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Miller, Sullivan earn US rare double triumph

Bode Miller of the US races to victory in Chamonix, France, on Sunday. PHOTO: EPA

Europe's skiing elite were pushed into the shadows on Sunday as Bode Miller made sure the US grabbed a rare double on the men's World Cup circuit.

American Marco Sullivan upset the giants of the downhill on Saturday to claim his maiden World Cup win ahead of Swiss ace Didier Cuche and Slovenia's Andrej Jerman.

On Sunday, Miller made amends for his "disappointing" seventh place finish in the speed event by mastering the super-combined to claim his fourth victory of the season, ahead of Ivica Kostelic and Rainer Schoenfelder.

It pushed Miller top of the World Cup standings and reinforced his lead in the super-combined ahead of next week's decider for the two-discipline event at Val d'Isere.

But there were plenty of plaudits throughout the circuit known as the "White Circus" for Sullivan, who has battled back from three separate knee injuries to become one of the most consistent performers in downhill racing.

Miller, a former downhill world champion, meanwhile seems back on top of his game having let his focus slip after his World Cup triumph in 2005, during which he won seven races, six of those inside the season's first ten events.

A disastrous Olympic campaign followed in 2006, and subsequent seasons were peppered with mediocrity -- and controversy, owing to some misplaced opinions, and a reportedly unhealthy party lifestyle.

But with the Vancouver Olympics barely two years away, Miller -- who now has a dedicated race team and a state-of-the-art gym built inside his bus with him on his travels -- seems to have regained an appetite for success.

"Everything's there, and the skis are fast but one or two mistakes and you go from winning to third or fifth place," Miller said.

"Now it seems like that more often than not I'm not making the mistakes on the course. My team is doing great, the coaches are doing good and everything's going well," he said.

Miller's first victory of the season came on the Bormio downhill earlier this month. A week later he defended the title he won last year at Wengen.

He also won the combined at Kitzbuehel last week, but it was Sunday's super-combined win that will have his rivals worried.

With 14 individual races remaining, in all likelihood Miller will battle with Swiss speed specialist Didier Cuche and Austrian Benjamin Raich, who is second overall at 62 points adrift, for the coveted overall title.

Sullivan meanwhile was simply happy to have stepped onto the top step of the podium after years of trying.

"I knew I was skiing really well this past month ... and it just all came together for me," he said.

"I was sure [Michael] Walchhofer or Didier [Cuche] were going to push me off top spot, so to watch Cuche come down and then be faster than him is just amazing," Sullivan said.
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