ALPINE:

Canada's Cousineau, White score in Val d'Isere slalom

Dec. 12, 2010     ♦ Photo: Julien Cousineau now has back-to-back top-10 finishes this season

VAL D'ISERE, France  — Canada enjoyed its best day of the young alpine World Cup tech season Sunday, with Julien Cousineau fifth and Trevor White 12th in a slalom at Val d'Isere.

Austria's Marcel Hirscher won the race, with a two-run time of 1 minute, 44.70 seconds, with countryman Benni Raich second and France's Steve Missillier third.

Hirscher, who was fourth after the first run, clocked 53.06 seconds in the afternoon to win his first World Cup slalom. Competitors with late start numbers — including Hirscher — had to ski into shade on the upper part of the course and had to cope with a quickly deteriorating Face de Bellevarde course.

"I like Val d'Isere and Val d'Isere likes me," said Hirscher, who posted his first World Cup victory in the French Alps when he won a giant slalom last year.

"This slope is very steep, there are a lot of rolls and you need to have a very good technique to win here. And good technique is probably my best weapon."

With the victory Hirscher climbed to third in the overall World Cup standings with 200 points. Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway leads the standings ahead of Ted Ligety with 236 points, 15 more than his American rival. Ligety was 25th Sunday.

"Slalom used to be my best discipline when I started, but I struggled in that event in the past years," Hirscher said. "It makes this win even more special."

Raich climbed up to fourth overall with 188 points and said his second place will boost his confidence.

"I'm very happy with this result given that I had back problems last week," said the former Olympic champion. "Today the key was to push very hard and to ski with good tactics."

American Bode Miller and slalom World Cup leader Jean-Baptiste Grange of France — who won the season's first World Cup slalom last month at Levi, Finland — went out for the second consecutive day.

Grange, who missed most of last season with a serious knee injury, made several mistakes on the upper part then straddled a gate near the finish and lost a ski to the disappointment of the local fans.

"I can't really explain what happened," Grange said. "I already experienced huge disappointment on this course, I don't know whether I don't like this course or the course doesn't like me."

Miller missed a gate on the upper part, climbed up the slope for another attempt only for the former World Cup overall champion to go out a short time later.

Manfred Pranger of Austria, who claimed the world slalom title on the same course last year, was also among the 23 skiers who went out in the first run.

Hirscher claimed his first World Cup win last year when he won a giant slalom on the same course.

Frenchman Missillier, who was lagging 1.80 behind after the first run, came back impressively on his 26th birthday with a third-place finish, 0.56 back.

"Let's hope this first podium finish won't be the last," said Missillier after receiving a birthday cake in the press room. "I needed to be fast and I took all the risks because on such a difficult slope it's impossible not to make mistakes."

Canadians Patrick Biggs, Brad Spence and Michael Janyk did not finish their second runs, and Paul Stutz skied out in the opening run. Janyk was ninth in the first run.

Cousineau equaled his career-best result in slalom, as he previously ranked fifth at Schladming, Austria, last season.

He clocked in a two-run combined time of 2:45.83. This is Cousineau's second top-10 result in as many races this season, and his seventh career top 10 in World Cup slalom.

"I would have loved a podium. I just tried to charge as hard as I could, but I came out on the wrong side. It's coming though, I know it. I've come long ways in the last couple of years. I've been fighting my way back for the last four years and now I'm where I want to be and where I think I should be. But I want more, so we'll see," said Cousineau who has been one of the most consistent Canadian athletes on the technical team since last season.

"Since the end of last season I've been battling for the podium. It's good. It's where I've wanted to be. Now it's time to take it to the next level and be on the podium, not just a contender. We'll work on that with the coaches and in Zagreb we'll try and be better."

The second run of the slalom event was very bumpy and the visibility made it hard for the athletes.

"I told myself, 'I'm not holding anything back.' I tried everything I could. Unfortunately, I was really aggressive and made a bunch of mistakes, not dealing properly with the ruts and with the light," said Cousineau.

White was 21th after the first run and managed to have a fast second run and jump up nine positions. This is White's second-best career result in a World Cup event.

"Today was good. It was a good result. Val d'isere is such a tough hill. It's steep, dark and relentless. It was really hard to charge today so I just tried to ski solid," said White. "There were a lot of casualties out there. But me coming in 12th and Cousi fifth, I think we did pretty solid today. Unfortunately, some of our guys were some of the casualties, but that's the way it goes."

The White Circus is on its way to Alta Badia, Italy, for a giant slalom event Friday and Val Gardena, Italy, for a downhill and super-G event on Saturday and Sunday.

The men's downhill in Val Gardena will be broadcasted on CBC's main network Saturday from 2-3 p.m ET as well as on Radio-Canada from 12:30-2 p.m. ET. S-Magazine

— The Canadian Press and Alpine Canada contributed to this report

Val d'Isere men's World Cup slalom results