Rocca recaptures World slalom lead
 |
Rocca finished fourth fastest in the first leg
Story Tools
|
CHAMONIX, France -- Italian Giorgio Rocca recaptured the slalom World Cup lead with victory in Chamonix.
He claimed his first victory since March last year after all the favorites faltered in the second leg, finishing just 0.08 seconds ahead of Frenchman Pierrick Bourgeat in one minute 29.09 seconds.
Giant slalom world champion Bode Miller, who had failed to finish his previous five slaloms in the World Cup, was third.
The American also won the weekend's combined event, ahead of Austrian Benjamin Raich and Norway's Lasse Kjus, who took the overall cup lead by just one point ahead of Raich.
Rocca paid tribute to fellow countryman Alberto Tomba, who phoned him after he clocked the fourth-best time in the first leg.
"He called to encourage me and offer me his support," said Rocca. "This is a very special victory for me and I share it with Alberto. He has helped me with advice this season."
Tomba, an Italian hero in the late 1980s and 1990s and the winner of three Olympic titles, was one of three other Italians to win the Chamonix World Cup slalom.
Gustavo Thoeni won it in 1975, Tomba took the honors in 1994 and Angelo Weiss celebrated his only World Cup win in Chamonix in 2000.
Difficult conditions
The top three from Sunday's first leg all struggled on the second run in wet and difficult conditions which failed to deter some 10,000 spectators.
Austria's Rainer Schoenfelder, who led by 0.14 seconds after the first leg, finished fourth overall.
World Cup defending champion Kalle Palander of Finland, who had been second, nearly fell but recovered to finish joint 16th and Austria's Manfred Pranger ended the afternoon sixth, 0.74 seconds off the pace.
Miller jumped six places to fourth in the overall standings with his day's haul of 160 points and was delighted to be back on form after a poor start to the season.
The American giant slalom and combined world champion was only 10th after the slalom first leg but produced a typically storming second run, charging across the line with such force that he crashed in the finish area.
"Coming from behind is not what I like to do the most, but apparently it is what I do best," Miller said.
The hunt for combined points in an increasingly close overall competition persuaded several unlikely racers to line up at the slalom start.
Former overall champion Hermann Maier, who had not raced in slalom since January 2000, stayed in touch with the overall leaders after finishing 13th in the combined event which added Saturday's downhill results to the slalom times.
But fellow Austrian and downhill winner Stephan Eberharter failed to complete the slalom second leg.
The men now move to Wengen in Switzerland where an extra downhill, postponed twice from other resorts, has been added on Friday to Saturday's classic downhill and Sunday's slalom.
