ALPINE:

Streitberger super at Birds of Prey, Dixon 8th

Dec. 4, 2010      ♦ Photo: Robbie Dixon (Michel Painchaud)

BEAVER CREEK, Colorado — Austria's Georg Streitberger whistled down Birds of Prey to nab his second career World Cup win Saturday, taking the men's super-G.

Streitberger finished in 1 minute, 17.18 seconds, with Adrien Theaux of France .11 back in second and Didier Cuche of Switzerland .13 back for third.

Canada placed three racers in the top 30, with Robbie Dixon eighth, Manny Osborne-Paradis 19th and Erik Guay 29th. Dustin Cook was 39th, Ben Thomsen 45th and Louis-Pierre Helie 48th, while Francois Bourque did not finish his run.

Streitberger won a 2008 super-G at Kvitfjell, Norway, and took third in a super-G at Kitzbühel, Austria, last January.

"It was a perfect day for me," Streitberger said. "... Sometimes you have to ski with the brain and put on the brakes," Streitberger said. "The reason is because it's so difficult here."

The result ended the reign of Swiss skier Carlo Janka at Beaver Creek. He swept all three events last season, but finished 23rd on Saturday.

"A lot of mistakes today. Not a good run for me," Janka said. "I can't expect that every year will work like last year."

Dixon, wearing bib No. 1, clocked in a time of 1:17.71 seconds on the icy and challenging Birds of Prey course.

"I'm feeling good (about my run). I think I took advantage of starting number one there and skied the best I could," said the 25-year-old Dixon. "There was a couple little mistakes, but it's tough to go on this course with no real idea, so I'm pretty happy. It's a step in the right direction. Obviously I want to get on that podium, but I guess I'll have to wait until another race now."

Osborne-Paradis clocked a time of 1:18.60.

"It was good. To be 1.4 seconds out on this course is really good for me,” said Osborne-Paradis, who had not finished the Birds of Prey super-G in three previous races. “It's a really good move ahead for me. It's something that I can work from, because I've never skied well here. I'm just not very good on the pitches. I think that to be only that far out with the best guys in the world right now, I think it's good and I think it's a good confidence booster for what's to come."

Guay finished with a time of 1:19.26.

"Beaver Creek always seems like it's hot or cold for me. Either I have a great result or I'm way out. Today was one of those days where I was kind of out to lunch," said Guay, who finished second in Beaver Creek in 2005.

"I hit a rock on the course as well and I had no way of getting any pressure on my right ski the whole way down, and that's never a fun feeling. But there's also some improvement that needs to be done with my skiing."

The event will conclude on Sunday with a giant slalom. A downhill race scheduled for Friday was canceled because of high wind. There's no makeup date or venue yet for that race.

It was a tough day for the Americans, with Bode Miller, Ted Ligety, Marco Sullivan and Andrew Weibrecht failing to finish. Miller, who won silver in the super-G at the Vancouver Olympic Games, had trouble finding the line near a technical turn midway through the run and veered straight off the course.

Steven Nyman finished 25th to boost the U.S. Ski Team's World Cup quota spots in the discipline to 10. "Four years ago we only had four spots in super G," said U.S. men's head coach Sasha Rearick. "We made a big step and now we have 10 spots — the same as Austria, Switzerland and Italy. That's a huge success for us."

"It's pretty disappointing actually to have all those guys go out," said Nyman, who matched his 2008 super-G result from Beaver Creek despite started from the 57th starting position. "But I'm happy. I created another spot for the ski team. I haven't scored points in the super-G event for over a year now so I'm pretty psyched to get back in there. To go from 57 to 25, I'm stoked."

Despite the string of U.S. DNFs, the overflowing crowd roared for each American even as Miller, Ligety, Sullivan and  Weibrecht missed a crucial gate midway down the course in the Screech Owl section.

"In inspection, we just didn't anticipate how big of a turn it was," said Ligety. "It's a bummer, but that's super-G, you have to be in the fine line of going out and making it clean and we just were on the other side of that line. A lot of guys think this is the coolest super-G hill on the World Cup and we're all really excited to have a good day, so this is definitely a bummer."

The U.S. team will refocus its efforts for Sunday with sights set on redemption in giant slalom. Ligety, the defending World Cup giant slalom champion, hasn’t finished outside the top five in the last four years of racing GS in Beaver Creek, including two podium finishes.

The race opens at 9:45 a.m. with a second run slated for 12:45 p.m. S-Magazine
 
— The Canadian Press, Alpine Canada and U.S. Ski Team contributed to this report

Beaver Creek men's World Cup super-G results