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Bode
Miller out of reach in Park City’s
GS.
Bode Miller achieved another impressive performance in Saturday’s World Cup giant slalom at Park City in winning his second race in a row with a blistering second run. The New Hampshire native was 86/100 of a second faster than Austria’s Andreas Schifferer, the 1998 downhill World Cup champion, while Hans Knauss, also from Austria came in 3rd with a delay of a full second.
Knauss set the fastest time in the first leg, 11/100 ahead of Miller who is the first American male racer to win on American soil since the triumph of Bill Johnson back in 1984 in the Aspen downhill. He is also the first male racer from the US Team to reach the podium in Park City.
France’s Frederic Covili, 2nd in Soelden, confirmed his strong form in finishing 4th this time, by far his best result on this slope which he doesn’t like so much. His friend Joel Chenal, 3rd in Soelden, was a far 17th this time after making a major mistake in the first run.
Finland’s Kalle Palander, the defending slalom World Cup Champion, was an surprising 5th his best result ever in GS.
Two Italian skied among the top-10, Massimo Blardone 6th and Arnold Rieder 9th, confirming once more the strength of the “Squadra Azzurra” in this event. The 2003 overall World Cup champion Stephan Eberharter skied out in the second run after an encouraging first leg. Apparently, the Austrian veteran who suffered a bad flue last month, didn’t recover his best form yet in the specialty. But he should fight for his first season’s win in the one of the speed events in Lake Louise.
Eric Schlopy is down
Hermann Maier, who celebrated his first GS victory here back in 1997, also impressed the crowd and the rest of the field with his superb 7th place. He clocked the 4th best time in the morning. Unfortunately, he lost too much time in the afternoon in skiing to aggressively on the rough course. The triple World Cup Champion who started with bib 22, clocked a total time of 2.22,22 – quite an irony! Maier, broke a rib last month in training, was aiming for more after his first run yet he admitted that he was pleased the same at the end of the day. “This is only my third GS race since my accident and I have to come through to get back in the first seed so I can’t ski as relaxed as the other skiers” he said. “Maybe I skied too hard in the second run but that’s OK. The more I race the more I’ll improve in GS. I feel better in the speed events”.
This race was also marked by the tragic accident of USA’s Erik Schlopy who crashed in the first run and injured his anterior cruciate ligament in is left knee. He set the fastest intermediate time before his misfortune. Eric visited Miller before the second run to encourage him. “It’s just too bad to lose such a great competitor, I think who could have finished 1-2 today” said Bode Miller after the race.
This hill is special for Bode
He believed his fourth GS World Cup victory was different from the first in Soelden, Austria last month. “In Soelden I skied very well but here I skied with great intensity” he added. “This hill is special for me because in 1997 I started 69th and finished 11th in my first World Cup race. I was also 2nd in the Olympic race but I wanted more today. To win in front of the home crowd is great. It has been too long since the last US victory at home”.
“I took a lot of risks in the second run which was very rough with all these ruts. I was moving at my limits and I had some problems in some turns. I didn’t expect to be so much ahead the next skier”.
Miller was obviously energized by the home crowd. “I didn’t want to leave anything on the hill because I didn't want to disappoint the crowd. I hope this win will help promoting our sport in this country”.
A difficult second run
Hans Knauss confirmed the difficulties of the second run. He felt his mistake in the second run was due to the bad visibility and to the rough snow conditions. “It was the same for everyone, but the bumps and the ruts are tougher if there is flat light. You had to take a lot of risk but in the same time, you had to be relaxed and that’s what Bode is doing so well”.
A silver medal winner in St Moritz, Knauss won two GS’s last winter, in Adelboden and Lillehammer. At 32, he is the oldest top-10 skier here. “Apparently, experience counted a lot today” he said with a smile. “Now my next goal is to qualify in the downhill team next week in Lake Louise”.
Bode will try hard in the slalom
In Sunday’s slalom, Bode Miller will try to win his first slalom since his last success in Schladming two years ago. He would be the first to win back to back races here. “I skied some great slalom in Soelden where I received a new pair of Rossignol, but last week I did poorly in the Nor-Am race so it’s difficult to predict what I will do tomorrow” he said. “For sure I will go for it as usual”.
Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic, the reigning slalom World Champion, Austria’s Rainer Schoenfelder, a winner here last season, and Kalle Palander are the other top favorites for the race.
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