Svindal pays back the Birds of Prey

The Birds of Prey downhill course is not for the faint of heart.

Aksel Svindal learned that last season and a number of guys, Bode Miller and Andrew Weibrecht among them, learned it this year, sprawling into the nets.

This year, though, Svindal stayed on the fairway to record his third career downhill win and first since crashing here a season ago.

Marco Buechel, with an elegant run containing virtually no mistakes was second and Canadian Erik Guay posted third with a stellar run of his own.

If it showed nothing else, Friday’s race showed just how fine a line there is between the podium and the fence.

The Birds of Prey downhill course is not for the faint of heart.

Aksel Svindal learned that last season and a number of guys, Bode Miller and Andrew Weibrecht among them, learned it this year, sprawling into the nets.

This year, though, Svindal stayed on the fairway to record his third career downhill win and first since crashing here a season ago.

Marco Buechel, with an elegant run containing virtually no mistakes was second and Canadian Erik Guay posted third with a stellar run of his own.

If it showed nothing else, Friday’s race showed just how fine a line there is between the podium and the fence.

Miller got low coming into the Screech Owl jump. He made an incredibly athletic move to make the gate, but ran straight into it, hooked a ski and careened into the nets knocking the wind out of him on impact. Miller skied down the outside of the course and left the arena. He makes it a practice not to divulge his injuries, but made a public appearance in the evening with some facial cuts and a bandage on his hand. “I’m sore,” he says, “but I’ll race tomorrow.”

Weibrecht looked anxious to repeat his u-tube worthy run from last season when he roared from the back of the pack to finish tenth, but caught an edge and launched, literally, into the nets. He arrived at the finish with a bloody nose but was otherwise uninjured.

The top finishers executed their game plans, at least in part.

“It’s a fine line,” says Svindal, “maybe like Bode today. He went really straight where he went out. When you inspect the course you think okay, I can pull this off. …  It’s a tough course for sure.”

“This is a race I prepared for a long time mentally,” says Svindal. “I didn¹t think I was going to win it. I took it kind of easy in training and it went smooth, so I figured if I skied fast the podium was definitely in reach. But I didn¹t think I was going to win. The two best guys made mistakes.”

Buechel says, “I knew how I wanted to run it in my head. It’s burned in my head, how to ski it exactly. But if you are managing to do it, that is another question. I was at the start being very nervous wondering if I could pull it off. And at the end of the steep part coming to the pump station I was all psyched because I managed to pull it off.”

“I had some good sections for sure,” says Guay. “You’ve got to be on it the whole way down. As soon as you make one mistake on this course, it’s so unforgiving, you get pushed late you saw that happen with Weibrecht and some of those guys, you make a little mistake and it goes bad so fast.”

It was an unusually tough day for the Austrians without a single skier on the podium. Klaus Kroell posted fourth and Michael Walchhofer fifth.

The U.S. guys put in some strong efforts. Steven Nyman posted seventh and TJ Lanning was 13th, his second consecutive good showing.
 

 

The SCOOP

Equipment
Men’s Downhill, Beaver Creek, Colo., Dec. 5, 2008
1 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Buechel, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
3 Guay, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Kroell, Salomon/Nordica/Salomon
5 Walchhofer, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6 Defago, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
7 Nyman, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
8 Hoffmann, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
9 Albrecht, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
10 Jerman, Stoeckli/Lange/Atomic

Men’s Downhill, Beaver Creek, Colo., Dec. 5, 2008. … It is the fifth race of men’s 38 race 2008-09 World Cup schedule. … The second of eight scheduled downhills. … It is the 34th World Cup race held at Beaver Creek. … The 13th downhill. … all of them men’s. … it is the first race of four scheduled at Beaver Creek to be held with the super combined having been relocated to Val d’Isere due to snowfall. … entering the race Austrian Hermann Maier has the most Cup wins on the course with three. … Americans Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves each have two.

It is the tenth career World Cup victory for Aksel Svindal and his second at Beaver Creek having won the combined Nov. 30, 2006. … It is his third World Cup DH win, the other two coming in March 2006 and March 2007.

It is the 17th career World Cup podium for Marco Buechel. … It is the second time he has finished second in a Cup race at Beaver Creek, the last coming in super G Dec. 8, 2002.

It is the 10th World Cup podium for Erik Guay and his third top ten of the season. … It is his second Beaver Creek podium, the previous a second scored Dec. 1, 2005 in super G.

Seventh marks the sixth best career result for Steven Nyman and is actually hjs third best result at Beaver Creek, having placed second in the Nov. 30, 2007 DH and third in the Dec. 1, 2006 DH. … It is the third best career result for TJ Lanning. … In just six scoring results he has two top 13 placings atBeaver Creek, the previous a 10th in the 2007 combined. … He was also ninth last week at Lake Louise. … Twenty first matches the fifth best career result for Scott Macartney. … It is his second best result at Beaver Creek having also placed eighth in the 2006 DH. … Manuel Osborne-Paradis collected his career best result at Beaver Creek in 23rd place. … It is his best of three results this season. … Robbie Dixon matched his sixth best career result in 24th. … He has eight total scoring results all scored since Jan. 18, 2008. …Erik Fisher scored his first career World Cup points in 28th. … John Kucera just missed points with a 32nd place finish.

Svindal and Daniel Albrecht (9th in race) are tied for the lead of the World Cup overall standings with 185pts each. … Didier Cuche, (15th in race) is third at 156. … Guay is the top North American tied with Jean-Baptiste Grange (did not race) in seventh place with122pts. … Top American is Bode Miller (DNF) at 121. … Svindal leads the downhill standings 136-124 over Peter Fill (11th in race).

