Miller gets first win of season

BEAVER CREEK, Colo. — At his daring best, Bode Miller is back in the win column.

Off to a much slower start than a year ago, the defending overall World Cup champion picked up his first victory of the season Saturday, leading a 1-2-4 U.S. finish in a giant slalom.

Miller, who tied for the lead after the first run, nearly went down twice in the second but somehow stayed up and stayed fast, finishing with a total time of 2 minutes, 34.56 seconds.

"I was fully, fully aware of being on the edge the whole time," Miller said. "I was definitely taking a risk. Those are the kind of runs that are fun for me."

Daron Rahlves, who beat Miller in a 1-2 U.S. downhill Friday, wound up in second place in the giant slalom, 0.49 seconds back.

The results pushed the teammates and training partners to the top of the World Cup overall standings, with Rahlves at No. 1, and Miller at No. 2 — and certainly sent a signal that all eyes will be on the American duo at the Turin Olympics in February.

"Today showed what we have in ourselves. Hopefully it does send a good message to everybody else and gets them thinking a bit more," Rahlves said. "And that just gives us more power as a team."

Kalle Palander of Finland — tied with Miller after the first run — finished third, 1.23 seconds off the pace. Erik Schlopy of the United States was fourth, just another 0.01 behind, despite skiing with his left hand taped after smashing it into a gate during the opening run.

Miller, the last to go in the second run, slid into the finish area on his backside, wearing a big grin. He got up, acknowledged the loud crowd, then embraced Rahlves.

Overnight snow left about 9 inches on the course, and more snow during the race brought it to about a foot.

"Everybody needed to fight today," Palander said. "It was tough visibility, and the snow was so strange — sometimes really clean turns or icy turns, sometimes really small ice balls."

Schlopy was the fastest to the first time check in the first run, but he lost nearly a full second to Miller over the final interval, skiing with one pole for the last 20 gates.

"It blew my hand back, blew the pole right out of my hand. It was painful. I yelled out when it happened," Schlopy said. "But then I just said, 'I'm going to go for it the rest of the way.' "

Fifteen of the 70 starters failed to finish the first run, including Benjamin Raich of Austria — the 2004-05 World Cup giant slalom champion and silver medalist at the world championships — and Ted Ligety of the United States, who fell but said he was OK.

Miller's second-place in the downhill matched his best result so far this season before Saturday; he was second behind Hermann Maier at the season-opening giant slalom at Soelden, Austria, in October.

Last season, Miller won four of the first five races and six of 10 on his way to becoming the first American since 1983 to win the overall World Cup title.