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KITZBUEHEL,
Austria (AP) _ He fell twice, straddled a gate and hiked back up the
hill in a daredevil survival journey. Nothing was going to prevent
American Bode Miller from letting Stephan Eberharter chip away at
his hard-fought overall lead. Miller _ who had been hoping to
provide another American victory after teammate Daron Rahlves won
the prestigious Hahnenkamm downhill Saturday _ instead provided
several laughs as well as nods of admiration for his pluck and
determination Sunday. And while he failed to score points in the
slalom, Miller finished ahead of Eberharter in the combined to
preserve his lead in the overall standings.
Kalle Palander won the race to become the first Finn to win a World
Cup race, and was followed by Austrians Rainer Schoenfelder and
Heinz Schilchegger. Third in the opening leg, Miller started his
rodeo run by clipping a gate up high on the course, costing precious
tenths of a second as he dropped down on a hip before bouncing back
up. At the bottom, he went down, straddled a gate and slid below the
next one.
The American _ who knew his hopes of scoring in the slalom were gone
but still wanted to salvage the combined _ hiked back up the slope
to rerun the gate, and finished the race in 27th, almost 11 seconds
back. He couldn't earn slalom points because of the time-behind rule
but he was fifth, one place ahead of Eberharter, in the combined,
which was won by Austrian Michael Walchhofer.
"I was skiing fast," Miller said. "I was trying to win the slalom.
Even if I had slowed down, I still probably would not have slowed
down enough to not make mistakes. The course was really unforgiving,
really challenging. "I felt really good at the top. But the
fallaways on this hill are so unforgiving. Both times (I fell) I hit
the gate too tight, it hits my ski, and when it hits your ski the
ski just takes off. Those are just tactical mistakes on my part, but
I hiked to stay in there."
Miller held onto his lead in the overall standings, which he tops
with 935 points. Eberharter is second with 905 after 26 races,
including two combined. The two have been wrestling for the overall
since Miller became the first American in 20 years to take the lead
in Kranjska Gora earlier this month.
It was Miller's ability to hang onto the lead for the past couple of
weeks that pushed Eberharter to try and collect points in the
combined, even though he hadn't skied a slalom in 10 years. "Stephan
told me he blames me for this," said a laughing Miller, who has
competed in every race this winter despite arthroscopic surgery on
his left knee in mid-November. "I was pretty psyched. I like to see
him out there skiing it. And if he wants to beat me in the overall I
would like to see him work for it instead of just skiing his strong
events." Tom Rothrock had the top U.S. slalom result, finishing 19th
with Chip Knight placing 20th. Erik Schlopy was 25th. |
