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Schlopy Sixth in Birds of Prey GS Beaver Creek, CO — December 4, 2004
Erik Schlopy (Park City, UT), bronze medalist in giant slalom at the 2003 World Championships, had a rock-solid second run Saturday and moved up seven places in a GS on the third day of the VISA Birds of Prey World Cup races. Semi-ageless Lasse Kjus, back on the hill where he was GS gold medalist at the '99 World Championships, collected the 17th win of his career.
Both Miller and Rahlves failed to finish the first run Saturday. Kjus registered the fastest second run as he picked up the first GS win since 1996, just the second of his career with a total time of 2:29.82. Hermann Maier of Austria, the defending World Cup overall champ, finished second in 2:30.27. Schlopy, returning after knee surgery a year ago, had his best result since the end of the 2003 season as he finished sixth with a time of 2:30.83 and Dane Spencer (Boise, ID) tied for 11th in 2:31.58. Jimmy Cochran (Keene, NH) made it to the second run for the first time in his young career, but fell about six gates from the finish. "I lost my focus and was looking at the finish line" instead of the next gates, he said. Aggressive tactic pinches Schlopy skied the top aggressively on his final run "and it cost me a little bit up there with a couple of mistakes...I didn't want to get beat on the bottom like I did in the first run. I came off that last split in fourth and gave up a second. So, this run, I... made it up on the bottom." Schlopy also unveiled a new headgear sponsor, donning a knit cap with a hand-lettered sign that read bodemillerskiusa.com.
The second run, starting at 2 p.m., found shaded spots along much of the course. "It was dark. You go into the abyss there," he said, "and it gets pretty dark and it's kind of rough - there are a couple of little dropoffs, but other than that it was beautiful. Beaver Creek does a spectacular job of maintaining the course and it's great to race in front of a home crowd...
I hope the general public in the United States can appreciate what the U.S. Ski Team is doing, especially Bode, right now, and realize we've got the best in the world in this sport right now on the U.S. Ski Team. And he should be getting the recognition that - I'm gonna got out on a limb and say - Tiger Woods is getting because he's better at skiing than Tiger Woods is at golf. He's better at skiing than Andy Roddick is at tennis, so he should be just as famous as those guys because our sport is harder, more demanding, more athletic and way more risk than any of those sports." McNichol: "It's coming..." Head Coach Phil McNichol said, "He made a couple of mistakes and really kind of eased up at the bottom of the course in the first run, and that cost him. But he's marching back and I think we're gonna see him on the podium this year. I was really happy with Erik's performance. "And Dane, figuring out his new gear, has scored in both GSes...and Jimmy Cochran was fantastic. He skied like a big boy through that tough section that took out [Italy's Massimiliano] Blardone and [Austrian Hans Knauss, and [Norway's Aksel Lund] Svindal had trouble. He ripped right through there and then booted out at the end...but it was a good day. "Two guys in, and we should've had the two big guns [Miller, Rahlves] in there. That's would've been five guys into second run. It's coming," McNichol said. Miller jarred the crowd when he fell and crashed into safety netting about 15 seconds into the course. Rahlves went out in even shorter order, crashing through the panel on a control gate about five seconds into his run before skiing off course.
MEN'S ALPINE WORLD CUP
1. Lasse Kjus, Norway, 2:29.82
6. Erik schlopy, Park City, Utah, 2:30.83
DNF-2:
Did not qualify for 2nd run:
DNF-1:
— Courtesy of US Ski Team |
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