ALPINE:

Grange, Kostelic reel in wins in Kitzbühel finale, 4 Canadians score

Jan. 23, 2011      ♦ Photo: Brad Spence was 14th Sunday to lead Canada (www.Brad-Spence.ca)

KITZBÜHEL, Austria — Jean-Baptiste Grange of France won a men's World Cup slalom on Sunday, while Ivica Kostelic of Croatia placed second to take the combined event for his sixth title this month.

Brad Spence was 14th for Canada, with Julien Cousineau 15th, Michael Janyk 17th and Paul Stutz 25th.

Grange overcame a major mistake and avoided falling with his left arm before posting the fastest second-run time and finish in an aggregate 1 minute, 40.93 seconds for his eight career win and second of the season.

He beat Kostelic, who led after the opening leg, by 0.28. It was the first time for the Croatian that he failed to win a race after leading between runs.

Italy's Giuliano Razzoli was 0.69 back in third to equal his result from last year.

"This weekend gave me wings. If you have finished the Streif (downhill), life is much easier," said Kostelic, who won Friday's super-G.

Kostelic was 11th in Saturday's downhill, which counted as a classic combined event with the slalom, and racked up another 180 points Sunday to further extend his lead in the overall standings.

He now has 930 points to lead his main challenger Aksel Lund Svindal by 445. The Norwegian skied out in the slalom and therefore failed to score points in the combined event as well.

"You know, it's a very difficult event for combined racers," Kostelic said. "In previous years, I was always holding back a bit on the slalom as I was thinking about the combined. Today, I got that out of my head and just raced the slalom. That was important."

World Cup slalom champion Reinfried Herbst of Austria finished fifth.

"It's a difficult course and it's very icy today," Herbst said. "Skiing for a home crowd makes you want to do something special."

Bode Miller of the United States skied out in the first run, wasting a good chance to win the combined event after finishing second in the downhill. His teammate Ted Ligety and Austria's Benjamin Raich also went out.

Last year's slalom winner Felix Neureuther of Germany came to a standstill after almost missing a gate and failed to qualify for the second run.

Nolan Kasper of the United States scored his first World Cup points of the season by finishing 12th for his best career result.

Spence, 26 year old, was 29th after a disappointing first run but charged down the course the second time around to record a time bettered only by eventual winner Grange.

"I was pretty lucky to stay in the top 30 after the first run. I had a couple of big mistakes," said Spence, whose career-best World Cup results are two 12th-place finishes, including one at Kitzbühel in 2010. "It wasn't a mistake-free second run but I felt I had a good run. It's all looking up. I think it's only a matter of time before I put two good runs together."

"It's always a good day when you get that many guys in the 30," said head coach Paul Kristofic. "They were in a position to take advantage in the second run and Brad did that — he took a big bite out of (his time)."

As the second man out of the gate on the second run, Spence spent some time in the top three as the rest of the skiers tried to beat his time. His second run of 48.59 was tied with Mattias Hargin of Sweden for the second-fastest and left the Calgarian with a combined time of 1:42.95.

"There was a good chunk of face time when I was in the top three," said Spence, of the TV cameras filming his reaction as each skier came down.

After failing to qualify in Zagreb, Croatia, Spence decided to change his approach, and the results have started to come. He was 17th at Adelboden, Switzerland, and 13th at Wengen last weekend.

"My thinking had become too mechanical," he said. "After Zagreb I just kind of collected my thoughts. I decided to free my mind and just kind of trust myself."

Janyk was disappointed with Sunday's result but still feels he's skiing well and is looking forward to the next slalom event in Schladming, Austria, on Tuesday.

"Clearly, I was looking for big things today," said Janyk. "I never really felt the confidence on the skis to just let them run. It wasn't my day. Still, I really like how I'm skiing right now and I like my approach, so I'm just going to keep going at it.” S-Magazine

— The Canadian Press and Alpine Canada contributed to this report

Kitzbühel men's World Cup slalom results