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Maier blunders Von Gruenigen capitalizes as 'Herminator' disqualified
Updated: Monday December 18, 2000 9:49 PM
VAL D'ISERE, France (AP) -- Switzerland's Michael Von Gruenigen took advantage of the absence of disqualified Austrian Hermann Maier on Sunday to win his second World Cup men's giant slalom of the season. Von Gruenigen's two-run combined time in Val d'Isere was more than half a second faster than that of second-placed Austrian, Heinz Schilchegger. American Bode Miller caused a huge surprise by taking third. Miller placed 20th in the morning leg, but ran a stunning second race, finishing nearly half a second faster than Von Gruenigen, and beating the rest of the field hands down. The win put Miller on a World Cup podium for the first time of his career. Fellow American Erik Schlopy placed eighth after two strong runs on the course, which had hardened considerably since Saturday's downhill. Von Gruenigen came back from second place in the first run to take a combined time of 2 minutes, 31.33 seconds. Schilchegger led in the first run, but his overall time was 2:31.92, just .06 seconds ahead of Miller. Hermann the "Herminator" Maier was favorite to win the giant slalom Sunday, but was disqualified before the first leg, for breaking a time limit on his morning inspection run. Maier went beyond the one-hour limit that was allotted to skiers during Sunday morning's inspection of the Oreiller Killy course, violating an International Ski Federation rule, officials said. Organizers said he stayed on the course several minutes longer than allowed. An appeal by the Austrian team was turned down by the FIS jury, but the World Cup's reigning overall and giant slalom champion received little sympathy from fellow competitors at Val d'Isere. The morning inspection run allows skiers to get familiar with the giant slalom course, which involves numerous precise turns. A skier who spends extra time on the run would have the twin advantage of more time to study the course, and an opportunity to plan strategy without competitors seeing the race line he is drawing. Today was the first time Maier has been disqualified for breaking the time-limit rule. But fellow World Cup skiers at Val d'Isere accused Maier of being a regular offender and said his disqualification at some stage was inevitable. Speaking before his blistering afternoon run, Bode Miller accused Maier of having previously stayed as much as twenty minutes longer on inspection runs than allowed. "He takes advantage of that every time," Miller told The Associated Press. "They had to lay down the law at some point. This is the only way to do it." Norway's Lasse Kjus said that although Maier was not alone in sometimes breaking the time limit, the Austrian was the skier who did it the most. "He's always too late to come into inspection and also out of inspection," Kjus told the AP. Maier was contacted at his hotel but refused to comment on the disqualification. Val D'Isere has been a source of trouble for the "Herminator" in the past. Three years ago, his victory in the giant slalom was revoked after he stepped out of his skis and flashed his sponsor's name to television cameras before crossing the red line in the finish area. The win was subsequently awarded to his rival, Von Gruenigen. Maier won a super-G at the French resort in 1999, but attempts to win in other events have been repeatedly thwarted by bad weather and illness. That all seemed to have changed last weekend, when the 28-year-old won both the downhill and the giant slalom races. But on Saturday, the double world and Olympic champion came in a disappointing 16th in the fourth downhill of the season, which was moved to Val d'Isere from snowless Val Gardena, Italy.
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