ALPINE:

Ligety scorches Val d'Isere for back-to-back GS wins

Dec. 11, 2010      ♦ Photo: American Ted Ligety, who has now won back-to-back giant slaloms (Tom Kelly, USSA)

VAL D'ISERE, France ― American Ted Ligety dominated the field for the second straight World Cup race, winning the men’s World Cup giant slalom Saturday.

Coming off his win in giant slalom at Beaver Creek, Colo., last weekend, Ligety was flawless on the Face de Bellevarde, finished in a two-run time of 2 minutes, 26.26 seconds.

Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway was second, more than a second back, and Italy's Massimiliano Blardine third as the first-run order did not change among the top three racers.

"It's a surprising day for sure. It's the hardest race I had for a long time," said Ligety, who captured the GS bronze medal in Val d'Isere at the 2009 World Championships. "To make it down and win with such a gap is just amazing. The key here is just not to make mistakes and to push hard. If you charge, you have a chance to win."

The win marks Ligety's seventh career World Cup victory and boosted him to second in the early overall standings, 15 points behind Svindal.

"I've been coaching Ted a long time and I've never seen him just find this kind of confidence," said U.S. Ski Team head coach Sasha Rearick. "He did a great job winning the first run and then in the second run it was the same thing, just perfect execution — true champion style."

Robbie Dixon finished 24th. He was 23rd in the first run and the only Canadian to qualify for the second run. In the opening run, Brad Spence was 34th and Jeffrey Frisch 45th, while Jean-Phillipe Roy and Francois Bourque did not finish their first runs.

Most competitors struggled in the first run on the steep course, which is regarded as one of the most difficult on the circuit. Bode Miller of the United States skied out after just a few gates while local favourite Jean-Baptiste Grange of France also went out after three gates.

Austrian Philipp Schoerghofer crashed near the finish and ended uninjured in the safety net. 



"This is a very difficult course and it's not easy for all of us," Ligety said after the first run. "I've seen a bunch of guys making mistakes. … This is one of my cleanest runs here for sure."

"I was very impressed by what Ted did today," said Svindal, who leads the World Cup standings with 236 points, 15 more than Ligety. "When you're pulling out two clean runs like he did today, this is normal to have such big margins."

Austrian Marcel Hirscher, who claimed his first World Cup victory ahead of Blardone in last year's Val d'Isere giant slalom, made a mistake midway through the course and lagged 1.12 seconds behind in fourth place after the opening run, eventually finishing sixth on the day.

Dixon finished in 2:30.67. Dixon, who wore bib number 51, was one of only four athletes outside the top 30 start numbers to make it to second run. A total of 20 skiers skied out of the first run.

"There was nothing that was going to stop me from coming to that finish line. I started to run out of gas about halfway down there. I just kept charging and trying to attack, but the tank was empty," said Dixon, who had to battle his way down in the second run. "I just tried to do everything I could to make it to the finish line. I was hoping for a bit better, but hey, it's a step in the right direction to ski in the second run."

"Anyone who can score points here is a survivor. I'm definitely really happy. Technically, with the steeps and everything else, it's good for me. Like I said, it's a step in the right direction. I'm definitely looking forward to Alta Badia, the next GS. I like that hill a lot. And I'm really looking forward to Val Gardena. The team had great success there last year, I've had two top 10 there, I'm looking to get back and do that again," added Dixon.

Val d'Isère and the Bellevarde run in particular has stayed in the Canadian athletes mind in the last year not only as one if the steepest, iciest courses on the technical tour but it is also where Roy and Bourque suffered from season-ending injuries last year.

The downhill event that was canceled last week in Beaver Creek has now been rescheduled to Kvitfjell, Norway, on Friday March 11.

The race will be broadcasted on CBC and CBCSports.ca from 4:30-6 p.m. ET as well as on Radio-Canada's main network from 3-4:30 p.m. ET. CBC will be replacing Saturday's canceled race in St. Moritz with coverage of last week's men's super-G from Beaver Creek. Coverage of that race begins at 2 p.m. ET.  S-Magazine

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

Val d'Isere men's World Cup giant slalom results