Val Gardena: Nyman scorches DH for win No. 1

The wait can be excruciating. But now the wait is over.
    American Steven Nyman, just weeks after earning his first career World Cup podium at Beaver Creek, notched career win No. 1 Saturday, upstaging Bode Miller and a host of Euro contenders on the famed Val Gardena speed track. Skiing on Fischer skis and wearing bib No. 12, Nyman rifled down the downhill course in 1 minute, 56.52 seconds, with rejuvenated Swiss skier Didier Cuche second, .02 back, and Austrian Fritz Strobl third, .43 back. Strobl edged American Marco Sullivan by the slimmest of margins, .01, to deny Sullivan his first career podium.
    Friday’s super G winner, Miller, had a fast top section but nearly skied out on the bottom half and finished 14th.

VAL GARDENA, Italy — The wait can be excruciating. But now the wait is over.
    American Steven Nyman, just weeks after earning his first career World Cup podium at Beaver Creek, notched career win No. 1 Saturday, upstaging Bode Miller and a host of Euro contenders on the famed Val Gardena speed track. Skiing on Fischer skis and wearing bib No. 12, Nyman rifled down the downhill course in 1 minute, 56.52 seconds, with rejuvenated Swiss skier Didier Cuche second, .02 back, and Austrian Fritz Strobl third, .43 back. Strobl edged American Marco Sullivan by the slimmest of margins, .01, to deny Sullivan his first career podium.
    Friday’s super G winner, Miller, had a fast top section but nearly skied out on the bottom half and finished 14th.
    Nyman’s time held up for the rest of the pack. Cuche made a strong bid, and Austrian Michael Walchhofer, the defending World Cup downhill champ, exited the start house in bib No. 30 as the last of the contenders. And the excruciating wait began for Nyman. Walchhofer’s split times told the story: Interval 1, .28 back. Interval 2, .60 back! Interval 3, still .60 back. Interval 4, failing to gain time, .62 back. Now .77 back! And when the big Austrian crossed the finish line, the margin .93 flashed on the timing board, and the big American had his W.
    The tallest racer on the American squad at 6-foot-4 inches, Nyman now has five career top 10s, with that Birds of Prey third, a fourth in the January 2006 downhill at Garmisch, sixth at the 2006 Kitzbühel combined and ninth Friday in the Gardena super G.
    Sullivan had two previous World Cup top-10 results, both at Beaver Creek. On Dec. 7, 2002, he was sixth in a downhill, and two weeks ago, Dec. 1, he was 10th in a downhill won by Miller. That day, four Americans placed in the top 10, with Nyman third and Scott Macartney eighth.
    “This is a great Christmas present because I don’t get to go home for Christmas,” Nyman said, “and to win on a course like this is awesome. It’s very demanding and even if I hadn’t, I had a great time coming down the hill. I knew I had a good run …
    “I was happy with my run. I put forth my best effort and that’s all I can do. I can’t control these other guys, but it all panned out for me.”
    Nyman, the new skiing ambassador for Ski Salt Lake areas, crashed in the first training run and skied out in the second run earlier in the week, but his prerace inspection settled him down because, he said, “I knew where to place my line. I had a good video review the night before and I knew what I needed to do, I saw the line I needed to take.”
    And when he got into the start? “Just ‘give her’ [let it rip]. I’m confident on my skis, I’m balanced over my skis, confident in my product [Fischer skis] and on race day I go as hard as I can. My serviceman picked out magic sticks today,” he said.
    “I was nervous when I got up. My stomach hurt and then I talked to my serviceman and he said his stomach hurt but when his stomach hurt, that usually meant good things would happen,” Nyman laughed.
    Added DH/SG head coach Chris Brigham, "The boys came out to play today. Steven had a game plan early on and he stuck to it; he told me, ‘I think I've figured it out' and I said, ‘Well, show me.' — and he did … and Marco was right on it — we saw some great skiing from him. Bode was blazing, too, until he made a mistake in the Ciaslat" at the bottom.

Nyman, Sullivan learned from training miscues
Nyman, 24 and a two-time U.S. downhill champion, was timed in 1:56.52 for the 50th Saslong Classic with Cuche, who was second between Miller and Nyman in Beaver Creek, down in 1:56.54. Sullivan's time was 1:56.96 in the best result of his World Cup career while Miller, who led briefly in midrace Saturday before a mistake at the bottom cost him, finished in 1:57.36.
    Sullivan said, "Actually, I didn't finish either training run, either, so Steven and I had that going for us. I never even made it into the Ciaslat, below the Camel Bumps at the bottom, but somehow I pulled it off today." He and Nyman stood 1-2 atop the leaderboard through 22 skiers — until Cuche came down and split them, and then Austrian Fritz Strobl came in third at 1:56.95.
    "Yeah, one-hundredth, but I can't control that. I got my Nordicas rolling and I gave it my best," said Sullivan, who missed two seasons after a knee injury in a training crash at the start of the 2004 season. He made the 2006 Olympic team and, he said, "I feel like I'm smarter and skiing fast. I'm looking forward to every race now because I'm confident again and I'm kinda ‘back' … back to where I was before the injury."
    Brigham said, "This was a great day for Steven, and to get his first win on one of the toughest hills on the World Cup … wow! I've been fortunate to be around some pretty cool days with the ski team [since he became a coach a decade ago], but this one is special, very special."
    In the super G Friday, racers went around the fabled Camel Bumps — three back-to-back-to-back, launching pads on the lower one-third of the 3.4 km track which have claimed many of the best skiers through the years — but they go over the nasty mounds of snow in the downhill. "The terrain on this course is nonstop, top to bottom. But the Camel Bumps," Brigham explained, "are where you really have to figure out your jumps, and they did it … and to have two of your stars step up like this today is just awesome."

