Kostelic wins in Beaver Creek and tells the mountain: “Now we are
even!”
The best way of defending your titles is to attack from the front
and Croatian Ivica Kostelic put in a stellar performance down the
long slalom courses to win the opening Slalom of the 2011 – 2012
World Cup. While other disciplines are now well into their season,
the slalom racers have had to bide their time and try and second
guess the weather. Marcel Hirscher is on a roll at the moment and
lead after the first run yet had to be content with third behind the
fast improving Christian Deville from Italy. Deville and Kostelic
had shared second place after the first run but the Italian could
not live with the blistering pace of the Croatian Slalom and Overall
World Cup Champion.
Racers have different feelings for different hills and Ivica
Kostelic had a bone to pick with the Birds of Prey slope in Beaver
Creek. In 1999 at the
World Championships in Beaver Creek, a young Ivica was taken off the
hill with multiple injuries to his knee. Three years ago it was his
back that came off worse in Beaver Creek. Now the 32 year old
Croatian has laid the ghost of the hill to rest:
“I
really wanted to win this race. I had to settle some old issues with
this course. I've had three surgeries from falls here and have been
dreaming of the day I would beat this course,” he said.
For Deville, this was his opening race of the season. The Italian
had suffered a foot injury in pre season so this was a mission for
him. For many of the slalom specialists this was the time that the
season began for them. It was not a bad day for the Italian team as
they packed three into the top ten with Patrick Thaler and Manny
Moelgg placing 7 and 8.
Hirscher, in taking his third podium, including one win, at a resort
that he used to hate was something “unbelievable.”
“I never raced a slalom race on U.S. snow – only Nor-Am races – that
was especially difficult for me,” Hirscher said. “I think if the
hill is not that heavy or steep, then it’s difficult for everyone
because if you make one little mistake it costs you so much time. If
it’s really steep and hard to ski, you can make five or six mistakes
and it doesn’t matter. Here it’s hard to ski that smooth and clean.”
The changing terrain as it went from steep to flat and back to steep
and then flat made the long course a challenge and tested the early
season fitness of the racers.
Many of the pure slalom specialists had raced in Loveland in a Nor
Am race late last month. Both of these had been won by rising
American racer Will Brandenburg. Brandenburg was putting in a
stormer of a run on the first course, leading at all the splits
until he hit the Golden Eagle pitch and was out. This area also took
out JB Grange and Reinfried Herbst, two of the expected challengers
for the Slalom Globe come the end of the season.
So all the main disciplines are now up and running. The tour now
heads back to Europe with the guys heading to Val Gardena and the
girls off to Courchevel.
