ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP BANSKO. The World Championships medals are awarded and the men’s World Cup moves on to Bulgaria. The men will fight for coveted World Cup points in Bansko in the super combined on Saturday, 26 February 2011 and the slalom on Sunday, 27 February 2011.

The final weeks in the fight for the crystal globes lie ahead but the preliminary decision in the men’s overall ranking has already fallen. Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic's, who won seven World Cup races in January, has accumulated 1249 World Cup points this season. He will be going into the last races with a lead of 524 points over first runner-up Swiss Didier Cuche with 725 points.

In the super-combined, the Croat has already secured the little discipline globe after having captured all three World Cup super-combined races this season. Thus, his task for Saturday is clear, namely to collect points to claim the overall World Cup.

Kostelic already announced at the World Championships in Garmisch Partenkirchen, where he did not in the super combined and downhill races, that his main goal for this season is to take home the big crystal globe for the overall World Cup. "The World Cup is a priority for me. I prefer to skip these two World Championship races in order to have enough energy for the rest of the season," the Croat said. “That would be the greatest for Ivica and the whole of Croatia," said his coach-father Ante.

The race for the World Cup slalom globe however could turn into a really exciting battle even though Kostelic is in the lead with 478 slalom points with three outstanding races (Bansko, Kranjska Gora and Lenzerheide). But the French champion Jean-Baptiste Grange sits in second, only 96 points behind and Sweden's Andre Myhrer would need to make up 145 points to still be able to snatch the title from Kostelic. No longer in the race for the slalom World Cup is the Austrian Marcel Hirscher with 326 points who had to end his season prematurely due to injury.

FISalpine.com
Friday 25 February 2011

Who to watch on the men's tour in Bansko

Three weeks after the thrilling competitions in Hinterstoder, Austria, the men’s World Cup tour resumes this weekend at Bansko, in Bulgaria, where a Super-combined (on Saturday) and a slalom (on Sunday) are planned on the well prepared slope overlooking the beautiful region situated a two-hour-drive south of Sofia.

It’s the second time in a few years that the newly rebuilt resort of Bansko will be hosting a major international ski event after successfully organizing a series of FIS and Europa-Cup races. Three ladies' World Cup speed races were held in this part of the Pirin mountains in February 2009, a week after the FIS Worlds in Val d’Isère.

In the early 1980s, Bulgaria already put together two stops on the men World Cup tour in 1981 and 1984 at Borovetz, the ski area of Peter Popangelov, the only Bulgarian-born champion who excelled on the circuit two decades ago. 38-year-old veteran Kilian Albrecht, 26th last week in Bavaria, is also racing for Bulgaria after having represented Austria in his younger years. Albrecht, considered as an established stock-exchange expert in his usual life, did score a few points since starting to race for Bulgaria over the past four years.

Interestingly enough, only two of the top-10 leading athletes in the Overall World Cup standings made the trip to south Bulgaria to fight for more points three weeks prior the upcoming Finals at Lenzerheide, in Switzerland – the undisputed frontrunner Ivica Kostelic from Croatia, and Austria’s Romed Bauman, 5th in the general classification.

Speed specialist Didier Cuche (2nd at 524 points behind Kostelic), two-time combined World Champion Aksel Lund Svindal (3rd at 536 points) or Silvan Zurbriggen (4th at 546 points) all remained at home at large as well as defending overall champion Carlo Janka. Austria’s injured leader Benjamin Raich and speed specialist Michael Walchhofer are also missing in Bansko.

Bode Miller too didn’t make the trip but apparently he is planning to return to the World Cup circuit in two weeks at Kranjska Gora. Marcel Hirscher, who badly hurt his leg in a crash at Hinterstoder is also forced to wait several months before getting back on snow.

With only eleven events left until the end of the season (three downhills, three slaloms, two super Gs, two giant slaloms and one super combined) Kostelic is practically guaranteed to become the 22nd winner of the big crystal globe even though Svindal is expected to put up a tough fight. The Scandinavian is known for his determination and his strong fighting spirit, as he proved twince in 2007 and 2009 when he clinched the overall cup. In Lenzerheide in 2007, the Norwegian captured the big globe thanks to an impressive finish in the last weeks of the racing season and in Are 2009 Svindal beat Benjamin Raich by only a few points.

Kostelic, who grew up skiing in Zagreb, is also clearly leading the slalom standings. He already took the slalom globe nine years ago at Flachau, in Austria, after a tough fight against Bode Miller. Kostelic, who finished all his World Cup slaloms in the points since January 2010, scored a total of 478 points in the past month, nearly one hundred more than France’s newly crowned World Champion Jean-Baptiste Grange and 145 points more than Sweden’s Andre Myhrer.

The steep and challenging ‘Alberto Tomba’ slope inaugurated by the charismatic Italian superstar seven years ago should favor technically gifted skiers as the Croat and the French who have been clearly been dominating the specialty this winter. Ivica won two races and landed on the podium three times while ‘JB’ won three competitions and was 3rd in Wengen.

“I’ll do my best as usual, I feel quite relaxed after clinching that coveted slalom title last week in Garmisch-Partenkirchen,” Grange explained earlier this week after a warm reception by thousands of fans at his return in Valloire. “Ivica is a very experienced skier who has shown amazing performances earlier this season and I don’t think too much about that globe for the moment. It was for sure a main goal for me at the season start, but then I lost much ground because of various injuries and health problems. I’m fully happy with my gold medal from Sunday. Now I just want to fully enjoy the rest of my season and ski as fast as I can at each occasion,” added the young Frenchman who also plans to enter the combined event on Saturday.

Many other racers including Romed Baumann, who won such an event two years ago at Sestriere will be fighting for victory in this super G / slalom combined. This also holds true for the new super G World Champion Christof Innerhofer. The handsome Italian showed his potential in slalom in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, finishing a superb 2nd in the super combined won by Svindal.

Among promising outsiders, France’s double junior World Champion Alexis Pinturault seems ready to land his first World Cup podium after grabbing a promising 6th place in the super G at Hinterstoder. Italy’s Peter Fill, 3rd in the combined at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, is also aiming for another podium here.

Contributed by Patrick Lang
FISalpine.com
Friday 25 February 2011

Program for Bansko

Saturday February 26th Super Combined
1st Run SL start time 10:00 local time
2nd Run SG start time 14:00 local time

Sunday February 27th Slalom
1st Run SL start time 10:00 local time
2nd Run SL start time 14:00 local time