Jean-Baptiste Grange can lay claim to the Snow Queen Trophy, much to the chagrin of Ivica Kostelic and thousands of his staunchest supporters. Grange outsped Kostelic for the win in Croatia's only World Cup men's race, winning by a narrow .05 of a second margin.

A thick fog over the first run of the slalom in the outskirts of Croatia's largest city of Zagreb had little effect on the final outcome as the race eventually came down to the two slalom standings leaders. The fog, however, did have a major effect.

In third was Italian Giuliano Razzoli. At 24 years of age, Razzoli has been ripping on the Europa Cup stage recently, tallying two slalom podiums in his last two EC starts. He was seventh after the first run and skied to third displacing two better considered Italians to do so. Manfred Moelgg was relegated to fourth while teammate Patrick Thaler, third after the first run, sunk to finish 13th.

Swede Johan Brolenius, with a solid second run, moved to fifth.

It was a race of opportunity for many. Skiers with bibs as high as 70 made the cut for the second run as the fog slowly lifted off the course. Racers after bib 50 had perfectly clear conditions and many - like Lars Myhre, ninth after the first run from the 70th start - took advantage,finishing seventh.

It was not a great day for the Americans. Ted Ligety was in position to make a charge from the 16th slot after the first run, and tore up the top of the course only to commit a major error and slide down to finish near the bottom of the results sheet. Bode Miller chose the wrong boots, electing to go with a new pair then having them ruled 0.2mm too high after the first run, resulting in a disqualification. Millers undoing gave Cody Marshall a second run and he responded with his first points of the season.

In the end, though, it came down to Grange and Kostelic, the latter fueled by thousands of vocal fans and the former fueled by the thought of silencing thousands of vocal fans.

"I want to win and I am in good shape," Grange said as the race got underway. "The supporters want to see Ivica winning, so I expect a huge fight."

By Hank McKee
SkiRacing.com
Tuesday, 06 January 2009