Kjus edges Eberharter for downhill win in Kitzbuehel; Rahlves finishes third

Kjus edges Eberharter for downhill win in Kitzbuehel; Rahlves finishes thirdLasse Kjus won the World Cup downhill in Kitzbuehel, Austria, on Thursday by the narrowest of margins from Stephan Eberharter. American Daron Rahlves, who won on this course last season, finished third.

Rahlves arrived at the start in a gondola cabin that was named in his honor after he won the prestigious race last season. “After inspection I came down, and it was pretty good timing because my gondola is number 91, and I showed up and there was 80 coming around the turn. … It’s cool riding your own little gondola.”

Bill Marolt, USSA’s CEO and a man with Kitzbuehel experience of his own, was in the finish area to see two American athletes crack the top 10; Bode Miller finished seventh. “They came out today ready to go, and they did a great job,” said Marolt, who had a tear in his eye after speaking with Miller and Rahlves.

Kjus, 33, of Norway blasted down the 3.3-kiometer Streif course in 1:58.78, then held his breath as Austrian Eberharter stopped the clock one hundredth of a second slower. Vion figures that Kjus won by only 15 centimeters.

Skies were slightly overcast, but the light was consistent and racers reported that most of the snow that had fallen during the week had been pushed off the track.

A strong promotional presence by Red Bull, the Austria-based energy drink that is the title sponsor for the downhills, included an inflated archway over the Hausberg jump.

Michel Vion, the race director of Dynastar skis, was as happy as anyone in the finish. He pointed out that this was the company’s first Kitzbuehel downhill win ever, and their first World Cup downhill win since 1992, when Kjetil Andre Aamodt won at Chamonix. (Tommy Moe’s 1994 win at Kvitfjell was in the Olympic downhill, not a World Cup.) “We knew from the beginning of the season that we had good skis on this kind of snow,” said Vion. “Cold and fresh, like in Lake Louise for example.”

“We’re not well-known in the German [-speaking] countries,” said Vion. “For the company that means a lot, to win at Kitzbuehel. To be seen around the world on TV coverage and also among the other companies.”

“The visibility will have a price,” joked Vion, when asked about what kind of bonus the company would award to Kjus’s serviceman.

Servicemen were under even more pressure than usual for this race, as organizers had decided to run a special training run at 9:30 — just two hours before the race began. The idea was to let athletes sample the first 32 seconds of the course, which had been cut from the previous day’s training run. Miller won the training run.

For Miller, his seventh in the race was by far the best downhill result of the season (even though he appeared guaranteed a victory at Beaver Creek in December, when he crashed within sight of the finish).

“That’s gonna be a funny lactate,” said Miller in the finish, referring to the blood tests the U.S. Ski Team does to measure an athlete’s exhaustion. Miller said the extra training run tired him out. “My legs were cashed up on the flats. I was just goosing the tails so much on those turns.”

Miller was winning at the early intervals. Through the 16 seconds of the Carosel turn and the Steilhang — one of the most perilously steep pitches in ski racing — he crushed the next fastest time by half a second. He also won the morning’s training run.

Bryon Friedman also landed in the points, finishing 26th — a respectable showing for a rookie in the world’s most challenging ski race.

Friedman nearly didn’t make it. He got launched off the Mausefalle jump when he mistimed the take-off. “I kind of picked up my feet before it and didn’t get a good press,” said Friedman when he got to the finish. “It’s a timing issue. I went so big. Way high.”

Friedman said that the morning’s training run hadn’t prepared him for the speed he’d have in the race run: “This morning I took kind of a wide line coming in there, but this time I came in with more heat and I flew.”

It was also the first time down the course for two other North Americans, American Wade Bishop and Canadian Jeff Hume.

Official estimates put the crowd size around 7,000 to 8,000 people — a small fraction of the number expected for this weekend’s downhill and slalom.

Swiss veteran Bruno Kernen forgot his bib, but was given a replacement at the start.

As usual, the gods of the Streif demanded a few bodily sacrifices. Nicholas Burtin of France was approaching the Hauseberg section when his outside ski washed out, causing him to high-side into the nets.

After a 10-minute course hold, during which time a helicopter hovered nearby, ready to evacuate him, Burtin managed to stand up and walk off the hill with the help of some bystanders.

During the post-race press conference, Kjus described how just 30 seconds before he started, he’d broken a buckle on his thoroughly-modified Atomic boots, and the serviceman had been able to replace the buckle just in time. “You’re strong in the head,” remarked Rahlves, sitting next to Kjus during the conference.

Kjus, who also won the downhill here in 1999, returned to the top of the World Cup standings ahead of Austrian Benjamin Raich.