Miller, Nyman end "drought" on Saslong track
U.S. head coach Phil McNichol echoed Brigham. "The drought's over with a serious rainstorm. For whatever the reason, we've never done particularly well here — only two podiums, both third places, before this weekend … but Bode and Steven ended that problem big time.
    "It's always special when you bring a new guy up to a World Cup win and Steven was a real tiger in there today. The weather's been fantastic," McNichol said, "and the track's been perfect, but with the limited snow, the Saslong is an even tougher course. We watched video last night with Marco and we counted 25 times when you're in the air, off the ground.
    "It was really only three guys who we
re in there — Steven, Bode and Cuche. Bode, who's been working on managing his risks, had almost the same time as Steven before he pushed the line at the bottom and paid for it. He trimmed a line off the top of the Ciaslat, was a little aggressive and couldn't push it that hard, line-wise … and it cost him."
    The only speed string of success by U.S. skiers comparable to the three victories by U.S. men in the last two weeks, came midway through the 1995 season. Picabo Street, who would go on to become the first American to win a World Cup downhill title and would take six downhills consecutively over the '95 and '96 seasons, won three consecutive DHs before Swiss racer Heidi Zeller-Baehler won a super G.
    The men move on to Alta Badia for a giant slalom Sunday followed by a slalom Monday.

THE SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men's downhill, Val Gardena, Italy, Dec. 16, 2006
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Nyman, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
2 Cuche, Head/Head/Tyrolia
3 Strobl, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
4 Sullivan, Nordica/Nordica/Marker
5 Osborne-Paradis, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
6 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
7 Buechel, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
8 Maier, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
9 Jerman, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
10 Buder, Head/Lange/Tyrolia

Men's downhill, Val Gardena, Italy, Dec. 16, 2006. … It is the 10th race of the men's 38 event 2007 World Cup schedule. … It is the third downhill (fourth scheduled) of 11 on the schedule. … It is the 50th annual Saslong Classic. … The 45th World Cup DH held at Val Gardena.
    It is the first career World Cup victory for Steven Nyman. … His previous best had been third at Beaver Creek's DH Dec. 1, 2006. … He has scored in seven races of 10 held this season. … He is the first American to ever win a DH at Val Gardena, the previous best placing being third scored by Mike Lafferty on March 15, 1972, and AJ Kitt Dec. 12, 1992. … It is the second win for the U.S. men in two days after Bode Miller won the SG Dec. 15. … It is the 166th U.S. World Cup win. … He is the 33rd American to win a World Cup race.
    For Fischer, it was a landmark achievement: for the first time ever in a World Cup race the complete Fischer package — skis, boots and bindings — were on the top of the podium.
    It is the 25th career podium for Didier Cuche. … His ninth in DH. … He has never finished third in a Cup DH and has won two, so it is his seventh second=place finish. … It is his first podium at Val Gardena. … It is the second time he has finished second in DH this season to an American, placing between Bode Miller and Nyman at Beaver Creek. … He has six results this season, with five of them being top five finishes.
    It is the 31st career podium for Fritz Strobl. … His 25th in DH. … It is his first podium at Val Gardena, but he had been fourth four times — Dec. 17, 1999, Dec. 21, 2002, Dec. 20, 2003, and Dec. 18, 2004. … He was fifth in December 2005. … An Austrian has not won a DH at Val Gardena since Stephan Eberharter on Dec. 15, 2001.
    It is a career -best World Cup result for Marco Sullivan, his previous best a sixth in DH at Beaver Creek on Dec. 7, 2002. … He matches Andy Mill (Dec. 15, 1980) and AJ Kitt (Dec. 14, 1991) for the fourth-best American result in Val Gardena's DH ever. … It is the second-best Cup result of Manuel Osborne-Paradis' career, after a second in the Lake Louise DH Nov. 25. … He matches Ken Read and Darren Thorburn for the 16th-best Canadian DH result at Val Gardena. … Rob Boyd won twice on the Saslong, Dec. 13, 1986, and Dec. 12, 1987. … Osborne-Paradis owns the top two DH results for Canada this season, here and the second at Lake Louise. … Fourteenth matches Bode Miller's second-best result in DH at Val Gardena, his only better result an eighth Dec. 17, 2005. … Erik Guay made the podium in DH at Val Gardena on Dec. 17, 2005. … Twenty-first is his third-best result on the course. … Twenty-third is the 10th-best career result for Scott Macartney. … It is his third-best result at Val Gardena, second best at Val Gardena in DH, having placed 11th last December. … It is the seventh best of seven World Cup scoring results in DH for Francois Bourque.
    Aksel Lund Svindal (sixth in race) maintains the lead in the overall standings 360-334 over Didier Cuche. … Bode Miller is third at 260. … Cuche leads the DH standings 205-174 over Nyman. … Marco Buchel (seventh in race) is third at 172. … Over a 3,446-meter-long course the winning margin is .02 seconds. … Top 16 competitors finish within a second of the leader. … Top 28 within two seconds.  … Four time race winner Kristian Ghedina was a forerunner. 

Val Gardena men's World Cup downhill results

Did not start 1st run:
HOFFMANN Ambrosi (SUI)

Did not finish 1st run:
LAVOIE Vincent (CAN), PERKO Rok (SLO), DENERIAZ Antoine (FRA), GRUENENFELDER Tobias (SUI)