Bansko, Bulgaria – World Champion Ted Ligety of Park City, Utah matched his career best Audi FIS Alpine World Cup super combined result with fourth Saturday as the men’s World Cup made its debut in Bansko. Italian super G World champion Christof Innerhofer won as first run leader Jean-Baptiste Grange of France went out in the super G portion, which was run after the slalom due to forecasted fog.n”I didn’t feel like I had the greatest slalom in the world, but my super G run was pretty good. It was a pretty GS friendly super G hill, so that worked out well for me,” said Ligety. “It was nice to take a little bit of a break after Worlds for a few days. Coming over here is kind of a trek, this place is a little bit different than we normally go, so it’s definitely interesting to check out a new place.”
“The course was very turny,” U.S. Ski Team men’s Head Coach, Sasha Rearick, explained of the track in Bansko. “Combined coach Mike Kenney set and the goal was to make it a little bit more turny to separate the times of the downhill guys skiing in a different format.”
Tim Jitloff, of Reno, Nev., was eighth for his best result in two years and Colby Granstrom from Lake Stevens, Wash., just missed scoring his first World Cup points finishing 31st despite posting the 15th fastest slalom run.
“Jitloff did a hell of a job in the first run of slalom, skied clean and moved with the terrain well. It was a rough course. It held up but was rough with changing snow conditions,” said Rearick. “Colby Granstrom skied extremely well for such a young athlete, especially from the midsection of the course to the bottom. I’m stoked to see him come out and execute that level of skiing in a World Cup.”
The only Canadian taking part in the event was Michael Janyk from Whistler, British Columbia. Janyk, a technical skier, completed the slalom part to get some training in for Sunday’s slalom race.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
2011 Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Bansko, Bulgaria – Feb. 26, 2011
Super Combined
1. Christof Innerhofer, Italy, 2:23.87
2. Felix Neureuther, Germany, 2:23.88
3. Thomas Mermillod Blondin, France, 2:24.20