Raich riding high

The Austrian World Cup holder, Olympic giant slalom champion and world silver medallist has yet to get on the podium in the discipline this season.

He enjoyed a near-perfect run on Saturday, in the last giant slalom before the Are world championships next month, to clock one minute 13.06 seconds, 0.18 seconds ahead of Italian Massimiliano Blardone.

"It was a good run for me, pretty much error-free," Raich told reporters. "It is not very icy so you have to ski with a lot of feeling."

Finland's Kalle Palander was lying third, 0.22 seconds behind Raich, with Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, who leads the overall and giant slalom cup standings, fourth in 1:13.68.

American Bode Miller, who was only 39 points behind Svindal in the overall standings going into the race, fell. He left the Kuonisbaergli course without speaking to reporters.

Raich won the season's opening slalom in Levi, making him the only man from the usually dominant Austrian team to get on the podium in a technical event this season.

The three giant slaloms so far have produced three different winners -- Blardone, Palander and Svindal.

World champion Hermann Maier was the only other Austrian in the top 10 of Saturday's first leg.

The 34-year-old former overall cup champion was lying eighth, 1.16 seconds behind Raich, going into the second leg which starts at 13:30 CET.