A tumultuous day in Val d'Isere left Bode Miller on the podium in second place and World Cup leader Stephan Eberharter on a plane to Austria to have his injured knee examined.

Swiss great Michael Von Gruenigen, who says this race season will be his last, won his second Giant Slalom of the tour in a time of 2:26.46, 11/100ths of a second faster than Miller. For Von Gruenigen, 33, the victory is the 22nd of his stellar career. He also won the GS in November at Park City.

Eberharter's crash and injury came early in the first run during a heavy snowfall. Reportedly, the Austrian star suffered ligament damage to his right knee. He is returning to Innsbruck for a complete examination and his prognosis for a return to racing will not be known until later this week.

Eberharter has completely dominated the Cup thus far this season, winning five of the seven races he entered before today and nearly doubling the point total of his nearest competitor.

"Bode did a good job. The light was much worse for him on the second run; he couldn't really attack because he couldn't see." — U.S. coach Martin Andersen

Miller clocked the fastest run in the first leg and appeared in top form on his way to his first podium finish this season, even though he was unable to hold on to a 2/10ths of a second lead in low visibility. Bode's early-season concentration has been on improving his performance in the speed events, but he showed that he still has plenty of technical race skill.

"It was tough up there," Miller said, explaining he had changed lenses between runs as the storm continued. "I made a mistake at the top of the second run – it's tough when you can't see and you're arcing a turn and hit a bump that you can't see…so I kind of backed off and made sure I got down okay."

Said men's Head SL/GS Coach Martin Andersen, "The snow doesn't affect VonGruenigen – it’s like he's on radar. But Bode did a good job. The light was much worse for him on the second run; he couldn't really attack because he couldn't see."

Christoph Gruber of Austria charged all the way from 29th after the first run to finish 3rd and provide a bright spot on an otherwise bad day for the Austrians. Gruber's finishing time was 2:26.89. He made up 1.5 seconds on Von Gruenigen in his sparkling second run.

The men head to Sestriere, Italy, for the inaugural men's "knockout" slalom Monday with the final runs under the lights Monday night. Miller will be joined by Erik Schlopy (Park City, UT) – who sat out Sunday's GS after suffering back spasms; Chip Knight (Stowe, VT); and Tom Rothrock (Cashmere, WA).

— MountainZone.com Staff with additional material courtesy U.S. Ski Team