ALPINE:

Bode Miller back on top with Wengen super-combi win

Jan. 15, 2010          

►Photos: Bode Miller, above and below; Canadian Ryan Semple from the recent Zagreb slalom (Agence Zoom)

Bode Miller won a World Cup super-combined event Friday on the Lauberhorn course for his first victory since March 2008.

The American completed his slalom run in 49.05 seconds after leading the downhill for a combined time of 2 minutes, 35.96 seconds.

Miller won his 32nd career World Cup race ahead of the Vancouver Olympics. He missed much of the offseason while he considered retiring and had to skip recent races to rest an injured right ankle.

Carlo Janka of Switzerland was 0.37 back in second, and Swiss teammate Silvan Zurbriggen was third. Ted Ligety of the United States placed fifth, 1.27 seconds behind Miller.

"Winning was great," Miller said. "It's a great time of the year for me to be moving forward.

"The main thing right now is to make my ankle injury as strong as it can be and make the equipment 100 percent in all the events."

The 32-year-old Miller promised to go all out for victory after an impressive downhill run gave him a 0.69 cushion on Janka, who won the Wengen super-combi last year. He also revealed that skiing aggressively gives him the least pain in the technically demanding slalom discipline.

Miller skied without major errors, then turned to look up at the race clock and giant screen for several seconds after crossing the finish line. He tapped his ski poles behind his back in a small gesture of satisfaction before spinning to face the crowd. He stood still for several seconds more as if savoring the moment, then was greeted by a grinning Zurbriggen, who heartily grabbed Miller's fist before Janka offered his congratulations.

Miller last finished on the podium as runner-up in the classic Lauberhorn downhill exactly one year ago. He won the race in 2007 and '08 and will be one of the favorites on Saturday.

Benjamin Raich, who placed fourth, maintained his lead in the overall World Cup standings. The 31-year-old Austrian holds a 32-point lead over Janka.

Ligety is seventh overall with 362 points. Miller moved up to ninth place with 318 points.

In the morning run, the American finished in 1:46.91 seconds over a shortened version of the classic downhill piste that will be raced Saturday.

"I made some big mistakes," Miller said after that run. "I could have been another second faster than I did."

Janka was second and Dominik Paris of Italy was third after the downhill portion.

Ryan Sample was the only Canadian to score points, placing 23rd on the day after finishing 33rd in the downhill portion from the 48th start position.

Louis-Pierre Helie placed 53rd in the downhill but did not finish the slalom. Manny Osborne-Paradis was 34th in the downhill leg, from the 63rd start slot, but did not run the slalom.

Semple climbed 10 spots during the second run after finishing the opening downhill run 33rd. For the resilient Semple, who qualified for the World Cup super-combined by finishing second in the Nor-Am super-combi standings last season, the result marks his first World Cup points since 2007.

"I feel pretty good about today, I'm happy I scored points. To be honest, I was more focused on the downhill run because I knew that if I didn't get a good result I wouldn't have been able to do well in the slalom. I actually skied the downhill better than the slalom today," said Semple.

"It was good to get a feel of the slalom track. It helps me become more prepared for Sunday and just gets me really stoked for Sunday's slalom race.”

Miller earned his first World Cup victory since winning a downhill in Kvitfjell, Norway, in March 2008. His best previous result this season was fourth in the downhill in Beaver Creek, Colo., last month. One week later, he was fifth in the super-combi at Val d'Isere, France.

"I feel like I have a setup now in all four events where I can be a threat to win and be on the podium," Miller said. "It's been a long time since I really felt like that."

Miller won his third World Cup super-combined.

"Earlier this year, I could've won races, but it would have taken some other things to happen — better conditions for me, or other guys having some difficulties" Miller said. "But the way I have my setups now, I feel like anybody can ski their best and I can go down and beat them if I ski well."

"Hearing the national anthem, it feels good," said U.S. men’s head coach Sasha Rearick. "Bode put down one hell of a run in the downhill. That was impressive."

