Worlds: Cuche is super G champion

On a steep and icy course that required a full body crank for every turn, one of the oldest guys on the course walked away with the gold in Wednesday’s super G at Val d’isere.

It was the first world championship gold for 34-year-old Swiss veteran Didier Cuche, who blasted away the field, winning with a time of 1 minute, 19.41 seconds. The only other racer to come within a second of him, and just barely, was Italian Peter Fill, who fired down the fast, rickety track .99 seconds behind Cuche, despite starting No. 26.

Norwegian hero Aksel Lund Svindal rounded out the podium with the bronze, 1.02 seconds off the pace.

Cuche’s big medal can be added to his long history of success. He took silver in the 1998 Nagano SG and a bronze in the 2007 world championship giant slalom. He has eight World Cup wins under his belt and a whopping 44 podiums.

On a steep and icy course that required a full body crank for every turn, one of the oldest guys on the course walked away with the gold in Wednesday’s super G at Val d’isere.

It was the first world championship gold for 34-year-old Swiss veteran Didier Cuche, who blasted away the field, winning with a time of 1 minute, 19.41 seconds. The only other racer to come within a second of him, and just barely, was Italian Peter Fill, who fired down the fast, rickety track .99 seconds behind Cuche, despite starting No. 26.

Norwegian hero Aksel Lund Svindal rounded out the podium with the bronze, 1.02 seconds off the pace.

Cuche’s big medal can be added to his long history of success. He took silver in the 1998 Nagano SG and a bronze in the 2007 world championship giant slalom. He has eight World Cup wins under his belt and a whopping 44 podiums.

None of the early runners appeared comfortable and unfortunately that included five North Americans.

Andrew Weibrecht, the first competitor on the course, said he got his skis crossed, and he was lucky to complete his first World Championship race. Canadian Rob Dixon was the second bib and he held the lead briefly, eventually sliding down the finish order to 20th.

Manuel Osborne-Paradis, in bib three, didn’t make it and fourth starting Ted Ligety slid an agonizingly long way down the track after losing a ski.

“I got caught up in some changing (surface) conditions, got jacked up and the ski popped off,” he said. “And when you start to slide on this course, you’re going to slide a long ways.”

As he slid he calmly tried to eject his other ski, eventually succeeding before he impacted the fence. Although he slid a long way he said “I think the record is still held by a couple of photographers this morning.” Marco Sullivan, the eighth starter, also failed to finish.

It wasn’t until the ninth starter, six-time title meet medallist Benjamin Raich, that the times dropped significantly, but he didn’t look any more comfortable than those before him. He got airborne and behind the course and should be credited with superb effort. It was a spectacular run, full of high light reel footage and edged with a sense of desperation.

Bode Miller produced a truly Bodesque run. He touched down to his hip and had his well protected hand on the ground three or four times as he fought against the course and his own mistakes. That he finished 11th is remarkable considering the body positions he put himself into along the way.

But Cuche, the 34-year-old leader of team Swiss, never seemed to lose form. He started his turns high and finished them.  He, alone, demonstrated body positions the length of the course that a coach might teach. Bronze medallist Aksel Svindal was solid in much of his run, but got tossed around some on the lower reaches and silver medallist Peter Fill was colored with the same brush. He was solid, he was attacking, but he was unable to make every turn clean.

Cuche did and for that he gains his first World Championship. While many Swiss rejoiced as soon as he completed his run, he said he had doubts.

“It is easy to say at the finish that the race was easy, but I was nervous in the start.”

He said as he waited for his start he looked over his shoulder, “and saw a cloud coming close to the sun.” The shadows he anticipated never appeared which he took as a good sign and pushed hard from the start.

He said the course was rough from the start to the road, and, “from there down it was an ice rink.”  He had anticipated that change as well, selecting skis best suited for the hard surface. His run, he thought, had enough faults to be in jeapordy of getting topped.

“Right at the end I was hugging the line and pushing hard and I had to slide down a little (to make the gate). And that is the moment you think  ‘Oh no.’ Maybe you lose a tenth and you just don’t know. I listened for the crowd, to hear if they are loud.”

Surely, though, reporters suggested, seeing the huge lead on the scoreboard was enough to make him comfortable. “Even when you see a (lead of a) second you don’t know if it is enough. Two or three maybe. But when the others in the finish tell you, the ski manufacturers, or (fourth finishing Christof) Innerhofer, then you can start to believe.”