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Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Total Time	FIS Points
1	13	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	1:43.85	0.00
2	8	350032	BUECHEL Marco	1971	LIE	1:43.91	0.76
3	11	102263	GUAY Erik	1981	CAN	1:44.20	4.45
4	17	50753	KROELL Klaus	1980	AUT	1:44.33	6.10
5	22	50041	WALCHHOFER Michael	1975	AUT	1:44.50	8.26
6	15	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:44.51	8.39
7	25	533866	NYMAN Steven	1982	USA	1:44.57	9.15
8	9	510767	HOFFMANN Ambrosi	1977	SUI	1:44.72	11.06
9	31	510993	ALBRECHT Daniel	1983	SUI	1:44.84	12.58
10	14	560332	JERMAN Andrej	1978	SLO	1:44.90	13.35
11	19	292455	FILL Peter	1982	ITA	1:44.92	13.60
12	10	50423	MAIER Hermann	1972	AUT	1:44.93	13.73
13	35	534567	LANNING T.J.	1984	USA	1:45.09	15.76
14	16	292514	HEEL Werner	1982	ITA	1:45.21	17.29
15	18	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI	1:45.24	17.67
16	23	50451	GRUBER Christoph	1976	AUT	1:45.39	19.57
17	7	191116	DALCIN Pierre-Emmanuel	1977	FRA	1:45.48	20.72
18	2	192746	THEAUX Adrien	1984	FRA	1:45.54	21.48
19	29	510747	GRUENENFELDER Tobias	1977	SUI	1:45.63	22.62
20	1	511313	JANKA Carlo	1986	SUI	1:45.68	23.26
21	28	532490	MACARTNEY Scott	1978	USA	1:45.72	23.77
22	5	191591	BERTRAND Yannick	1980	FRA	1:45.82	25.04
23	12	102899	OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel	1984	CAN	1:45.92	26.31
24	53	102961	DIXON Robbie	1985	CAN	1:45.93	26.44
25	27	191964	POISSON David	1982	FRA	1:45.97	26.95
26	24	50858	STREITBERGER Georg	1981	AUT	1:45.99	27.20
27	63	510997	BERTHOD Marc	1983	SUI	1:46.08	28.34
28	56	534939	FISHER Erik	1985	USA	1:46.09	28.47
29	52	421400	MYHRE Lars Elton	1984	NOR	1:46.23	30.25
30	44	510498	ZUEGER Cornel	1981	SUI	1:46.29	31.01
31	6	293006	INNERHOFER Christof	1984	ITA	1:46.32	31.40
32	4	102873	KUCERA John	1984	CAN	1:46.35	31.78
33	3	191740	CLAREY Johan	1981	FRA	1:46.38	32.16
34	41	380292	ZRNCIC-DIM Natko	1986	CRO	1:46.40	32.41
35	51	293550	MARSAGLIA Matteo	1985	ITA	1:46.47	33.30
36	45	290998	STAUDACHER Patrick	1980	ITA	1:46.63	35.34
37	30	51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT	1:46.64	35.46
38	48	560447	SPORN Andrej	1981	SLO	1:46.65	35.59
39	50	292967	EISATH Florian	1984	ITA	1:46.67	35.84
39	40	292291	THANEI Stefan	1981	ITA	1:46.67	35.84
41	26	501076	OLSSON Hans	1984	SWE	1:46.69	36.10
42	65	421483	JANSRUD Kjetil	1985	NOR	1:46.71	36.35
43	54	201606	KEPPLER Stephan	1983	GER	1:46.74	36.73
43	43	561067	PERKO Rok	1985	SLO	1:46.74	36.73
45	58	201987	STRODL Andreas	1987	GER	1:47.11	41.44
46	34	50742	REICHELT Hannes	1980	AUT	1:47.16	42.07
47	49	191911	NOCENTI Cyril	1982	FRA	1:47.20	42.58
48	37	50761	ALSTER Christoph	1980	AUT	1:47.40	45.12
49	39	192932	FAYED Guillermo	1985	FRA	1:47.41	45.25
50	36	500150	JAERBYN Patrik	1969	SWE	1:47.50	46.39
51	55	201542	STRODL Peter	1982	GER	1:47.82	50.46
52	38	50919	STRUGER Peter	1982	AUT	1:47.88	51.22
53	62	191415	BOTTOLLIER-LASQUIN Marc	1979	FRA	1:48.09	53.89
54	64	292831	PIERUZ Aronne	1983	ITA	1:49.81	75.76
55	61	380298	SIROKI Tin	1987	CRO	1:51.08	91.90
56	66	480736	HOROSHILOV Alexandr	1984	RUS	1:51.25	94.06
57	67	700724	BABUSIAK Jaroslav	1984	SVK	1:51.55	97.87
58	68	430429	BYDLINSKI Maciej	1988	POL	1:53.53	123.04
59	46	533762	TRANSUE Jeremy	1983	USA	1:56.73	163.71

 

Did not start 1st run: RAINER Niklas (SWE), RAICH Benjamin (AUT)
Did not finish 1st run: STECHERT Tobias (GER), GLEBOV Alek (SLO), WEIBRECHT Andrew (USA), KOSTELIC Ivica (CRO), SULLIVAN Marco (USA), MILLER Bode (USA)
Disqualified 1st run: GRAGGABER Thomas (AUT)