Val d'Isere: Miller snags fifth win of season

By Published On: February 3rd, 2008Comments Off on Val d'Isere: Miller snags fifth win of season

Bode Miller picked up his 30th win and his fifth World Cup title by taking the super combined at Val d'Isere Sunday.
    Miller followed the successful game plan from Chamonix and Kitzbuehel, putting a huge lead on the field in the downhill and then skiing a solid, low risk slalom run. He came home with a .38 of a second lead over runner-up Ivica Kostelic. Natko Zrncic-Dim, a Croatian teammate of Kostelic, was third .99 back giving the nation its first two podium result in World Cup history.
    With his fifth win of the season Miller has now matched Benjamin Raich for sixth on the all time win list among men. Thirty wins also matches Ivica's sister Janica Kostelic's World Cup total.
    Jean-Baptiste Grange, the only man who had a chance to unseat Miller from the combined title, failed to complete the slalom leg of the race.

Bode Miller picked up his 30th win and his fifth World Cup title by taking the super combined at Val d'Isere Sunday.
    Miller followed the successful game plan from Chamonix and Kitzbuehel, putting a huge lead on the field in the downhill and then skiing a solid, low risk slalom run. He came home with a .38 of a second lead over runner-up Ivica Kostelic. Natko Zrncic-Dim, a Croatian teammate of Kostelic, was third .99 back giving the nation its first two podium result in World Cup history.
    With his fifth win of the season Miller has now matched Benjamin Raich for sixth on the all time win list among men. Thirty wins also matches Ivica's sister Janica Kostelic's World Cup total.
     Jean-Baptiste Grange, the only man who had a chance to unseat Miller from the combined title, failed to complete the slalom leg of the race. Miller wins the World Cup combined title 410-256 over Kostelic.
    “I’m happy to have won one of the globes I hadn’t won yet,” said Miller, who won another super G Cup last winter. “This year it has been an interesting battle for it with many top champions getting on the podium since the season started.”
    Miller won after putting up a massive 1.37 second margin over the field in the downhill leg.
    "He put down a really good downhill run," said his Team America coach John McBride. "He went a little bit conservative at the top, but he just hammered the bottom. For sure that was why he won the combined."
    “I did a couple of mistakes on the top part of the downhill and I was a little surprised to clock such a fast time at the finish,” Miller said. “But my new skis were fantastic in the turns, giving me amazing speed when it mattered.
    “This slope is for sure special, very demanding from top to bottom and I can imagine that the course setters design a straighter run next year for the World Championships. I don’t know yet if I’ll be back here in 2009,” Miller said later on during the post-race press conference.
    “I didn’t take risks in the slalom, at one point I was even laughing at myself because I felt incredibly slow. My tactic today was to start the slalom with a big lead on the slalom skiers and do my best to come down without making major mistakes.”
    “With the equipment I have now, I know I’m on the safe side without any big problem.”
    McBride said the slalom course was more than a little challenging. "It was tough," he said. "It was soft snow and a tight set. It got pretty beat up. It was a grindy, choppy course by the time he saw it racing 30th. He skied smart and did what he had to do."
    Kostelic made up most of 2.26 second disadvantage in the slalom leg, but Miller was able to hold him off without taking any unnecessary risks.
    The coach said he was anxious to see how well Miller could fare in a standard two-run slalom. "I'm definitely looking forward to see how he does in the up-coming slaloms," McBride said. "He's done a good job and he's getting more and more comfortable with his equipment. I know, ideally, this (conservative approach) is not the way he wants to ski a slalom. I'd like to see him really get on a slalom. But my hat is off to him for skiing a great race today."
    Slalom are next up on the men's schedule, one in Garmisch, Germany Feb. 9 and in Zagreb Feb. 17.

    — Patrick Lang contributed to this report 


The SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men's combined, Val
d'Isere, France, Feb. 3, 2008
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Miller, Head/Head/Tyrolia
2 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
3 Zrncic-Dim, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Schoenfelder, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
5 Gorza, Fischer/Lange/
6 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
7 Albrecht, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
8 Janka, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
9 Lizeroux, Fischer/Lange/Fischer
10 Scheiber, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

 
Men's super combined, Val d'Isere, France, Feb. 3, 2008. … It is the 28th race of the men's 31 event 2008 World Cup schedule. … It is the fifth and final combined of the men's schedule. … It is the second of two races set at Val d'Isere, the downhill having been rescheduled to Kvitfjell due to heavy snowfall. … It is the 144th World Cup race held at least in part at Val d'Isere. … The 15th combined. … but just the second since 1997.
    It is the 30th career World Cup win for Bode Miller, moving him to sixth all time among men, tied with Benjamin Raich. … It is his fifth of the season, tying him with Denise Karbon for most seasonal victories. … It is his fifth career Cup combined win and third of the season. … He has finished in the top four of all five combineds this season. … It is the 183rd U.S. World Cup win all time. … And the tenth U.S. win of the season. … The combined schedule is completed, giving Miller his fifth career World Cup title. … It is the first combined title he will be awarded, though he topped the standings in 2003 there were an insufficient number of combineds held.
    It is the 19th career World Cup podium for Ivica Kostelic. … His fourth in combined and his third in combined this season.
    It is the first career podium for Natko Zrncic-Dim and the first double podium for Croatia. … His best previous result was ninth in combined at Wengen earlier this season Jan. 11.
    It is the 13th scoring result of the season for Ted Ligety, his second worst finish.
    Winning margin is .38 of a second. … Third is .99 back. … Top 12 are within two seconds. … Miller leads the World Cup overall standings 1067-945 over Benjamin Raich (sixth in race). … Didier Cuche (27th in race) is third overall with 882pts. … Miller wins the combined title 410-256 over Kostelic. … Daniel Albrecht (seventh in race) is third in combined with 245pts. … Austria leads the men's Nations Cup standings 4809-2900 over Switzerland. … The U.S. is third at 2456.


Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Run 1 Run 2 Total Time FIS Points
 1  16  532431 MILLER Bode  1977  USA   1:33.88  44.57  2:18.45  0.00
 2  18  380260 KOSTELIC Ivica  1979  CRO   1:36.14  42.69  2:18.83  2.74
 3  13  380292 ZRNCIC-DIM Natko  1986  CRO   1:36.06  43.38  2:19.44  7.15
 4  22  50547 SCHOENFELDER Rainer  1977  AUT   1:36.18  43.36  2:19.54  7.87
 5  3  560406 GORZA Ales  1980  SLO   1:35.97  43.66  2:19.63  8.52
 6  20  50625 RAICH Benjamin  1978  AUT   1:36.86  42.88  2:19.74  9.32
 7  19  510993 ALBRECHT Daniel  1983  SUI   1:35.61  44.17  2:19.78  9.61
 8  40  511313 JANKA Carlo  1986  SUI   1:35.98  43.83  2:19.81  9.82
 9  1  191459 LIZEROUX Julien  1979  FRA   1:37.29  42.90  2:20.19  12.57
 10  25  51005 SCHEIBER Mario  1983  AUT   1:36.07  44.17  2:20.24  12.93
 11  23  510997 BERTHOD Marc  1983  SUI   1:36.85  43.41  2:20.26  13.07
 12  6  510727 DEFAGO Didier  1977  SUI   1:35.25  45.15  2:20.40  14.08
 13  4  292967 EISATH Florian  1984  ITA   1:36.12  44.78  2:20.90  17.70
 14  15  292455 FILL Peter  1982  ITA   1:35.99  45.08  2:21.07  18.92
 15  49  480736 HOROSHILOV Alexandr  1984  RUS   1:37.03  44.21  2:21.24  20.15
 16  36  293550 MARSAGLIA Matteo  1985  ITA   1:36.90  44.43  2:21.33  20.80
 17  9  560332 JERMAN Andrej  1978  SLO   1:36.57  44.78  2:21.35  20.95
 18  10  293006 INNERHOFER Christof  1984  ITA   1:36.85  44.64  2:21.49  21.96
 19  31  191462 PAQUIN Pierre  1979  FRA   1:37.58  43.95  2:21.53  22.25
 20  39  292056 GUFLER Michael  1979  ITA   1:37.20  44.44  2:21.64  23.04
 21  46  292514 HEEL Werner  1982  ITA   1:36.50  45.31  2:21.81  24.27
 22  17  534562 LIGETY Ted  1984  USA   1:37.80  44.06  2:21.86  24.63
 23  37  150644 KRYZL Krystof  1986  CZE   1:37.45  44.85  2:22.30  27.81
 24  43  192932 FAYED Guillermo  1985  FRA   1:36.91  45.43  2:22.34  28.10
 25  8  51215 BAUMANN Romed  1986  AUT   1:37.30  45.21  2:22.51  29.32
 26  28  501026 RAINER Niklas  1983  SWE   1:37.21  45.38  2:22.59  29.90
 27  29  510030 CUCHE Didier  1974  SUI   1:36.94  45.69  2:22.63  30.19
 28  32  292491 MOELGG Manfred  1982  ITA   1:38.33  44.58  2:22.91  32.21
 29  11  421400 MYHRE Lars Elton  1984  NOR   1:37.58  45.72  2:23.30  35.03
 30  48  150594 TREJBAL Filip  1985  CZE   1:38.44  44.93  2:23.37  35.54
 31  35  191740 CLAREY Johan  1981  FRA   1:37.64  45.99  2:23.63  37.41
 32  27  560447 SPORN Andrej  1981  SLO   1:37.01  46.97  2:23.98  39.94
 33  52  50742 REICHELT Hannes  1980  AUT   1:37.87  46.12  2:23.99  40.01
 34  42  561085 KRIZAJ Andrej  1986  SLO   1:37.59  46.66  2:24.25  41.89
 35  50  20174 VIDOSA Roger  1984  AND   1:39.63  44.90  2:24.53  43.91
 36  24  102727 STUTZ Paul  1983  CAN   1:39.61  45.04  2:24.65  44.78
 37  47  380298 SIROKI Tin  1987  CRO   1:39.07  46.61  2:25.68  52.22
 38  38  292150 HAPPACHER Alex  1979  ITA   1:38.89  47.13  2:26.02  54.68
 39  51  301312 SASAKI Akira  1981  JPN   1:41.24  45.78  2:27.02  61.90
 40  53  60159 VAN BUYNDER Frederik  1988  BEL   1:50.95  51.20  2:42.15  171.18
 41  45  201606 KEPPLER Stephan  1983  GER   1:36.91  1:12.99  2:49.90  227.16

 

picture   Official timekeeper

Did not start 1st run : MATT Mario (AUT), OLSSON Hans (SWE)
Did not start 2nd run : SOLBAKKEN Bjarne (NOR), MICKEL Finlay (GBR), BOURQUE Francois (CAN), GUAY Erik (CAN)
Did not finish 1st run : DIXON Robbie (CAN), WEIBRECHT Andrew (USA), LANNING Thomas (tj) (USA)
Did not finish 2nd run : BRANCH Craig (AUS), JANYK Michael (CAN), THEAUX Adrien (FRA), GRANGE Jean-Baptiste (FRA), LARSSON Markus (SWE), KUCERA John (CAN), STAUDACHER Patrick (ITA)

 

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About the Author: Pete Rugh