Hirscher Takes Beaver Creek Giant Slalom Win

An outstanding racing week-end took an end today at Beaver Creek with the Birds of Prey giant slalom, first race of the season in this discipline, as the opening in Sölden had to be cancelled due to a storm. Also in Beaver Creek there was a pretty strong and unfortunately inconstant wind, that influenced the result of the first leg.

Nevertheless, the leading trio at the half had some big names with Germany’s Stefan Luitz clocking the fastest time ahead of Ted Ligety (+0.29) and Marcel Hirscher (+0.39). Not far behind, World Championships medalist Manuel Feller and Swiss GS specialist Justin Murisier were tying in fourth place with +0.64.

In the second run, Marcel Hirscher was able to upgrade his skiing even more and skied to the first step of the podium, only three and a half months after his ankle fracture.

Norway's Henrik Kristoffersen also made up some ranks to finish in second place. The slalom whiz laid down two solid runs, as usual making time up in the steep parts, to score his 9th giant slalom podium.

The leader of the first run Stefan Luitz saved his spot on the podium in the second run. It's his 5th career podium.

The fans at Beaver Creek were happy to cheer Ted Ligety’s return to giant slalom racing on the FIS Ski World Cup circuit Sunday, but Ligety was disappointed he didn’t deliver on one of his favorite tracks for the home crowd.

“I love racing here, this is one of my favorite hills, and that’s a big reason why I’m disappointed with seventh place today,” Ligety said. “It’s far and away the worst finish I’ve ever had at Beaver Creek.”

Competing in his first World Cup giant slalom in almost a year, Ligety (Park City, Utah) led the U.S. Ski Team alpine racers in seventh. Tommy Ford (Bend, Ore.), starting bib 24, posted his first top-10 World Cup finish in 10th. Marcel Hirscher of Austria, the six-time overall World Cup champion, took the victory Sunday. Norway’s Henrik Kristoffersen was second and Germany’s Stefan Luitz was third.

Ligety finished second in the first run and was well positioned to challenge for his sixth giant slalom victory on the grippy Birds of Prey course. But one too many errors in the second run opened the door for the rest of the field.

“First run didn’t feel great, but I was in there and had some turns,” Ligety said. “The second run, I had some good turns here and there, but way too many little mistakes for this kind of aggressive snow.”

Meanwhile, Ford occupied the hot seat for quite a while - posting the 10th-fastest second run time - as a number of racers failed to unseat him.

“I was going down the hill from top to bottom and it was cool to do some good arcs,” Ford said. “The snow is awesome, so everyone is skiing well, and that’s what makes (this hill) challenging.”

With bib n°1 Mathieu Faivre, who ranked second on last season’s discipline standings, skied out in the first run.

The men's World Cup Tour will go on next week-end in Val d'Isère with the traditional Criterium de la Première Neige.