Racers inspect the course at Levi.
Austrian coach Christian
Hoeflehner’s course-set
backfired.
Levi podium, from left: second place finisher Andre
Myhrer, winner Jean-Baptiste Grange and third place
finisher Ivica Kostelic.
hiked and then gone out, or fallen so far
down the finish order as to have effective-
ly eliminated themselves. Ted Ligety sat
26th after one run, having barely survived
where others faltered. Even the Finns
knew disappointment when Kalle Paland-
er, in his first slalom race in more than two
seasons, was disqualified after missing a
gate.
But there were also some first-run rea-
sons for coaches and fans to be incredibly
pumped up.
Deville in second from the 27th start with
Italian teammate Manfred Moelgg less
than a second out in seventh was good.
Despite losing top seed Janyk, the Cana-
dians still had four skiers make the flip,
including Julien Cousineau in 10th and
Brad Spence in 12th. The Swedes had
four skiers on the front page of the first-
run results with Andre Myhrer fourth and
Mattias Hargin ninth. And the U.S., despite
Miller’s exit and Ligety’s woes, still had a
man in the top 10, a marvelous eighth-
place effort from Will Brandenburg, mak-
ing just his fifth World Cup start in bib 35.
It is, of course, the results of the second
run that are scored. Grange, a 26-year-
old veteran, figured it was all going his
way. He had his coach setting the second
run; why let it slip away?
“In the second run I was able to remain
focused and to go for it, you know,” said
Grange, “just thinking about my skiing,
just thinking of how I can find my best
rhythm.”
His second run was nearly as fast as his
first, putting his seventh career win in the
World Cup record book. But Grange did
not record the fastest second run. That