Alpine World Cup

Men’s Downhill

Kitzbuehel, Austria

January 22, 2004

1. Lasse Kjus (Norway) 1:58.78

2. Stephan Eberharter (Austria) 1:58.79

3. Daron Rahlves (U.S.) 1:58.98

4. Hermann Maier (Austria) 1:59.26

5. Hans Knauss (Austria) 1:59.28

6. Ambrosi Hoffmann (Switzerland) 1:59.43

7. Bode Miller (U.S.) 1:59.62

8. Hannes Trinkl (Austria) 1:59.63

9. Fritz Strobl (Austria) 1:59.83

10. Bruno Kernen (Switzerland) 1:59.84

11. Christoph Gruber (Austria) 1:59.86

12. Roland Fischnaller (Italy) 1:59.93

13. Alessandro Fattori (Italy) 1:59.98

4. Antoine Deneriaz (France) 2:00.02

15. Peter Rzehak (Austria) 2:00.07

16. Michael Walchhofer (Austria) 2:00.17

17. Didier Cuche (Switzerland) 2:00.19

18. Kristian Ghedina (Italy) 2:00.27

19. Kurt Sulzenbacher (Italy) 2:00.36

20. Klaus Kroell (Austria) 2:00.43

21. Andreas Schifferer (Austria) 2:00.46

22. Benjamin Raich (Austria) 2:00.58

23. Tobias Gruenenfelder (Switzerland) 2:00.71

24. Josef Strobl (Austria) 2:00.84

25. Johann Grugger (Austria) 2:00.88

26. Bryon Friedman (U.S.) 2:00.96

27. Vincent Lavoie (Canada) 2:01.11

28. Didier Defago (Switzerland) 2:01.15

29= Paul Accola (Switzerland) 2:01.23

29= Patrik Jaerbyn (Sweden) 2:01.23

Other North Americans:

43. Jeff Hume (Canada) 2:02.55

44. Jakub Fiala (U.S.) 2:02.63

51. David Anderson (Canada) 2:03.55

57. Wade Bishop (U.S.) 2:06.17

THE SCOOP

> by Hank McKee

Equipment, Men’s Downhill

Kitzbuehel, Austria, January 22, 2004

Skier, skis/boots/bindings

1 Kjus, Dynastar/Atomic/Look

2 Eberharter, Atomic/Lange/Atomic

3 Rahlves, Atomic/Lange/Atomic

4 Maier, Atomic/Lange/Atomic

5 Knauss, Atomic/Lange/Atomic

6 Hoffmann, Stoeckli/Atomic/Atomic

7 Miller, Rossignol/Nordica/Rossignol

8 Trinkl, Head/Lange/Tyrolia

9 Strobl, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

10 Kernen, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

A replacement for a race first scheduled at Bormio, then Chamonix and then Wengen.

Dynastar’s second win of the season, and the only men’s DH not won by Atomic. … Although training was on a shortened course due to conditions, the race was held on the full length of the legendary Strief course.

It’s the smallest possible margin of victory in FIS racing, as Lasse Kjus wins by one one-hundredth of a second. … The 16th career World Cup
win for Kjus and ninth in DH. … His second win of the year after the Val Gardena, Italy, SG 12/19. … His second DH win at Kitzbuehel (1/22/99); he also owns three Kitzbuehel combined victories.

The 68th career podium for Stephan Eberharter and his fifth of the season. … It’s his third podium at Kitzbuehel, three in DH, two in SG. … He won in DH at Kitzbuehel 1/19/02.

The 12th career podium for Daron Rahlves and second of the season after the win at Beaver Creek DH 12/5. … It is his third podium at Kitzbuehel in DH (he won 1/25/03 and was third 1/20/01).

Seventh matches the third-best World Cup DH result of Bode Miller’s career. … He has been sixth at Wengen 1/17/03 and fifth at Bormio 12/29/02. … It’s just the 21st top 10 in a DH at Kitzbuehel for the U.S. in the World Cup era. … And Bode owns two of them. (Bob Cochrane 3, Dave Currier, Bill Johnson, Billy Kidd, AJ Kitt, Mike Lafferty 2, Doug Lewis, Phil Mahre, Tommy Moe 3, Pete Patterson, Eric Poulsen and Rahlves 3 are the others). … It’s a big result in terms of the battle for the overall trophy. Although he loses 44 points to Stephan Eberharter, Miller loses just 14 to Hermann Maier and made up 27 on Benjamin Raich.

Bryon Friedman loses the “rookie rock” with a 26th-place finish in his first Kitzbuehel start. … It is his seventh career scoring finish, all this season. … He has scored twice at every other site (23 & 24 Beaver Creek; 24 & 19 Val Gardena; 10 & 20 Chamonix). … Vincent Lavoie adds his fifth scoring finish, three of them this season.

Kjus takes the lead in overall standings 695-689 over Raich. … Miller leads U.S. in fifth at 533. … Michael Walchhofer maintains the DH lead 345-331 over Eberharter. … Rahlves leads U.S. in fifth at 275. … Austria leads the Nations Cup 9455-2710 over Italy, with the U.S. next at 2612. … Austria leads the men’s standings 5510-1642 for Italy. … The U.S. is fourth at 1177.