Italians Blardone, Simoncelli go 1-2 in giant slalom on home snow; Ligety 7th for US

Italians go 1-2 in Alta Badia giant slalom

ALTA BADIA, Italy — It was a mixed day for the U.S. Ski Team and a memorable one for the Italian squad on home snow Sunday.

Local favorites Max Blardone and Davide Simoncelli finished first and second in the challenging giant slalom on the Gran Risa course, while Ted Ligety struggled with his grip to place seventh and Bode Miller failed to qualify for the second run.

Ligety was 12th in the opening leg, which was run at 1 Fahrenheit.

“First run I think a lot of the guys were taken by surprise by how icy it was,” Ligety said. “I for sure was. I just felt like I had no grip on the top. I changed skis for the second run — something with a little thicker edge — but I just couldn’t ski clean either run really.”

Ligety is also recovering from stomach flu, which forced him to miss a few days of training this week.

“My energy is still not 100 percent yet,” he said.

Still, a strong second run kept Ligety in contention for the giant slalom title.

Benjamin Raich leads the GS standings with 235 points, Blardone is second with 230 and Ligety is next with 192.

Blardone led both legs and clocked a two-run combined time of 2 minutes, 35.76 seconds for his fifth World Cup victory — all in giant slalom. Simoncelli finished 0.43 seconds behind and Cyprien Richard of France moved up from sixth in the first leg to finish third, 1.63 seconds back.

Miller had a wild run all the way down and finished 33rd in the opening leg — outside the top 30 that advance for the second run. The two-time overall World Cup winner sprained his ankle last weekend and will skip Monday’s slalom here to gain some extra rest.

Blardone began training with his own personal coaches over the summer and did not attend the Italian team’s offseason camps in the southern hemisphere. Instead, he trained on glaciers in the Alps.

“This is really satisfying, because I’ve made a lot of changes this year and put a lot of responsibility on my shoulders,” he said. “But that has motivated me.”

After crossing the finish line, Blardone dropped down and kissed the snow.

Blardone and Simoncelli also finished 1-2 here in 2005, while Simoncelli won in 2003.

“When the course is prepared well like this you can really attack and trust your equipment,” Simoncelli said. “It’s always steep, icy and fast here and that’s how we like it.”

Tommy Ford, a promising 20-year-old from Bend, Ore., gained his first World Cup points with a 24th-place finish.

Ford won the silver medal in slalom at last season’s junior world championships, but didn’t make quite such a good impression when he missed his start in the giant slalom in Val d’Isere, France, last weekend.

Ford remained in the lodge at the top of the mountain and said he just lost track of the time.

“I finally got my head under control and just skied like I know how,” Ford said. “Now I know I can get in there and charge.”

Tim Jitloff of Reno, Nev., was the fastest American in the first leg, crossing ninth, but was disqualified after catching his ski around the last gate, which sent him tumbling over the finish line.

“I just wanted to get across the line and next thing you know I was crashing,” Jitloff said. “I felt my leg kind of get torn apart there.”

Jitloff wasn’t injured, however, and eventually rose to his feet and gave the Italian fans a bow, drawing an ovation from the heavily dressed crowd.

“I stood up and they started clapping like you would at a soccer match or something like that, and so I figured I would say thank you to them, because these guys are amazing fans,” Jitloff said. “Every year there’s 20,000 strong usually that are really excited.”

The fans were hoping that Italy could match its feat from 1986, when the hosts took all three positions on the podium, with Richard Pramotton followed by Alberto Tomba and Oswald Toetsch. Blardone, Simoncelli and another Italian, Manfred Moelgg, stood 1-2-3 after the opening leg but Moelgg made a few slight errors on his second trip down and finished fifth.

Another Italian, Alexander Ploner, finished sixth, to round out the Italians’ best day of the season.

Canadian racer Robbie Dixon fell and crashed into the safety netting during the opening leg. He eventually got up and walked off with several bruises, including one to his nose.

The Canadian team has been particularly hard hit by injuries lately, already losing downhill world champion John Kucera, Jean-Philippe Roy, Francois Bourque, Larisa Yurkiw and Kelly Vanderbeek entering its home Olympics in Vancouver from Feb. 12-28.

The Gran Risa is considered one of the toughest giant slalom courses on the circuit.

Tomba holds the record with four victories here, while Ingemar Stenmark, who holds the overall record for World Cup race victories with 86, won the first race on the Gran Risa in 1985.