Benjamin Raich won a World Cup super combined race on Friday, leading an Austrian one-two ahead of Marcel Hirscher to post the 35th win of his career.
The former overall World Cup champion won with a total time of 2 minutes, 7.71 seconds for the super-G and slalom runs, 0.89 seconds better than Hirscher.
Manfred Moelgg of Italy and Romed Baumann of Austria shared third place, 1.55 seconds behind. World Cup leader Carlo Janka, who was second after the super-G, made a mistake on the upper part of the slalom course and then fell midway down.
The 31-year-old Raich, who claimed his first victory of the winter following a second-place finish in the giant slalom in Beaver Creek, Colorado, last week, had the best slalom run on the treacherous Face de Bellevarde, with a time of 49.94 seconds.
“My slalom run was quite satisfying on a very tough hill like this one,” the two-time Olympic champion said. “The snow condition was difficult and I was able to find good lines.”
Raich, who was fourth after the super-G, said his win would give a boost to the whole Austrian men’s team. Raich’s victory was only the second for the “Wunderteam” this season after Reinfried Herbst’s slalom win last month in Levi, Finland.
“This is a very important win for me and for the whole Austrian team, which went through difficult times in the United States and in Canada,” Raich said. “Personally, I was happy with my start to the season, but I was looking for a big win.”
Raich also won last season’s super combined in Val d’Isere.
The 20-year-old Hirscher, who moved up from third place, posted his career’s best result on one of the most difficult courses on the circuit.
“I was very impressed by my super-G, it was very special to be with the best skiers in that discipline,” Hirscher said. “I built my podium finish on this.”
Hirscher was particularly delighted to stand alongside Raich on the podium.
“He was my idol when I was younger,” Hirscher said. “When I was a 10-year-old boy, I used to watch him racing. To be on his side is sometimes unbelievable, it’s like a dream.”
Bode Miller was fifth, with a combined time of 2 minutes, 9.40 seconds, while American teammate Ted Ligety skidded off course.
“It was tough today,” said Miller, a two-time overall World Cup champion. “I didn’t feel very good, but it was important that I get some points because I hadn’t scored a lot last year. We need to get our spots back and get back in the top 30.”
Ligety, who won the Olympic combined gold medal in Turin, was leading by more than a second when he went out.
It was a similarly disappointing race for Janka.
“I did my job and gave it all,” Janka said. “Things like that happen and it’s not the end of the world.”
The 23-year-old Swiss skier, who won a super combined, downhill and giant slalom in Beaver Creek, missed out on a chance to become the first skier to claim four straight World Cup wins since Hermann Maier in 1998.
He kept the overall lead with 460 points, while Raich moved up to second with 381 points.
“Janka is a very good skier,” Raich said. “He is very strong technically and deserves to win races. I’m really happy to see him there, it adds spice to the whole thing because it’s not interesting to win without competition.”
Didier Cuche of Switzerland, who was 11th after the super-G but didn’t start the slalom, is third with 355 points. Miller stands 17th with 97 points.
“The mistakes are there, but this is a difficult course,” Miller said. “I pushed just hard enough and got the job done. The skiing is OK, but the fitness is still a big problem. Today in the super-G, I was very tired at the bottom.”
MOGULS
AP, SUOMU, Finland
Jesper Bjornlund of Sweden won his first moguls World Cup in the season-opener, while former world champion Kristi Richards of Canada won the women’s event on Friday.
Richards, world champion in 2007, scored 24.97 points, beating reigning world champion and last year’s moguls World Cup winner Aiko Uemura of Japan on 24.56 points. Hannah Kearney of the US was third with 24.10 points.
Canada placed three women in the top six, while the US had four among the nine best.
On the men’s side, Bjornlund tallied 24.41 points and far surpassed his previous best World Cup result, a fifth. He was also fifth at the 2006 Turin Olympics.
Bryon Wilson of the US, on 24.34 points, and World Cup champion Alexandre Bilodeau of Canada, with 24.19 points, followed.
Friday’s events were the first of seven in the moguls before the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in February, when Australia’s Dale Begg-Smith and Canada’s Jennifer Heil defend their Olympic titles.
Begg-Smith finished fourth on Friday. Heil was fifth.
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