Val Gardena, Italy –Olympic champion and two-time Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall winner Bode Miller battled a shortened Val Gardena super G to finish second on Friday behind Swiss young gun Beat Feuz. Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud was third.

“I thought we had it in the bag for a while, then Feuz out skied us,” said Sasha Rearick, the U.S. Ski Team men’s head coach. “But Bode is skiing well and with a lot of confidence. Besides a couple of direct lines in a few spots, it was great skiing by Bode.”

It was Miller’s third super G podium at the Italian resort after winning the 2006 race and taking second in 2007. Miller, who won the Audi Birds of Prey downhill at Beaver Creek, Colo., two weeks ago, now sits fourth in the overall World Cup standings behind Park City, Utah’s Ted Ligety, who did not race on Friday. With a fourth place finish on Friday, Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal continues to occupy the top slot.

“I made some mistakes on the course and there’s not a ton to it,” admitted Miller, of Franconia, N.H. “Also, when I went the visibility was pretty bad. If you get a little sun, it can make a huge difference on a course like this. On this particular course you always have to wait until the end because there’s guys that can come from the way back and stomp it in.”

Visibility wasn’t the only weather issue to plague Friday’s race. The start was also lowered due to high wind at the top of the slope.

“There’s a wind that can go straight up the hill sometimes and I don’t know if that’s what got me,” mused Miller. “You saw Ganong get pounded by wind up there. At the top I didn’t have any errors, but at the bottom, I made some mistakes on the last 10 gates that cost me some.”

Olympic super G bronze medalist Andrew Weibrecht, of Lake Placid, N.H. finished 20th as he regains momentum after returning to the World Cup circuit following an injury last season. Aspen, Colo.’s Wiley Maple, meanwhile, scored the first World Cup points of his career with 29th after starting from number 61.

“This hasn’t necessarily been a good hill in the past for Weibrecht, but today he showed some aggressive skiing and I’m proud of his performance,” said Rearick. “”I’m really excited for Wiley Maple. He got the call last night that he was going to get a start here because of the way he’s been training and he made it count. He scored his first World Cup points and he did it with aggressive skiing through the Ciaslot.”

Canada’s Jan Hudec continued his strong start to the season by finishing tied for 10th on Friday, his second top-10 result in three super G races.  The 30-year-old from Calgary, Alberta, started 25^th but attacked from the top.

“I’m happy,” said Hudec as he watched the last racers go down the hill. “I made one big mistake from risking too much, which I’m OK with. The light was super flat but at the bottom it broke up a little bit. I’m moving up in the points, which is really my ultimate goal. I want to ski fast and if I keep doing that I will get a podium.”

The famed Saslong Classic downhill is slated for Saturday in Val Gardena, but Miller cautioned that his results today are no indicator for tomorrow.

“The super G here isn’t usually a good indicator for the downhill,” he explained. “There’s a lot of variables here – start position, weather – everything makes a difference. I think we have the skis that can do it and I have the line that know I need to ski. This is one of my favorite areas in Europe to ski.”