Bormio: Walchhofer halts Austrian winless streak

By the slimmest of margins, Austria is back atop the men's podium. Wearing bib No. 30 as the last of the contenders, Michael Walchhofer nipped Swiss skier Didier Cuche by one-hundredth of a second Thursday to win a World Cup downhill on the tough Stelvio course.
    Walchhofer went down the 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) Stelvio course in 1 minute, 51.90 seconds, with downhill points leader Cuche second and Austrian Mario Scheiber third, .14 back of the winner.
    The Americans entered the race with tons of momentum from the pre-Christmas stretch, but Bode Miller, who won the downhill title on the same hill at the 2005 World Championships, skied out on the upper part of the course. Marco Sullivan was 13th, Scott Macartney 33rd, Steven Nyman 36th and Justin Johnson 45th.

BORMIO, Italy — Michael Walchhofer ended a 13-race winless streak by the Austrian men's team Thursday, winning a World Cup downhill by 0.01 seconds.
    Bode Miller did not finish, Marco Sullivan was 13th, Scott Macartney 33rd, Steven Nyman 36th and Justin Johnson 45th.
    Walchhofer covered the 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) Stelvio course in 1 minute, 51.90 seconds for his first podium finish of the season.
    Didier Cuche of Switzerland was narrowly second, while Walchhofer's teammate Mario Scheiber was third, 0.14 back.
    Benjamin Raich's win in the season-opening slalom in Levi, Finland, on Nov. 12 was the last victory for the Austrian men.
    ''We were under pressure, so this was an important victory,'' Walchhofer said. ''Before some of the other races I was not nervous. Today I was more nervous and that was good for me. All the Austrians were waiting for a victory in downhill.''
    Walchhofer won the World Cup downhill title the past two seasons. This was the 10th World Cup victory of his career and seventh in downhill.
    Cuche retained his lead atop the downhill standings with 285 points, followed by Marco Buechel with 212 and Walchhofer with 186. Buechel finished sixth.
    Walchhofer said his goal this season is to win a third straight downhill title. ''Now I'm back in the hunt,'' he said. ''It was just a matter of confidence.''
    Cuche has now finished second in the last three downhills. ''Obviously, to lose a race by one-hundredth is difficult, but I'm still pleased with this result,'' Cuche said, adding that he'd lost 0.20 seconds with an error at the start. ''I've finished second 14 times in my career. I hope I have a faster start tomorrow.''
    Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway placed 14th and retained his lead atop the overall standings with 539 points. Cuche moved into a tie for second with Miller, with 490 points each.
    Miller failed to finish a downhill for the first time this season after skiing off course near the top of his run. The American appeared to lose his edge as he negotiated a turn, fell down and got right back up, but was off the course. He appeared uninjured.
    Miller won the downhill and super G on this course at the 2005 World Championships, while his former teammate, Daron Rahlves, took the World Cup downhill at this site last season.
    On Thursday, Walchhofer used a pair of skis that once belonged to either Miller or Rahlves. ''I'm not really sure which race, but I know these skis have won races before,'' Walchhofer said.
   Scheiber was second in a Lake Louise super G last month. "I was 35th last time I raced here, so I have to be happy," he said Thursday. "I was aiming for a top 10 this morning. I'm happy by my form and I hope now to win my first race soon."
    Thursday's race was moved from Val d'Isere earlier this month due to a lack of snow in the French resort. Another downhill is scheduled here Friday.

Progress for Johnson
    "A good day for Marco after struggling [Wednesday] in the training run … and JJ skied a lot better, especially at the top, than he's been skiing, so that was good," said U.S. DH head coach Chris Brigham. "Steven went down on his hip in the training run but he was very fast today, then made one big mistake in the middle, before the big jump, and he lost a lot of speed in there.
    "Bormio's done a great job of getting the race course ready," Brigham said, adding the area "pretty much" resembles the 2005 World Championships where almost the only snow was on the race course. "The nice thing is we've got another race tomorrow, so it's a good opportunity for us … and the guys want to take advantage of that."
    After Friday's downhill, the men's tour has another week's break before racing a giant slalom and slalom Jan. 6-7 in Adelboden, Switzerland.

— Patrick Lang, The Associated Press and USSA contributed to this report

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THE SCOOP

By Hank McKee 

Equipment
Men's DH, Bormio, Italy, Dec. 28, 2006
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Walchhofer, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Cuche, Head/Head/Tyrolia
3 Scheiber, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Jerman, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
5 Staudacher, Head/Head/Tyrolia
6 Buechel, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
7 Buder, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
8 Kernen, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
9 Strobl, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
10 Guay, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic 