"It was a great day for me just that in I made a breakthrough in my equipment," Miller said. "It's been a frustrating season a little bit because we haven't had very consistent conditions, and I was so far behind at the beginning of the year with no testing all summer. I didn't even ski until September, so we've been kind of plugging away and trying to figure out all the different things in all four events, and today was the first day that I had a downhill setup that I really felt that I could win on."

Starting the downhill sixth in fair conditions under the Eiger, Miller improved on the time of early leader Paris at each interval, then watched 54 other skiers fail to challenge his pace.

"I couldn't have skied another second faster than I did today," Miller said after the downhill run.

Miller kept the same boot and skied with a first-time setup in the slalom run — sans warm-up or training.

"I was just a little nervous to rip right out of the gate and try to put down turns, especially with Janka skiing well, and I didn't have a ton of time to play with," Miller said.

"That's always a little bit tough for someone with 400 World Cup races, you know that's not the best way to go out there and try to win, but I have to do it. I just started so late this year that I had no time to test and no time to run new equipment, so I was really happy, under those circumstances especially, to go out there and finish two solid runs."

Ligety is two spots ahead of Miller in the World Cup standings in seventh after a solid downhill run in 16th and a slalom that was the day’s fifth fastest in front of a record attendance of 17,500.

"For a guy with his ability and his downhill experience, fantastic execution," Rearick said of the first run. Ligety said he was "more toward the side of taking it easy” in the slalom.

"I just wanted to try and get a little bit of confidence back and try to make it to the finish line not being too slow," Ligety said. "My skiing's going well, it's just a matter of finishing and being able to push it hard in the race."

Michael Walchhofer of Austria, the World Cup downhill champion, almost crashed out when his left hip hit the snow after posting the fastest first time split in the morning.

"I hit a bump but it was not too fast," said Walchhofer, who later had his left thumb taped. "There will be no problem for (Saturday)." 

The men’s World Cup event in Wengen continues Saturday with the famous downhill race.

The men’s downhill race will be live on cbcsports.ca and bold TV starting at 6:20 a.m. ET. It will be broadcast on the main network starting at 3 p.m. ET. The race is on Radio-Canada.ca and Radio-Canada at the same times.  SRC

— The Canadian Press, Alpine Canada and the U.S. Ski Team contributed to this report

