Chamonix, France – Croatian Ivica Kostelic continued his domination of the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup on Sunday, notching a seventh January win with super combined victory in Chamonix. Kostelic now holds a commanding 475 point lead in the World Cup overall standings ahead of Swiss Silvan Zubriggen.nKostelic’s Croatian teammate Natko Zrncic-Dim was second with a time of 2:57.63 and Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal was third in 2:57.65. Will Brandenburg, of Spokane, Wash., posted a career best 22nd to lead Americans as Bode Miller and Ted Ligety took a planned break from the World Cup circuit.

“The whole focus for Will was to get a break from slalom and get on the speed boards, find the wind in the face and work on some speed technique,” explained U.S. Ski Team men’s head coach, Sasha Rearick. “He did a good job here, but unfortunately didn’t make the top 30 in the downhill portion and had to ski the slalom in some difficult light, but he still put down a solid run.”

The prospect of being the first man out of the gate during the slalom portion of Sunday’s super-combined race understandably gave young Canadian Ben Thomsen a few jitters. The 23-year-old, from Invermere, British Columbia, was handed his first World Cup start in the discipline when his good friend and mentor, Manuel Osborne-Paradis, suffered a season-ending injury in Saturday’s downhill. And although Thomsen showed nerves of steel to tame the intimidating Kitzbühel downhill last weekend, the prospect of competing in slalom, a technical discipline he hadn’t been racing at the highest level, was a different matter.

“When I came out of the gate, I’ve never been so nervous for a race,” said Thomsen, who started the slalom run first, in front of thousands of spectators and television viewers worldwide, after finishing 30th in the downhill portion of the race. He wrapped up the super combined in 29th.

“He scored a couple of points in super-combined, which is always a good thing for the future,” said Canada’s head coach, Paul Kristofic.

A super G and giant slalom are set for Feb. 5-6 in Hinterstoder, Austria prior to the World Championships.

“Bode and Ted are training with the speed guys next week in Saalbach, Austria and our technical guys are headed to Hinterreit before the World Cup in Hinterstoder,” said Rearick. “I’m excited for this week, we’ve got some good time to focus on training before ramping things up for the World Championships.”

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Chamonix, France – Jan. 30, 2011
Super Combined

1. Ivica Kostelic, Croatia, 2:57.12
2. Natko Zrncic-Dim, Croatia, 2:57.63
3. Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 2:57.65