Ligety leads from the front: 2 races 2 wins for HEAD
Ted Ligety made it a second victory of the weekend for the HEAD World Cup Rebels in two days with a commanding win in the opening men’s World Cup race of the season. Fastest on the first run, Ligety kept his cool despite making a small mistake mid way down the long pitch leading to the flat into the finish. With 14,000 ski racing fans basking in the sun, Ligety gave notice that he is still the man to beat in the Giant Slalom.
Ivica Kostelic was the man of the moment and one of a number of racers that had not been overly happy with their first run. From eighteenth after the first run, Kostelic put in a Champion’s performance that had the better of many of the racers chasing his time. While many had better split times, it is the final break of the beam over the finish line counts and it was getting closer and closer.
At one stage seven hundredths separated the top three as Hirscher and Fanara tied just behind Kostelic. By the end of the race, places 5th (Kostelic) down to nineteenth (Raich were separated by just over half a second. This was pure theatre and delighting the large crowd.
Miller was out the start gate on the second run in sixteenth spot and the power and determination of the American was evident as he attacked the course. A small error crept in and the lead he had built up evaporated in the sun and he drifted into third in the finish. Gauthier de Tessieres could not match Miller and Miller’s time held up for a podium spot for a number of racers.
Such was the tightness of the times, when Kjetil Jansrud came down from eighth after run 1; a small error saw him take the place behind Miller by five hundredths. Considering he had been suffering from a small back pain Jansrud was pleased with his result. The two would eventually place nine and ten. Aksel Lund Svindal was disappointed with his race as a whole and especially the second run yet held on for twelfth. Still Kostelic held on to the lead.
“I had nothing to lose and just went out to attack,” explained young French rising star Alexis Pinturault after his second run. World Junior Champion in Giant Slalom from last season, Pinturault is an immense skier to watch. Speaking afterwards in the press conference, Ligety knows he will have to raise his game to keep ahead of the young Frenchman. He tore in to the lead and there was definitely a feeling of who would be dropping out of the podium places to make way for him.
Schoerghofer put in a solid run and was just behind the Frenchman and you could start to feel tension in the crowd. With another non Austrian receiving support from Soelden it was announced in the morning, would Soelden be giving Prof. Schrochsknadel of the Austrian Ski Federation more headaches by not allowing his men a spot on the podium?
In the end it was the Iceman who dropped to fourth. Carlo Janka was seven hundredths behind Schoerghofer and with Ligety to come he must of being praying for an uncharacteristic error from Ligety.
There is nothing like pressure and Ted Ligety thrives on the stuff. With young French star Alexis Pinturault in the finish and leading, Ligety had just over three tenths advantage over the Frenchman. The race was pure theatre and a huge advert for ski racing. The star of the show was Ligety as he dealt with the “gnarly course” and used the information radioed up by Miller “about the bumps on the steep” to good effect as he was able to attack. With this win Ligety was also able to give his rivals notice that he intends to approach the Overall with force and meaning this winter.
It was known that Ligety has been skiing fast in training but he explained after the race “you never know what is going to happen. I have been training fast but it does not count until the race.” This was race win number nine for the World Champion who is looking for his fourth Globe this season to go second equal on the all time list.
Two races over the weekend and the American HEAD World Cup Rebels made the top step their own!
