Rocca wins slalom with whopping lead, Miller out  
 
CHAMONIX, ( 09/01/2005 16:00 ) France (AP) _ Italy's Giorgio Rocca collected his second consecutive World Cup slalom race as well as the discipline leader's red bib Sunday, putting together two brilliant runs on the Piste Verte Kandahar course. Rocca, the winner of the last slalom in Flachau before the Christmas break, nailed both his runs to win with an aggregate time of one minute, 28.15 seconds, a massive 1.33 seconds ahead of his nearest challenger, Austrian Benjamin Raich. Sweden's Markus Larsson, who was in 14th place after the opening leg, finished third in 1:29.51 after a blistering second trip down. American Bode Miller failed to finish the first leg when he was caught on a tight gate going into the flush.
Miller has only finished one World Cup slalom this season, the night race he won in Sestriere, Italy, in mid-December. Miller was punished with a low start number _ 15th _ for failing to show up on time for the bib draw the previous evening. The American arrived seven minutes late at the appointed meeting room, going instead to the podium where the public draw was to be held later. The American had failed to turn up at all for the downhill draw and was made to start 30th instead of 28th, where he was supposed to begin based on his result from final training. Rocca, who won the slalom here last year, took the lead in the World Cup slalom standings with 280 points. Raich is second, 10 points behind, while Rainer Schoenfelder is third with 198.
Miller is ninth with 100 points, but still easily tops the overall rankings with 908 points. Raich is second with 640, while his teammate Michael Walchhofer sits third on 541. Defending overall champion Hermann Maier is fourth with 538. In a notable performance, rookie Canadian Patrick Biggs finished 10th after posting the fastest second leg in only his first World Cup race. An Ivy leaguer who studies engineering at Dartmouth, Biggs narrowly made it into the top-30 qualifying group on the opening leg. When he posted the fastest time on the second, he held onto the lead as another 15 racers failed to better his performance. But Larsson then came down with the second-fastest final leg to end up ahead. 


Grugger wins World Cup downhill  
 
CHAMONIX, ( 08/01/2005 14:56 ) France (AP) _ Austria's Johann Grugger posted his second World Cup downhill victory this season, successfully negotiating two massive jumps on the Piste Verte Saturday. Grugger _ who secured his world championship berth on the cutthroat Austrian squad with a victory in Bormio, Italy, just before the New Year _ charged down the icy course in one minute, 56.93 seconds. Italy's Kristian Ghedina prevented an Austrian clean sweep, crossing second in 1:57.04 for his first podium in 2 1/2 years. Defending downhill world champion Michael Walchhofer of Austria was third in 1:57.07, while teammate Mario Scheiber was fourth in 1:57.24. American Daron Rahlves was fifth in 1:57.35.
The surprise of the day came from Canada's Jeff Hume, who scored the first World Cup points of his career, finishing tied for sixth place with Austrian Christoph Gruber in 1:57.42. Runaway overall World Cup leader Bode Miller, who was forced to start in 30th position instead of 28th after being penalized for failing to show up to the bib draw the previous evening, tied for eighth with reigning overall World Cup champion Hermann Maier in 1:57.44. Miller, of the United States, had been leading on the upper section of the course but lost considerable time at the bottom, which he was unable to explain.
However, many later starters appeared to slow substantially on the lower section, hampered by wind and poor visibility after the race was held up to replace safety netting that Austrian Fritz Strobl crashed through. The race had also been interrupted earlier when Frenchman Sebastien Fournier-Bidoz knocked himself out in a crash and was airlifted to hospital with concussion and a sore ankle. "The race was held up twice and we were starting pretty late," Miller said. "The conditions had changed at that point. There was a bit of wind and the visibility wasn't as good." 

General Standing
 
World cup Leader

Miller Bode
12.10.1977 (Franconia)
Ski: Atomic
 
  Miller Bode  908
  Raich Benjamin  640
  Walchhofer Michael  541
  Maier Hermann  503
  Rahlves Daron  436
  Cuche Didier  395
  Grugger Johann  366
  Grandi Thomas  322
  Palander Kalle  306
  Rocca Giorgio  298  

Next Races
11.01.2005 Adelboden (SUI) GS
12.01.2005 Cortina (ITA) SG
14.01.2005 Wengen (SUI) K
14.01.2005 Cortina (ITA) SG
15.01.2005 Wengen (SUI) DH
15.01.2005 Cortina (ITA) DH
16.01.2005 Wengen (SUI) SL

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