Alta Badia: Grange gets first win, Ligety third

Jean-Bapitiste Grange brought France its first World Cup win of the season Monday, Dec. 17 on the steep Gran Risa slope of Alta Badia, Italy winning the second slalom held at the GS classic site.
    Putting up a strong first run and a stronger second, Grange powered to a three-quarters of a second margin over German Felix Neureuther to collect his first career win. American Ted Ligety, just 12th after the first run, moved up to the podium with a dazzling second run over a course that eliminated seven competitors and caused grief for many more.
    Swede Andre Myhrer, second after the first run, dropped to 22nd with a mistake chocked second run and Italian Manfred Moelgg backed from sixth to 20th in the second run.
    Jimmy Cochran posted eighth. Benjamin Raich and Bode Miller both failed to finish the first course along with 13 other skiers.

Jean-Bapitiste Grange brought France its first World Cup win of the season Monday, Dec. 17 on the steep Gran Risa slope of Alta Badia, Italy winning the second slalom held at the GS classic site.
    Putting up a strong first run and a stronger second, Grange powered to a three-quarters of a second margin over German Felix Neureuther to collect his first career win. American Ted Ligety, just 12th after the first run, moved up to the podium with a dazzling second run over a course that eliminated seven competitors and caused grief for many more.
    Swede Andre Myhrer, second after the first run, dropped to 22nd with a mistake chocked second run and Italian Manfred Moelgg backed from sixth to 20th in the second run.
    Jimmy Cochran posted eighth. Benjamin Raich and Bode Miller both failed to finish the first course along with 13 other skiers.
     Ligety said he hadn't watched other skiers on course and wasn't sure why only four skiers were within two seconds of Grange.
    "It's dark," he said. "It's in the shade all day, the top is pretty steep and then a good roll and it flattens out some, and another roll at the bottom. It's definitely a challenging hill. But it's not the hardest hill in the world. Some of the guys were making speed. Grange beat me down pretty hard."
    (Click here to listen to Ligety talk to Patrick Lang about his finish Monday )
    Grange, who won the bronze medal in slalom at last season's World Championships in Are, Sweden said he was angry after failing to qualify for the second run of Sunday's giant slalom on the Gran Risa. The anger seemed to work for him, but it didn't hurt that Andre Myhrer, Markus Larsson and Mario Matt, the 2-3-4 skiers after the first run, skied off course in the second leg. Manfred Pranger, who was seventh, and Jens Byggmark, who was ninth, also had trouble. It also didn’t hurt that Grange's coach Jacques Theolier set the second run.
    But his career took flight, he said, when he got that bronze medal last season.
    "The turning point in my career came in Are," Grange said. "I proved something to myself and showed I can do it, and that helped me excel today and handle the pressure."
    World Cup leader Raich was the first skier on course in the opening run and went out after 30 seconds. ''It's the first time I've gone out in a slalom since last year here,'' Raich said. ''Once a year is OK.''
    Ligety moved to fourth in the overall standings behnd Raich, and the Swiss skiers Didier Cuche and Daniel Albrecht. "Yeah, my season is going great," he said. "I'm super pschyed  in GS. I know I can be with any of those guys and I'm pschyed about the consistency. It was nice to pull down a result in slalom, that's been a tough one this year."
    With a couple of disciplines working, Ligety could stay near the top of the charts a long time, though he says the overall is not a goal this season. In the meantime, he and Grange and Neureuther, all 23, took delight in dousing each other in bubbly together on the podium. "It's cool to be on the podium with guys you've been skiing with for a long time and that are good friends," Ligety said. — AP contributed to this report.

The SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment, Men's Slalom, Alta Badia, Italy, Dec. 17, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Grange, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
2 Neureuther, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Ligety, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
4 Herbst, Blizzard/Tecnica/Marker
5 Vajdic, Elan//Atomic
6 Palander, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
7 Gini, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
8 Cochran, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
9 Lizeroux, Fischer/Lange/Fischer
10 Sasaki, Blizzard/Tecnica/Marker

