Jitloff turns it up, holds off Ford in giant slalom
CARRABASSETT VALLEY, Maine - To Tim Jitloff, it seemed very quiet. Maybe too quiet.
He had just followed up a killer first run in the men's giant slalom at the US Alpine Championships with a run that felt, well, the way a GS run should. Fast on the glides, sharp on the technical turns. But coming into the finish, he didn't know where he stood. There was no noise.
But as he turned to the electronic scoreboard and found his name, there was the number "1" in front of it. "Jit" pumped his fist and let out a whoop.
"It was the kind of race where you just had to punch it," said Jitloff. "It was hero snow out there today - just right. So you could do anything you wanted, and if you got into trouble, you could get away with murder on that snow."
After a tough season for him, Jitloff said, his skiing began to pick up toward the end, and he came into Nationals ready to grab a podium. And his combined two-run time of 2 minutes 4.67 seconds yesterday was just a 10th of a second ahead of junior teammate Tommy Ford, good enough to leave Sugarloaf with a national championship.
In third place was Warner Nickerson (2:06.22), who as a Colby College graduate is no stranger to Sugarloaf, home of his college race team.
Ford, 19, who was named junior alpine Skier of the Year by Ski Racing magazine, showed why that honor came his way. Matching Jitloff turn for turn, even when Jitloff made nearly perfect technical turns down the headwall pitch, Ford was just a couple of feet shy of winning speed.
The headwall, the most interesting part of a course set up by his coach, is what Jitloff found most fun.
"It was very technical and fast - very exciting - and really fun to groove," said Jitloff, 23. "The whole race, after struggling early in the season, was great. Leaving here as a national champion is huge."
And much was made of Ford's performance.
"I knew Tommy was right there coming at me," said Jitloff. "He's just skiing great."
For Jitloff, who has had to struggle through the revelation that his mother has cancer, the win made him feel he is "clawing" his way back into the US Ski Team's plans.
"I haven't had a win in a very long time," he said, "and it feels really, really good."
After winning the slalom title Saturday, Jimmy Cochran "survived" Monday's downhill run with a 10th place that gave him another national title, the combined. For a technical specialist, Cochran's finish in the downhill, just over 2 seconds behind winner T.J. Lanning, was nothing short of remarkable.
The combined title is Cochran's fifth, just two short of matching his father Bobby's national record.
Asked by a Ski Racing reporter why a technical specialist such as himself would try downhill, Cochran's answer sounded existential and practical at once.
"For fun," he said. "For the combined. It's good training for the GS. Why do anything? It's all ski racing. It's all fun. For the thrill of competition."
Asked if his father had given him any downhill pointers, the wry 26-year-old simply said, "He knows I'm a lost cause in downhill."
But not so lost that he won't take home two national titles this spring.