---

Wengen men's World Cup super-combined results

1	6	532431	MILLER Bode	1977	USA	1:46.91	49.05	2:35.96	0.00
2	19	511313	JANKA Carlo	1986	SUI	1:47.60	48.73	2:36.33	2.94
3	18	510890	ZURBRIGGEN Silvan	1981	SUI	1:48.87	47.51	2:36.38	3.34
4	22	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	1:49.32	47.35	2:36.67	5.65
5	31	534562	LIGETY Ted	1984	USA	1:49.24	47.99	2:37.23	10.10
6	9	380260	KOSTELIC Ivica	1979	CRO	1:49.62	47.70	2:37.32	10.81
7	25	150398	BANK Ondrej	1980	CZE	1:49.36	48.05	2:37.41	11.53
8	17	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	1:48.61	48.92	2:37.53	12.48
9	15	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:49.63	48.12	2:37.75	14.23
10	10	293006	INNERHOFER Christof	1984	ITA	1:48.94	48.88	2:37.82	14.79
11	3	421483	JANSRUD Kjetil	1985	NOR	1:49.56	48.30	2:37.86	15.11
12	7	511383	FEUZ Beat	1987	SUI	1:48.63	49.65	2:38.28	18.45
13	30	192746	THEAUX Adrien	1984	FRA	1:48.61	49.68	2:38.29	18.53
14	2	291459	PARIS Dominik	1989	ITA	1:47.76	50.55	2:38.31	18.68
15	47	501076	OLSSON Hans	1984	SWE	1:49.84	48.71	2:38.55	20.59
16	14	421400	MYHRE Lars Elton	1984	NOR	1:50.86	47.95	2:38.81	22.66
17	40	560447	SPORN Andrej	1981	SLO	1:48.37	50.54	2:38.91	23.45
18	37	192932	FAYED Guillermo	1985	FRA	1:49.81	49.53	2:39.34	26.87
19	1	51327	PUCHNER Joachim	1987	AUT	1:48.46	51.01	2:39.47	27.91
20	39	511139	KUENG Patrick	1984	SUI	1:48.57	50.96	2:39.53	28.38
20	27	192504	MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas	1984	FRA	1:51.20	48.33	2:39.53	28.38
22	11	292491	MOELGG Manfred	1982	ITA	1:51.93	47.62	2:39.55	28.54
23	48	102403	SEMPLE Ryan	1982	CAN	1:50.56	49.06	2:39.62	29.10
24	13	511352	VILETTA Sandro	1986	SUI	1:50.67	49.27	2:39.94	31.64
25	4	292291	THANEI Stefan	1981	ITA	1:48.43	51.53	2:39.96	31.80
26	23	50041	WALCHHOFER Michael	1975	AUT	1:49.64	50.55	2:40.19	33.63
27	49	201606	KEPPLER Stephan	1983	GER	1:49.59	50.96	2:40.55	36.49
28	43	292831	PIERUZ Aronne	1983	ITA	1:50.71	49.91	2:40.62	37.05
29	26	290998	STAUDACHER Patrick	1980	ITA	1:49.90	50.76	2:40.66	37.37
30	28	191778	PICHOT Sebastien	1981	FRA	1:51.28	49.69	2:40.97	39.83
31	34	560332	JERMAN Andrej	1978	SLO	1:49.87	51.23	2:41.10	40.87
32	44	201900	WAGNER Hannes	1986	GER	1:50.91	50.21	2:41.12	41.03
33	61	534959	JITLOFF Tim	1985	USA	1:51.85	49.29	2:41.14	41.18
34	51	201987	STRODL Andreas	1987	GER	1:49.94	51.24	2:41.18	41.50
35	38	511039	KREUZER Ralf	1983	SUI	1:48.67	52.64	2:41.31	42.54
36	29	501026	RAINER Niklas	1983	SWE	1:50.99	51.05	2:42.04	48.34
37	55	150594	TREJBAL Filip	1985	CZE	1:53.98	48.39	2:42.37	50.96
38	21	380292	ZRNCIC-DIM Natko	1986	CRO	1:53.50	49.06	2:42.56	52.47
39	50	380291	RATKIC Ivan	1986	CRO	1:52.43	50.81	2:43.24	57.88
40	54	20174	VIDOSA Roger	1984	AND	1:53.24	50.54	2:43.78	62.17
41	57	30149	SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier	1980	ARG	1:54.44	49.53	2:43.97	63.69
42	12	480736	HOROSHILOV Alexandr	1984	RUS	1:52.07	52.03	2:44.10	64.72
Disqualified 2nd run
	59	430429	BYDLINSKI Maciej	1988	POL
	8	500656	LARSSON Markus	1979	SWE
Disqualified 1st run
	60	60159	VAN BUYNDER Frederik	1988	BEL
	42	51332	SCHEIBER Florian	1987	AUT
Did not start 2nd run
	63	102899	OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel	1984	CAN
	62	50753	KROELL Klaus	1980	AUT
	56	150421	ZAHROBSKY Petr	1980	CZE
	33	51005	SCHEIBER Mario	1983	AUT
	32	50858	STREITBERGER Georg	1981	AUT
	24	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI
Did not start 1st run
	36	293550	MARSAGLIA Matteo	1985	ITA
Did not finish 2nd run
	58	700724	BABUSIAK Jaroslav	1984	SVK
	53	561085	KRIZAJ Andrej	1986	SLO
	52	990081	CASSE Mattia	1990	ITA
	46	530939	WEIBRECHT Andrew	1986	USA
	45	561087	MARKIC Gasper	1986	SLO
	41	103090	HELIE Louis-Pierre	1986	CAN
	35	191740	CLAREY Johan	1981	FRA
	16	191459	LIZEROUX Julien	1979	FRA
	5	150644	KRYZL Krystof	1986	CZE
Did not finish 1st run
	20	51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT