Bode Miller's lead is slim, but it's not quite none.
The 27-year-old from New Hampshire will probably have to win the 2004-05 World Cup overall title on the speed courses, where Miller has done most of his damage this winter.
Miller's season-long World Cup lead—which was 186 points a week ago—dropped to just 31 points over Austria's Benjamin Raich last weekend because Bode DNFd two technical races at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.
Having gone to the gate for every World Cup race over the past three seasons, Miller didn't pull any punches over his latest setback in the gates. "I had a bad weekend," he said.
Miller skied off course in Saturday's giant slalom when he hit a hole in the snow, while Raich won the GS. In Sunday's slalom, Miller slipped and missed a gate early on his second run. Fortunately Raich, 27, ended up third in the slalom so Miller kept his lead.
"I didn't score a point but my confidence is not dented," said Miller, bidding to become the first U.S. man to win the overall World Cup since Phil Mahre accomplished it in 1983.
This season, Miller has DNFd seven of the eight slaloms and three of the seven GSs. With 340 points, he fell from first place to third place in the GS standings behind first-place Raich (363 points) Thomas Grandi, 32, of Banff, Alberta, Canada (340).
With six races remaining Miller has 1253 overall points to Raich's 1222. Austria's Hermann Maier, 32, stands in third with 958 points, Austria's Michael Walchhofer fourth with 910 and U.S. racer Daron Rahlves, 31, fifth with a distant 691 points.
To Miller's advantage, four of the six races left on the 2004-05 schedule are downhills or super giant slaloms.
The U.S. Ski Team heads to Kvitfjell, Nor. March 5-6 for DH/SG. And the World Cup finals featuring all four alpine skiing disciplines—DH, SG, GS and SL—are March 9-13 at Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
Downhill leader Walchhofer, 29, of Austria has a nearly insurmountable 631-488 lead over Miller in the DH standings. Miller leads the SG standings 325-324 over Hermann Maier. And Raich tops the slalom ranks with an unreachable 502 points.
While the men were smashing gates in Slovenia, World Cup women sampled the 2006 Olympic speed run at San Sicario, Italy last weekend.
And last year's overall queen Anja Paerson, 23, of Sweden widened the gap with her chief rival, 23-year-old Janica Kostelic of Croatia.
Paerson won last weekend's DH and SG to stretch her eight-point lead over San Sicario combined winner Kostelic to 63 points. Paerson leads 1241 to 1178 with only four races remaining, which are the World Cup finals. American Lindsey Kildow, 20, is sixth in the overall with 828 points.
Kildow is within striking distance of the two speed discipline titles.
Here are updated standings by women's discipline—Downhill: 1—Renate Goetschl (Aust.) 467. 2—Hilde Gerg (Germ.) 435. 4—Kildow 384. Super giant slalom: 1—Michaela Dorfmeister (Aust.) 393. 2—Goetschl 371. 3—Kildow 346.
Slalom: 1—Tanja Poutiainen (Fin.) 520. Giant slalom: 1—Anja Paerson 410. 2—Poutiainen 381.
