World Cup leader Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) straddled a gate Tuesday night and was disqualified in a World Cup slalom while Austrian Manfred Pranger won his second straight race. Benjamin Raich of Austria finished second, shaving 80 points off Miller's overall lead and trimming the gap to 95 points as the tour breaks for the World Championships, which begin later this week.

It was a race marred by timing difficulties that held up the second run for half an hour and created a shuffle of the original first-run placings. Originally, Giorgio Rocca of Italy led the run over Pranger, but after protests and questioning of the times, organizers changed the times - Rocca still was first but with a smaller lead while Pranger was dropped to fourth behind Raich and Rainer Schoenfelder, another Austrian.

With the customary crowd of 40,000-plus cheering every skier, Pranger finished with a two-run time of 1:47.13 and Raich was second, .04 back. Rocca spun out on his final run but finished, dropping to 21st. Chip Knight (Stowe, VT) was the top U.S. skier, finishing 18th, and Ted Ligety (Park City, UT) hiked back onto the course on his final run after skiing wide on a gate and was 22nd.

Miller, sixth in the first run in what he called "a very conservative run," straddled the gate on the upper part of the 60-gate second course.

"The first 20 gates, he killed the course," Head Coach Phil McNichol said, "but then he may have straddled and then he skied out a couple of more gates down. ...He was sailing, but he didn't finish..."

Overall, McNichol said, "We had a bad night. They had some problems with the timing - everyone was questioning it and I'm sure there will be more questions - but the bottom line is we didn't ski that well, regardless of who was doing the timing. We didn't get the job done."

After 25 races, Miller has 1,093 points and leads the GS standings. Raich is second at 998 and is the SL leader.

Ten races - six speed events (downhill/super G) and four tech races (SL/GS) - are left on the World Cup schedule after the World Championships conclude Feb. 13. The Worlds schedule opens Saturday in Bormio, Italy, with men's super G.

MEN'S ALPINE WORLD CUP
Schladming, AUT - Jan. 25, 2005
Men's Slalom - Night race

1. Manfred Pranger, Austria, 1:47.13
2. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 1:47.17
3. Andre Myhrer, Sweden, 1:47.37
4. Rainer Schoenfelder, Austria, 1:47.44
5. Jean-Pierre Vidal, France, 1:47.57

18. Chip Knight, Stowe, Vt., 1:49.05
22. Ted Ligety, Park City, Utah, 1:54.25

DNF-2:
Bode Miller, Franconia, N.H.

Did not qualify for 2nd run:
Jesse Marshall, Pittsfield, Vt.

— Courtesy of US Ski Team