BEAVER CREEK — If Thursday’s World Cup super combined on Beaver Creek’s Birds of Prey left something to be desired for the Americans, at least it was fairly encouraging.
Bode Miller performed poorly, by his own admission, and still nearly landed on the podium. The U.S. Ski Team he quit last spring to race on his own didn’t place anyone on the podium in his stead, but it showed promising depth.
Miller finished fourth in a race won by Daniel Albrecht of Switzerland, but considering that the super combined involves one run of slalom along with a downhill, it’s noteworthy that Miller finished at all. Miller’s failure to finish slaloms in recent years has been a major problem, but he has completed all three slalom runs this season. That’s progress.
Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety of Park City, Utah, finished eighth thanks to the second-fastest slalom run of the day. T.J. Lanning, Ligety’s boyhood “nemesis” in Park City, scored World Cup points for the second time in his career with a 10th-place finish, and Andrew Weibrecht scored points for the first time by finishing 14th. Lanning is 23, Weibrecht 21.
Steve Nyman, who earned his first career podium here last year in downhill, was second in the downhill but went out in the slalom. Nyman figures to be a solid contender today when the U.S. puts a four-year winning streak on the line in the Birds of Prey downhill. Miller won in 2004 and 2006, Daron Rahlves in 2003 and 2005.
“It was a really good day for us, amazing day,” said U.S Ski Team head men’s coach Phil McNichol. “Steve’s in great shape for the downhill, fabulous. As a team, to put three guys in the top 10 and another in the top 15, and to have our fastest downhiller fall (in the slalom), what more can you ask for?”
Miller was sixth in the downhill, 18th in the slalom, and disgusted with both efforts.
“I made a lot of mistakes in the downhill, I was down on my side twice, once on my right side, once on my left side,” Miller said. “I was way off the line a bunch of times. The slalom was just bad.”
Miller said he trounced Albrecht when he trained slalom with the Swiss team Wednesday at Loveland.
“I’ve finished all three slalom runs this year, but I have to start finding the speed I have in training because in training I’ve been killing everybody,” Miller said. “It will come, I think.”
Ligety was 39th in the downhill, not a surprising result considering it was only his fourth foray down the treacherous Birds of Prey downhill track, but he looked sensational in the slalom. Ligety earned his first World Cup podium here two years ago in slalom.
Weather forced cancellation of Wednesday’s second downhill training run, which probably hurt Ligety more than most because of his inexperience in downhill.
“The biggest thing for me right now is just getting some more mileage,” Ligety said of downhill. “Another run down the course would have helped tremendously. I was almost five seconds out in the training run (Tuesday) and 2 1/2 (Thursday).”
Conversely, Nyman looked great in downhill, his best event, but got thrown off his feet in the slalom, probably because he got his weight too far forward.
“My skis just buckled underneath me, and I went over the tips a little bit,” Nyman said. “It’s a bummer, but I had 10 good turns before that. Hopefully I can link a run together one of these days.”
Nyman’s downhill run gave him a nice confidence boost.
“I’m going to roll with that into (today),” Nyman said. “It’s great to get another lap on the course and really feel that out.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616 or jmeyer@denverpost.com
