a second, the largest of the men's season to date. … Top three are within the same second. … Top dozen within two seconds. … Raich maintains the overall lead 690-562 over Daniel Albrecht (7th in race). … Didier Cuche (did not race) holds third at 525 and Bode Miller is fourth at 511. … Grange moves to fifth at 456 and Ligety is sixth at 440. … Grange takes over the lead of the slalom standings 276-216 over Raich. … Manfred Moelgg  (11th in race) is third at 205 and Felix Neureuther (20th in race) is fourth with 199pts. … Ligety is the top American, ranked 11th with 120pts.

Did not finish 1st run : KRIZAJ Andrej (SLO), BAXTER Alain (GBR), BYLUND Peter (SWE), GEORGIEV Stefan (BUL), CUCHE Dimitri (SUI), COUSINEAU Julien (CAN), KRYZL Krystof (CZE), BRENNER Hannes (AUT), LEINO Jukka (FIN), HIRSCHER Marcel (AUT), MISSILLIER Steve (FRA), VILETTA Sandro (SUI), YUASA Naoki (JPN), HANSSON Martin (SWE)

Did not finish 2nd run : VOGEL Markus (SUI), BROLENIUS Johan (SWE), PALANDER Kalle (FIN), MATT Mario (AUT), LARSSON Markus (SWE), RAICH Benjamin (AUT)

Did not qualify 1st run : GSCHWENTER Dominik (AUT), WANNINGER Christian (GER), SAMSAL Dalibor (CRO), PAQUIN Pierre (FRA), BJOERGVINSSON Bjoergvin (ISL), CHENAL Joel (FRA), IKUTA Yasuhiro (JPN), SEMPLE Ryan (CAN), ZARDINI Edoardo (ITA), BAUMANN Romed (AUT), MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas (FRA), KOGLER Stefan (GER), IMBODEN Urs (MDA), DRAGSIC Mitja (SLO), VALENCIC Mitja (SLO), STUTZ Paul (CAN), ANSELMET Alexandre (FRA), RAZZOLI Giuliano (ITA), ALBRECHT Kilian (BUL), TREJBAL Filip (CZE), BANK Ondrej (CZE), BIGGS Patrick (CAN), KELLEY Tim (USA), JANSRUD Kjetil (NOR), KARLSEN Truls Ove (NOR), KOLL Alexander (AUT), MINAGAWA Kentaro (JPN), SASAKI Akira (JPN), COCHRAN Jimmy (USA)