Snowy slaloms start the year

By Marina Knight

Over a meter of snow fell in the Austrian region of Steiermark this weekend making for a pair of snowy slaloms at Reiteralm. Both men and women raced on the relatively easy, but long hill owned by the Austrian ski federation.
Originally, the races were scheduled for Levi, Finland, but a lack of snow forced cancellation. Reiteralm has been the back up for several World Cup races now, in part because the Austrian’s have lots of political power with the FIS organizing body. Holding a race on the Austrian training hill clearly plays to the team’s advantage. It worked for the women, with Marlies Schild and Nicole Hosp taking the top two spots Saturday, but the men have yet to put up a podium performance this season.
For former Stowe racers Jimmy Cochran, Tim Kelley and Lauren Ross the opening slaloms were a mixed bag.
Cochran started the race in 35th position after moving out of the top 30 last year. Through heavy snow, Cochran tore out of the gate and pulled off the fifth fastest run. It was one of those runs that looked effortless, and as Cochran came through the finish line to see his time it was funny to see him stand there dumbfounded. Maybe his time didn’t come up on the screen, or maybe he simply couldn’t believe he had catapulted his way to the company of World Cup big boys, Benni Raich, Kalle Palander and Manfred Pranger.
In the second run, Cochran gave up time and moved back ending up 14th overall, which is his second-best slalom finish on tour.
Cochran’s cousin, Tim Kelley, who started 38th showed energy out of the start, but only made it about five gates in before spinning off line and crashing in the soft snow. Still, Kelley shows promise as one of the team’s young racers. You’ll see him in all the slaloms this year because he won a Nor-Am spot near the end of last season.
Stowe’s Lauren Ross started in 57th, near the end of the pack and didn’t finish her first run. Ross, who is coming off a knee injury, is skiing well in training. She won a team qualifier to start in Solden and says her knee feels great.
“Things didn't go so well on race day, but it was good to get
going again. My knee feels awesome. I really haven't had any
problems with it. I just have to get over those race jitters,” Ross said.
She also switched equipment and likes the Volkl/Technica set-up, she said.
In both the men’s and women’s races times were extremely tight between racers, which is normal on a flat, easy hill. Less than two seconds separated the top 30 after the first run.
Hills like Reiteralm leave virtually no margin for error, which Ted Ligety can attest to after coming to a near stop at the beginning of his run and not qualifying for a second start. Ivica Kostelic and Aksel Svindal, both capable slalom skiers, made similar mistakes and found themselves out of contention as well.
In the end, Swiss skier Marc Gini pulled off his first World Cup Win. A master of flat terrain, Gini had never finished better than ninth.
The next stop on tour is Lake Louise for the men (a downhill and super g) and Panorama (gs and slalom) for the women the weekend of Nov. 24, 25.