Whistler: Reichelt gets GS win, Ligety fourth

By Published On: February 24th, 2008Comments Off on Whistler: Reichelt gets GS win, Ligety fourth

Hannes Reichelt won the Whistler GS with a deceptively fast second run over a course set that sent seven skiers off the Dave Murray course.
    First run leader Benjamin Raich finished third behind Didier Cuche to knock Ted Ligety off the podium and gain slightly on Bode Miller for the overall title. Miller finished seventh with s strong and risky run to minimize the damage.
    "He wasn't at his best the last couple of weeks, but he looked great today," said Team America coach Johnno McBride. "He usually comes on strong toward the end of the season."
    With GS standings leader Daniel Albrecht exiting course and third ranked Kalle Palander gone for the season to surgery, the results will stand as critical to the final calculations. Raich moved past Albrecht into the lead but Ligety and Italian Manfred Moelgg — in sixth — also stayed well within touch.
    "I think I have a legitimate shot," said Ligety, who was somewhat critical of the course. "It's not the most technical course out there. The top pitch is about it. The whole way down it’s a full arc [turn] and that doesn’t suit me well, so I'm happy with fourth."

HANNES REICHELT won the Whistler GS with a deceptively fast second run over a course set that sent seven skiers off the Dave Murray course. 
    First run leader Benjamin Raich finished third behind Didier Cuche to knock Ted Ligety off the podium and gain slightly on Bode Miller for the overall title. Miller finished seventh with s strong and risky run to minimize the damage.
    "He wasn't at his best the last couple of weeks, but he looked great today," said Team America coach Johno McBride. "He usually comes on strong toward the end of the season."
    With GS standings leader Daniel Albrecht exiting course and third ranked Kalle Palander gone for the season to surgery, the results will stand as critical to the final calculations. Raich moved past Albrecht into the lead but Ligety and Italian Manfred Moelgg — in sixth — also stayed well within touch.
    "I think I have a legitimate shot," said Ligety, who was somewhat critical of the course. "It's not the most technical course out there. The top pitch is about it. The whole way down it’s a full arc [turn] and that doesn’t suit me well, so I'm happy with fourth."
    U.S. men's head coach Phil McNichol had hoped Ligety would finally win a race, but knows he is capable of clinching the title.
    "I would be really surprised if he were content [with fourth] since he has been skiing extremely fast in training, and he's poised to win a race," McNichol said. "He just hasn't put together two runs and it hasn't fallen on his side of a tenth for that yet. But he's clearly one of the best GS skiers, and he's been banging in and around the podium every race so that's difficult. He's second in the standings right now so he's definitely within striking distance of winning a GS title. That would be a great accomplishment that he's clearly capable of doing, but I would like to see him win a race in the process."    
    He definitely has a good shot. As McNichol said, the result pushed him into second in the GS standings, 23pts behind Raich. Both of them, and Manfred Moelgg all moved past Daniel Albrecht who had been leading the standings before crashing out in the second run.
    Canadian John Kucera posted fifth on the day, his second best career GS finish. It was the third straight race Canadians had been fifth or better without making it onto the podium.
   
With a large amount of chemicals spread on the course to keep it hardened in above freezing temperatures the surface broke up unevenly, and a tricky second run course set was the source of most of the seven second run DNF's. The two youngest skiers in the field, Carlo Janka of Switzerland and Marcus Sandell of Finland took full advantage, putting down blazing second runs and the duo finished with identical times. They led the race for much of the second heat, eventually getting dropped to ninth by the final racers.
    For the third straight race at Whistler the hosting Canadians came close but failed to find the podium. John Kucera posted fifth on the day, his second best career GS finish. The team had fourth place finishes in each of the other two races here.

    In other American news, Erik Schlopy hadn't raced a World Cup in 8 weeks since being at home in Park City, Utah, for the birth of his second child. He placed 19th. "I was pleased with Erik's effort," McNichol said.
    Scholpy would take it: "I haven't felt this good physically in six years," the 35-year-old veteran said. About the track and looking toward the Olympics, he said: "I'm committed, I'm going for it."      


The SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men's Giant Slalom, Whistler, BC, Feb. 23, 2008

Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Reichelt, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
2 Cuche, Head/Head/Tyrolia
3 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Ligety, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
5 Kucera, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6 Moelgg, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
7 Miller, Head/Head/Tyrolia
8 Goergl, Fischer/Lange/Fischer
9 Janka, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
9 Sandell, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

