A snowstorm dropped a meter just ahead of
the standard GS (slalom wasn’t re-added to the
Adelboden schedule until 2002) and the Swiss
rallied by calling in crew from Wengen to help
with snow removal. They did a great job, but
were fighting the odds.
“Considering the weather, the hill prep was really good,” said U.S. coach Sasha Rearick, “but
it was very different from top to bottom. The top
was good snow and the middle was grippy winter snow that held up pretty well. Then from the
slalom start to the top of the pitch it was injected
and slick followed by spring snow at the bottom.
The second run the weather was really sloppy; it
was spitting snow, then rain, then snow again. It
was interesting.”
Interesting and tactically difficult, especially because the second leg of the
storm arrived a touch earlier
and warmer than anticipated.
The light went completely flat,
making the contours of the
rolliest course on tour tough to
pick out. Rain alternated with
sleet and wet snow, coating
goggles. The first run took out
half the field, including Americans Bode Miller, Tommy
Ford, Will Gregorak, Thomas
Biesemeyer and Canadians
Jean-Philippe Roy and Philip
Brown in his first World Cup
start.
The battle — after the first run
— appeared to be as classic
as the site. Marcel Hirscher and Ted Ligety sat
atop the results list, just as they did twice in Bea-
ver Creek in early December. They were sepa-
rated by a blink-of-the-eye 0.07 of a second.
Massimiliano Blardone was a third of a second
out and Steve Missillier about seven tenths be-
hind. The rest were looking at gaps of a second
or more. Though it was evident the early starters
would have some advantage, it was unlikely the
top two would both fall apart enough to lose their
time edge.
None of the other 28 was going out without giving
it his best shot, however. The hill has too many
legends attached. Benni Raich has struggled this
season after sustaining his first major injury at the
end of the 2011 World Championships with one
top- 10 finish to show for the first two months of
this season. But with three World Cup Adelboden
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