Miller the man to beat

But it was Hermann Maier who sent the 20,000 spectators into deafening cheers after the Austrian double Olympic champion qualified for his first giant slalom final since a motorcycle accident nearly cost him a leg and put him out of competition for 17 months.

Pre-race favourite Miller locked into a tight tuck and stormed down the sun-drenched Rettenbach course in a time of one minute 2.79 seconds to set himself up for a fourth giant slalom World Cup win of his career.

The second leg promises to be an exciting battle for victory after France's Frederic Covili, a winner here two years ago and runner-up last year, swooped into second place a mere nine hundredths of a second behind Miller.

"It was a crazy run -- the speeds are very high. It's not the kind of situation you want to be in at the very beginning of the season as your confidence isn't there yet," said Miller of the steep and challenging Rettenbach course.

"I was really uncomfortable going down there. It's really scary," the 26-year-old all rounder said of the run which has the highest start hut of all World Cup races at 3,050 metres.

Italy's Arnold Rieder placed third on 1:03.44 ahead of a phalanx of Austrians headed by St Moritz world championship silver medallist Hans Knauss.

Defending Sölden champion Stephan Eberharter of Austria, the Olympic champion in the technical discipline, placed sixth and 0.81 seconds off the pace.

Former triple overall World Cup champion Maier stood in 19th place after the first leg with a time nearly two seconds slower than Miller.

Maier, the only male racer to capture two victories at Sölden, is contesting his first full season in three years after the accident. But due to his absence, the 30-year-old started the two-leg giant slalom with an unfavourably high bib number of 26.

The season's top racers choose lower start numbers to take advantage of virgin snow since the course often becomes rutted as racers carve through the gates.

"It was very fast and I had to brake a lot. The radius of the turns was also too tight for me," Maier said in reference to the 42 gates.

Two marquee names were missing from the season-opening jamboree that draws thousands of ski enthusiasts into Sölden's spectacular snowscape.

Norwegian Kjetil Andre Aamodt, who has won a record 19 Olympic and world championship medals, broke his ankle in training here on Wednesday and will miss the next few weeks of competition.

And giant slalom World Cup champion Michael von Gruenigen retired last season after collecting a total 23 wins in the discipline.