 
Men's Giant Slalom, Whistler, BC, Feb. 23, 2008. … It is the 32nd race of the men's 41 race World Cup schedule. … It is the sixth of eight scheduled GS's. … The first since Adelboden Jan. 5. … It is the third of four races at Whistler in a pre-Olympic course test. … It is the 16 World Cup race held at Whistler, but the first giant slalom for either gender. … Prior to the race no man had won more than one GS this season.
    It is the third career World Cup win for Hannes Reichelt. … All of them have come in North America, two in Beaver Creek and today at Whistler. … It is his first GS win, the other two coming in SG. … It was his second podium of the weekend having also placed second in the SG Feb. 21. … It is his second career GS podium, the other a third place at Adelboden in the last GS held.
    It is the 40th career World Cup podium for Didier Cuche. … His seventh in GS. … It is his tenth podium of the season and second in GS.
    It is the 73rd career World Cup podium for Benjamin Raich. … His 25th in GS. … It is his sixth podium of the season, second in GS.
    It is the 16th time Ted Ligety has been fourth or better in a World Cup race. … The sixth time he has finished fourth. … It is the seventh top four placing of the season and his third fourth place finish of the season, two of them coming in GS. … He has not finished worse than fifth in any of the World Cup GS's this season. … Fifth matched J
ohn Kucera's fourth best career World Cup result, and his second best ever in GS. … His only better GS finish came at Alta Badia earlier this season. …
It is the 118th (of 178 scored finishes) top 10 result for Bode Miller. … It is his 15th best result of the season. … It is the 35th best result of Erik Schlopy's career, which stretches back to 1992.. … It is his best result, of three, this season. … It is the 11th scoring result of the season but first in GS. … It is the third GS scoring result of his World Cup career.
    Winning margin is .39 of a second. … Top six are within the same second. … Top 14 within two seconds. … Bode Miller maintains the lead in the World Cup overall standings 1103-1058 over Benjamin Raich. … Didier Cuche is third at 998 and Ivica Kostelic (15th in race) moves to fourth at 686. … Raich moves into the lead of the GS standings and Ted Ligety moves into second 308-285. … Manfred Moelgg (6th in race) is third at 267 and the leader prior to the race Daniel Albrecht is fourthat 258.

 


Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Run 1 Run 2 Total Time FIS Points
 1  9  50742 REICHELT Hannes  1980  AUT   1:20.79  1:16.64  2:37.43  0.00
 2  3  510030 CUCHE Didier  1974  SUI   1:20.73  1:17.09  2:37.82  2.18
 3  1  50625 RAICH Benjamin  1978  AUT   1:20.53  1:17.34  2:37.87  2.46
 4  5  534562 LIGETY Ted  1984  USA   1:21.02  1:16.93  2:37.95  2.91
 5  10  102873 KUCERA John  1984  CAN   1:21.08  1:17.19  2:38.27  4.70
 6  2  292491 MOELGG Manfred  1982  ITA   1:21.18  1:17.14  2:38.32  4.97
 7  13  532431 MILLER Bode  1977  USA   1:21.64  1:17.00  2:38.64  6.76
 8  11  50600 GOERGL Stephan  1978  AUT   1:21.60  1:17.13  2:38.73  7.27
 9  37  511313 JANKA Carlo  1986  SUI   1:22.57  1:16.20  2:38.77  7.49
 9  24  180534 SANDELL Marcus  1987  FIN   1:21.83  1:16.94  2:38.77  7.49
 11  20  292120 SIMONCELLI Davide  1979  ITA   1:21.43  1:17.84  2:39.27  10.29
 12  15  50451 GRUBER Christoph  1976  AUT   1:21.93  1:17.36  2:39.29  10.40
 13  7  292000 BLARDONE Massimiliano  1979  ITA   1:22.09  1:17.26  2:39.35  10.73
 14  28  191423 RICHARD Cyprien  1979  FRA   1:22.10  1:17.26  2:39.36  10.79
 15  34  380260 KOSTELIC Ivica  1979  CRO   1:22.84  1:16.61  2:39.45  11.29
 16  23  50743 LANZINGER Matthias  1980  AUT   1:22.16  1:17.33  2:39.49  11.51
 17  22  560406 GORZA Ales  1980  SLO   1:22.23  1:17.31  2:39.54  11.79
 18  16  50547 SCHOENFELDER Rainer  1977  AUT   1:21.92  1:17.67  2:39.59  12.07
 19  30  530703 SCHLOPY Erik  1972  USA   1:22.36  1:17.26  2:39.62  12.24
 20  35  180292 LEINO Jukka  1978  FIN   1:22.75  1:16.90  2:39.65  12.41
 21  38  51215 BAUMANN Romed  1986  AUT   1:22.51  1:17.17  2:39.68  12.58
 22  36  191746 DE TESSIERES Gauthier  1981  FRA   1:22.59  1:17.18  2:39.77  13.08
 23  32  102263 GUAY Erik  1981  CAN   1:22.57  1:17.30  2:39.87  13.64

 

picture   Official timekeeper

Did not finish 1st run : STAUDACHER Patrick (ITA)
Did not finish 2nd run : FREY Thomas (FRA), GRANGE Jean-Baptiste (FRA), ROY Jean-Philippe (CAN), SCHEIBER Mario (AUT), MATT Mario (AUT), ALBRECHT Daniel (SUI), BERTHOD Marc (SUI)
Disqualified 1st run : DEFAGO Didier (SUI)
Did not qualify 1st run : THEAUX Adrien (FRA), WEIBRECHT Andrew (USA), NEUREUTHER Felix (GER), BYGGMARK Jens (SWE), GRUENENFELDER Tobias (SUI), DIXON Robbie (CAN), INNERHOFER Christof (ITA), STREITBERGER Georg (AUT), SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier (ARG), MYHRER Andre (SWE), HOFER Beni (SUI), MISSILLIER Steve (FRA), RAINER Niklas (SWE), EISATH Florian (ITA), JITLOFF Tim (USA), BARRETT Scott (CAN), COVILI Frederic (FRA), PICHOT Sebastien (FRA), JANSRUD Kjetil (NOR), GUFLER Michael (ITA), MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas (FRA), BUECHEL Marco (LIE), COCHRAN Jimmy (USA), KARLSEN Truls Ove (NOR), LARSSON Markus (SWE), CHENAL Joel (FRA), SCHIEPPATI Alberto (ITA), FILL Peter (ITA), BOURQUE Francois (CAN)

 

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