Men's Slalom, Alta Badia, Italy, Dec. 17, 2007. … It is the 14th race of the men's 41 event 2007-08 World Cup schedule. … It is the third of 11 scheduled slaloms. … There are four scheduled on consecutive weekends in January. … It is the 26th World Cup race held at Alta Badia. … The second slalom with the first having been held last season. … World Cup racing started at Alta Badia in December 1986 and has missed just one season since 1990.
    It is the first career World Cup win for Jean-Baptiste Grange. … He was second earlier this season in combined at Beaver Creek, and has been fourth twice in slalom, at Kranjska Gora March 4, 2007 and at Reiteralm Nov. 11 this season. … It is the third French win at Alta Badia after Joel Chenal in GS Dec. 19, 1999 and Frederic Covili in GS Dec. 16, 2001, which was the last French GS win. … The last French win in any World Cup discipline came from Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin in DH Jan. 20, 2007.
    Felix Neureuther matched his career best result from the Garmisch slalom of Feb. 25, 2007. … It is his third career podium having also placed third in slalom at Beaver Creek Dec. 3, 2006. … It is the third podium of the season for Germany, the first for a male skier as the other two have come from Maria Riesch. … He is the only German male to score a Cup podium since Alois Vogl in January 2006.
    It is the ninth career World Cup podium for Ted Ligety. … His fifth in slalom. … It is his third podium of the season and first in slalom, the others coming in GS. … Five of his seven scoring results this season are fifth or better.
    It is the second best career result for Jimmy Cochran, the best a seventh in slalom at Kransjka Gora Dec. 21, 2005. … Canadian Paul Stutz just missed the cut for a second run finishing 31st by four hundredths of a second. … Michael Janyk finished 23rd but did not receive points.
    Winning margin is .74 of a second. … Top two were within the sam
e second. … Top four with two seconds. … 14th was more than three seconds back. … Benjamin Raich (DNF in race) maintains the lead in the World Cup overall standings 521-453 over Didier Cuche (did not race). … Daniel Albrecht (21st in race) sits third at 366. … Ted Ligety is now the top American on the overall list in fourth place with 335pts. … Grange takes control of the slalom standings 176-149 over Marc Gini (seventh in race). … Raich is third at 136 and Manfred Moelgg (20th in race) is fourth with 131pts. … Ligety, in 15th is the top American on the slalom list with 60pts, all from today's race. … Andre Myhrer and Michael Janyk did not receive points in 22nd and 23rd place respectively due to time back of the leader. Austria leads the overall Nations Cup standings (men and women) 4312-2384 for Switzerland. … Italy is third at 1995 and the U.S. fourth at 1836. … Canada holds fifth at 1237.

Did not finish 1st run : KANG Min Heuk (KOR), SAMSAL Dalibor (CRO), BYLUND Peter (SWE), COUSINEAU Julien (CAN), VRABLIK Martin (CZE), IKUTA Yasuhiro (JPN), HIRSCHER Marcel (AUT), MCDONALD Paul (USA), SEMPLE Ryan (CAN), VILETTA Sandro (SUI), MILLER Bode (USA), VOGL Alois (GER), BERTHOD Marc (SUI), RAICH Benjamin (AUT)

Did not finish 2nd run : RAZZOLI Giuliano (ITA), KARLSEN Truls Ove (NOR), MINAGAWA Kentaro (JPN), PRANGER Manfred (AUT), MATT Mario (AUT), BYGGMARK Jens (SWE), LARSSON Markus (SWE)

Disqualified 1st run : JANSRUD Kjetil (NOR)

Did not qualify 1st run : SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier (ARG), SANDELL Marcus (FIN), GEORGIEV Stefan (BUL), BAXTER Alain (GBR), BECHTER Patrick (AUT), BJOERGVINSSON Bjoergvin (ISL), INNERHOFER Christof (ITA), BAXTER Noel (GBR), OBERT Anthony (FRA), MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas (FRA), BAUMANN Romed (AUT), KOGLER Stefan (GER), BRENNER Hannes (AUT), IMBODEN Urs (MDA), JANKA Carlo (SUI), YUASA Naoki (JPN), LEINO Jukka (FIN), MARSHALL Cody (USA), MISSILLIER Steve (FRA), OMMINGER Andreas (AUT), DRAGSIC Mitja (SLO), VALENCIC Mitja (SLO), STUTZ Paul (CAN), ANSELMET Alexandre (FRA), HARGIN Mattias (SWE), ALBRECHT Kilian (BUL), TREJBAL Filip (CZE), BIGGS Patrick (CAN), KELLEY Tim (USA), ANDERSSON Oscar (SWE)