What he said made the difference was “am amazing amount of hard work” over the summer and a day dedicated to determing which skis to use with his tech rep.

“The skis set up so amazingly. We talked about it yesterday  for hours to choose between two skis. I guess we chose right.”

Fill said he was “really, really happy with my run. It is beautiful.” He added that he felt good from start to finish and knew he would have to take risks. “I was relaxed. It was a little icy and that is good for me.” He added that his skis had felt really good on the ice on training yesterday and that helped his confidence. As strong as he was, he never was truely in contention to take out Cuche.

Svindal said he is not as comfortable on ice as Fill, or particularly as Cuche. “He seems to love it,” he said. Allowing that Cuche was “the right winner today.”

“I was hoping to be competitive,” the Norwegian said. “The top part was nice. The last part, where they brought in the fire crews to water down the hill, I didn’t like so much.” Toward the end of the course he said he got “later and later” and had little expectation of winning at that point

Cuche said in the end, he had skied so well, performed so perfectly the race had been a joy. “With a run like that you hope that is fast enough to finish first. But I already knew that I had such pleasure coming down that hill it would always be a good memory.”

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The SCOOP
By Hank McKee

FIS World Ski Championships
Men’s super G, Val d’Isere, France Feb. 4, 2009
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Cuche, Head/Head/Tyrolia
2 Fill, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
3 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Innerhofer, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
5 Raich, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6 Kucera, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
7 Buechel, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
8 Defago, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
9 Janka, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
10 Kroell, Salomon/Nordica/Salomon

Men’s super G, FIS World Ski Championships, Val d’Isere, France, Feb. 4, 2009. … It is the second race and first men’s race of the championships. … It is the 259th World Championship race, and the 24th super G.

It is the first World Championship for Didier Cuche and his second title meet podium having also placed third in GS at Are in 2007. … It is the fourth super G championship for Switzerland and the third for men. … The last came in 1989 with Martin Hangl at Vail. … Pirmin Zurbriggen won the first SG contested for a World Championship in 1987. … It is the first victory of the season for Cuche though he was second in the opening World Cup GS at Soelden Oct. 26 and third in super G at Lake Louise Nov. 30.

It is the first career World Championship medal for Peter Fill. … His previous best had been 11th in combined at St Moritz in 2003. … It is the sixth championship medal in SG for Italy, the second for men and the second consecutive for men with Patrick Staudacher winning in 2007. … It is the third podium result of the season for Fill who won the opening downhill at Lake Louise Nov. 29 and was second in combined at Wengen in World Cup action.

It is the fourth career World Championship podium for Aksel Svindal, in four different disciplines. … He also won the DH and GS at Are in 2007 and was second in combined at Bormio in 2005. … It is the eighth SG World Championship medal for Norway and the seventh for men. … Kjetil Aamodt was second at Saalbach in ’91 and third at Sierre Nevada in ’96; Lasse Kjus won at Beaver Creek in ’99 and was second at Sestriere in ’97; Astrid Loedemel was third at Moriorka in ’93; Atle Skaardal won both at Sierra Nevada and at Sestriere. … It is Svindal’s fifth podium of the season having won both the DH and SG at Beaver Creek, placing second in SG at Kitzbuehel and third in GS at Beaver Creek.

It is a career best World Championship result for John Kucera of eight placings. … The result of sixth matches his second best World Cup result of the season. … He was second in the Lake Louise SG. … It is the 11th best of 16 World Championship results for Bode Miller and hs third best in super G. … It is his third best of five championship SG results, having won at Bormio and placed second at St Moritz. … Erik Guay matches his seventh best of nine career World Championship results including a team placing. … It is the second time he has placed 19th in a championship SG, matching his result from Bormio. … His best SG result in title competition is sixth at St Moritz. … He was fourth in DH at Are. … It is the first career World Championship result for Robbie Dixon.

