BEAVER CREEK, Colo. Dec 5, 2004 (AP) - Benjamin Raich of Austria held off teammate Rainer Schoenfelder and Giorgio Rocca of Italy on Sunday to win the first slalom of the World Cup season, while overall leader Bode Miller skied out for a second straight race.
Raich, second after the first run, had a two-run time of 1 minute, 51.06 seconds, edging Rocca by 0.21.
Schoenfelder, the defending World Cup slalom champion and the first-run leader, struggled on his second run and finished third in 1:51.55.
``This is a great day for me,'' Raich said after his 14th World Cup win. ``Before my second run, my goal was to be first, so this is the best part.''
Miller won four of the season's first five races in his bid to become the first U.S. man to win the overall World Cup title since Phil Mahre in 1983.
But he hooked a ski tip midway down the first run Sunday and went off course. On Saturday, he crashed in his first run of a giant slalom.
Miller still leads the standings with 480 points. Hermann Maier of Austria, who did not race Sunday, is second with 274. Click the article below for full World Cup Standings.
