By Elizabeth Karam, U.S. Ski Team

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta -– Two-time Audi FIS Alpine World Cup overall champion Bode Miller of Franconia, N.H., led the U.S. in Lake Louise with 12th in the super G. Tobias Gruenenfelder nabbed the victory for the first win of his career in 1:32.31.

Double U.S. champion Travis Ganong of Squaw Valley posted the best result of his young career with 20th, while 2006 Olympic champ Ted Ligety of Park Cit continued to show improvement in speed events with 23rd.

“It is nice to finally get a race under my belt,” said Ligety, who was sitting second in the season opening giant slalom before the race was called due to fog. “I felt like I skied well but just didn’t have the speed. For the whole U.S. team in general, it’s been a lack of volume. Normally we get the bulk of our speed training in Chile and this year we didn’t have the opportunity and then we went to New Zealand and had bad weather.”

With a consistent track and clear weather, Miller posted another solid finish, just over a half a second behind Gruenenfelder. Rounding out the podium was Switzerland’s Carlo Janka and Austria’s Romed Baumann in a race decided by a mere 0.07 seconds.

For Ganong, who captured the U.S. downhill and super G title last season, it was all about pushing out the noise to find focus.

“Marco [Sullivan of Squaw Valley] radioed up saying it was in good shape and that was just perfect,” said Ganong, who climbed 26 spots in the race. “I changed my game plan to charge all the way, and it worked. In the start I was like, calm down, look at this view and let’s just have fun. That put me in a peaceful content light. Maybe that’s the new thing.”

The men will head to Beaver Creek for the Audi Birds of Prey World Cup Dec. 3-5. With weather reports pointing to snow throughout the week, organizers have bumped the first downhill training run to Nov. 30 in order to maximize training opportunities.

Official results, Audi FIS Alpine World Cup, Lake Louise, Nov. 28, Super G

1. Tobias Gruenenfelder, Switzerland 1:32.31

2. Carlo Janka, Switzerland, 1:32.38

3. Romed Baumann, Austria, 1:32.58

4. Mario Scheiber, Austria, 1:32.60

5. Didier Cuche, Switzerland, 1:32.67

–

12. Bode Miller, Franconia, N.H., 1:33.12

20. Travis Ganong, Squaw Valley, 1:33.65

23. Ted Ligety, Park City, 1:33.79

–

35. Andrew Weibrecht, Lake Placid, 1:34.47

44. Steven Nyman, Sundance, 1:34.84

46. Marco Sullivan, Squaw Valley, 1:34.91

47. Tommy Biesemeyer, Keene, N.Y., 1:35.01

49. Erik Fisher, Middleton, Idaho, 1:35.17

63. Chris Frank, Rhinelander, Wis., 1:37.09