Medal Count:
SUI 1 gold
USA 1 gold
FRA 1 silver
ITA 1 silver
AUT 1 bronze
NOR 1 bronze

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Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Total Time	FIS Points
1	16	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI	1:19.41	0.00
2	26	292455	FILL Peter	1982	ITA	1:20.40	13.21
3	19	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	1:20.43	13.62
4	11	293006	INNERHOFER Christof	1984	ITA	1:20.48	14.28
5	9	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	1:20.56	15.35
6	22	102873	KUCERA John	1984	CAN	1:21.07	22.16
7	14	350032	BUECHEL Marco	1971	LIE	1:21.09	22.43
8	21	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:21.10	22.56
9	29	511313	JANKA Carlo	1986	SUI	1:21.19	23.76
10	13	50753	KROELL Klaus	1980	AUT	1:21.20	23.89
11	39	191746	DE TESSIERES Gauthier	1981	FRA	1:21.73	30.97
12	12	532431	MILLER Bode	1977	USA	1:21.84	32.44
13	15	50041	WALCHHOFER Michael	1975	AUT	1:21.87	32.84
14	18	292514	HEEL Werner	1982	ITA	1:21.88	32.97
15	33	292291	THANEI Stefan	1981	ITA	1:21.89	33.10
16	23	560406	GORZA Ales	1980	SLO	1:21.99	34.44
17	6	290998	STAUDACHER Patrick	1980	ITA	1:22.02	34.84
18	20	50423	MAIER Hermann	1972	AUT	1:22.30	38.58
19	17	102263	GUAY Erik	1981	CAN	1:22.39	39.78
20	2	102961	DIXON Robbie	1985	CAN	1:22.51	41.38
21	28	192746	THEAUX Adrien	1984	FRA	1:22.77	44.85
22	35	191116	DALCIN Pierre-Emmanuel	1977	FRA	1:22.84	45.79
23	42	380292	ZRNCIC-DIM Natko	1986	CRO	1:23.03	48.32
24	5	201606	KEPPLER Stephan	1983	GER	1:23.11	49.39
25	25	560332	JERMAN Andrej	1978	SLO	1:23.52	54.86
26	46	150644	KRYZL Krystof	1986	CZE	1:23.66	56.73
27	34	150421	ZAHROBSKY Petr	1980	CZE	1:23.76	58.07
28	43	220695	CRAWFORD Douglas	1987	GBR	1:23.93	60.33
29	40	220656	DRAKE Edward	1986	GBR	1:24.15	63.27
30	49	480736	HOROSHILOV Alexandr	1984	RUS	1:24.16	63.41
31	45	380291	RATKIC Ivan	1986	CRO	1:25.14	76.49
32	47	481006	ZUEV Stepan	1988	RUS	1:25.88	86.36
33	41	501076	OLSSON Hans	1984	SWE	1:25.89	86.50
34	36	191964	POISSON David	1982	FRA	1:25.92	86.90
35	37	40171	BRANCH Craig	1977	AUS	1:26.22	90.90
36	50	410270	CAFE Tim	1987	NZE	1:26.77	98.24
37	48	90047	GEORGIEV Stefan	1977	BUL	1:26.93	100.38
38	57	250267	SIGURGEIRSSON Stefan Jon	1989	ISL	1:27.47	107.59
39	1	530939	WEIBRECHT Andrew	1986	USA	1:27.48	107.72
40	59	90131	GEORGIEV Georgi	1987	BUL	1:28.25	118.00
41	54	430429	BYDLINSKI Maciej	1988	POL	1:28.90	126.68
42	56	250208	THORVALDSSON Arni	1984	ISL	1:29.61	136.15
43	58	110178	MARTINIC Jorge	1986	CHI	1:30.57	148.97
44	70	670029	PIMENOV Taras	1984	KAZ	1:30.69	150.57
45	62	670037	ZAKURDAEV Igor	1987	KAZ	1:31.08	155.78
46	69	690086	FESHCHUK Rostyslav	1990	UKR	1:33.22	184.34
47	66	550026	LANSMANIS Einars	1988	LAT	1:33.80	192.08

Did not start 1st run: KHUBER Martin (KAZ), BARBU Alexandru (ROU), KOSTELIC Ivica (CRO)

Did not finish 1st run: RODE Roberts (LAT), ANGUITA Rafael (CHI), CHONGAROV Nikola (BUL), MANOLOV Kiril (BUL), VAN BUYNDER Frederik (BEL), MANDRU Jorge (CHI), HOWDEN Angus (NZE), BABUSIAK Jaroslav (SVK), VRABLIK Martin (CZE), SIROKI Tin (CRO), MYHRE Lars Elton (NOR), PERKO Rok (SLO), STRODL Peter (GER), JAERBYN Patrik (SWE), JANSRUD Kjetil (NOR), STRODL Andreas (GER), HOFFMANN Ambrosi (SUI), SULLIVAN Marco (USA), LIGETY Ted (USA), OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel (CAN)