Avon, CO – Italian Matteo Marsaglia surprised the field to win his first Audi FIS Alpine World Cup race at Saturday’s Birds of Prey super G in Beaver Creek, continuing the Italian team’s momentum from the downhill a day earlier. Once again Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal, the overall World Cup winner, took second place, followed Austrian Hannes Reichelt who completed the podium in third.

“Four years ago when I did my first training run on the Birds of Prey, I knew I would like this slope – I came down with a huge smile on my face, I was so excited,” said Marsaglia. “Whenever I got asked what was my favorite slope I used to say it’s the Birds of Prey, and that was before I won here so now it is going to have a special place in my heart.”

Utah’s Ted Ligety survived a rock and roll ride down a challenging super G course to take fourth, matching his result from Lake Louise a week ago and remaining in second place in the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall standings behind Svindal.

“I felt like I skied really well especially on the top. With the great conditions here you could do just whatever you wanted on the snow,” said Ligety. “I made a couple small mistakes on the bottom so it’s a bummer to be just a few hundredths off the podium. But I’m happy with how I skied overall. Super G now is my second best event. I’m getting better in super G and hopefully I can keep it going and keep scoring some points and have a chance for the overall. But the way Aksel’s skiing it’s crazy – he’s going to be tough to beat.”

The challenging Birds of Prey super G course prevented 16 athletes from finishing the race, including Austria’s Max Franz, who was kept overnight at the Vail Valley Medical Center for observation.

“Max sustained a severe concussion, a broken nose, a cut on the bridge of his nose and scratches in his face. He had to remain in the hospital overnight for observation,“ said Austrian Ski Federation team doctor Alexandra Reimann.

Salt Lake City’s Brennan Rubie scored his first World Cup points in his very first World Cup start, finishing Saturday’s super G in 27^th place, as did Jared Goldberg, of Holladay, Utah, who finished 30^th in his second start. Keene, N.Y.s Tommy Biesemeyer had a career best 18^th.

“Getting the course report I was pretty nervous just because I knew you had to ditch speed in places and that’s not too comforting,” Biesemeyer admitted. “It’s a fine line to know what’s too much and what’s too little. But I skied tactically smart, I skied aggressive loose and athletic – and that’s my goal always.”

The Canadian men also enjoyed a strong performance on Saturday, with that team’s Jan Hudec getting his 2012-13 season on track with a 10^th place finish and world downhill champion Erik Guay right behind him in 11^th.

Hudec, of Calgary, Alberta, has been battling a sore knee but the 31-year-old, who had surgery in September in an attempt to correct the problem, managed to lay down a fast run and pick up his first top-10 World Cup result of the year.

“This was definitely better – I was pretty happy with the result,” said Hudec, who was 24^th in the downhill on Friday. “I’m definitely day to day (due to injury) but I don’t need to focus on anything past today. It’s important to me to be focused on just being in the start gate and knowing I’m going to try for the win or to be on the podium. I’m happy I was able to get to that point today.”

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Birds of Prey – Beaver Creek, CO – Dec. 1, 2012
Men’s Super G