Men's downhill, Bormio, Italy, Dec. 28, 2006. … It is the 15th race of the men's 38-race World Cup schedule. … The fourth of 11 scheduled downhills. … It is the third DH of the men's schedule, having been postponed from Val d'Isere Dec. 16. … It is the 40th Cup race held at Bormio. … The 15th men's DH.
    It is the 10th win of Michael Walchhofer's career… The seventh in DH. … It is his first win of the season and just his third top 10. … Walchhofer had never won at Bormio but had been second in two World Cup DHs (2003 & 2004) and earned the bronze medal in the 2005 DH at World Championships. … Austrians have won 10 of the 17 World Cup DHs held at the site.
    It is the 26th career World Cup podium for Didier Cuche. … His 10th in DH, all first and second placings. … No Swiss male has won a World Cup at Bormio save Pirmin Zurbriggen in a parallel slalom (Dec. 22, 1987). … It is the third time this season Cuche has finished second in a DH (Beaver Creek Dec. 1, Val Gardena Dec. 16). … He was also fifth at Lake Louise Nov. 25.
    It is the fifth career podium for Mario Scheiber. … His third in DH. … It is his second podium of the season, the other a second at Lake Louise in SG Nov. 26. … He has not yet won a World Cup race.
    It is the 15th career top 10 for Erik Guay. … The eighth in DH. … It is his first top 10 i
n DH this season, though he was sixth in SG at Lake Louise. … Thirteenth is the fourth-best career result for Marco Sullivan, and the third best of the season after a 10th at Beaver Creek and a fourth at Val Gardena. … Jan Hudec just missed points in 31st place.
    Andrej Jerman registers the top Slovenian DH result ever for a male, eclipsing the sixth-place finishes recorded by Peter Pen (Val d'Isere Dec. 16, 2000) and Gregor Sparovec (Feb. 22, 2003). … Two Slovene women, Spela Bracun and Mojca Suhodolc, have recorded third-place DH finishes.
    Aksel Svindahl (14th in race) maintains the overall lead 539-490 as Didier Cuche slides into a tie for second at Bode Miller (DNF). … Cuche builds a lead in the DH standings 285-212 over Marco Buechel (sixth in race). … Steven Nyman is the top American on the DH list in fourth at 174. … Winning margin was smallest possible at .01. … Top eight finishers were within a second. … Top 26 within two seconds. 

Bormio men's World Cup downhill results

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Total Time	FIS Points
1	30	50041	WALCHHOFER Michael	1975	AUT	1:51.90	0.00
2	24	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI	1:51.91	0.12
3	18	51005	SCHEIBER Mario	1983	AUT	1:52.04	1.69
4	2	560332	JERMAN Andrej	1978	SLO	1:52.33	5.19
5	1	290998	STAUDACHER Patrick	1980	ITA	1:52.39	5.91
6	29	350032	BUECHEL Marco	1971	LIE	1:52.56	7.96
7	10	50695	BUDER Andreas	1979	AUT	1:52.75	10.25
8	25	510478	KERNEN Bruno	1972	SUI	1:52.81	10.98
9	28	50182	STROBL Fritz	1972	AUT	1:52.91	12.18
10	17	102263	GUAY Erik	1981	CAN	1:53.00	13.27
11	40	191415	BOTTOLLIER-LASQUIN Marc	1979	FRA	1:53.07	14.12
12	11	510767	HOFFMANN Ambrosi	1977	SUI	1:53.09	14.36
13	9	533131	SULLIVAN Marco	1980	USA	1:53.11	14.60
14	19	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	1:53.12	14.72
15	23	292455	FILL Peter	1982	ITA	1:53.23	16.05
16	3	191116	DALCIN Pierre-Emmanuel	1977	FRA	1:53.29	16.77
17	49	510890	ZURBRIGGEN Silvan	1981	SUI	1:53.31	17.01
18	21	50753	KROELL Klaus	1980	AUT	1:53.36	17.61
19	45	291389	FISCHNALLER Roland	1975	ITA	1:53.46	18.82
20	46	510969	BONETTI Michael	1982	SUI	1:53.48	19.06
20	15	50451	GRUBER Christoph	1976	AUT	1:53.48	19.06
22	5	510747	GRUENENFELDER Tobias	1977	SUI	1:53.53	19.66
23	26	50423	MAIER Hermann	1972	AUT	1:53.55	19.91
24	36	201606	KEPPLER Stephan	1983	GER	1:53.62	20.75
25	38	293006	INNERHOFER Christof	1984	ITA	1:53.79	22.80
25	34	50858	STREITBERGER Georg	1981	AUT	1:53.79	22.80
27	42	201439	STEHLE Johannes	1981	GER	1:53.90	24.13
28	8	191591	BERTRAND Yannick	1980	FRA	1:53.94	24.61
29	14	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	1:54.05	25.94
30	20	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:54.13	26.90
31	51	102271	HUDEC Jan	1981	CAN	1:54.26	28.47
32	33	500150	JAERBYN Patrik	1969	SWE	1:54.46	30.88
33	6	532490	MACARTNEY Scott	1978	USA	1:54.48	31.13
34	48	510498	ZUEGER Cornel	1981	SUI	1:54.56	32.09
35	32	291399	GIRARDI Walter	1976	ITA	1:54.58	32.33
36	22	533866	NYMAN Steven	1982	USA	1:54.63	32.94
37	41	501076	OLSSON Hans	1984	SWE	1:54.64	33.06
38	54	101375	LAVOIE Vincent	1977	CAN	1:54.66	33.30
39	35	561067	PERKO Rok	1985	SLO	1:54.82	35.23
40	12	190930	DENERIAZ Antoine	1976	FRA	1:54.87	35.83
41	31	192746	THEAUX Adrien	1984	FRA	1:55.06	38.12
42	43	191740	CLAREY Johan	1981	FRA	1:55.09	38.49
43	47	293141	VARETTONI Silvano	1984	ITA	1:55.14	39.09
44	39	291116	FATTORI Alessandro	1973	ITA	1:55.29	40.90
45	37	532173	JOHNSON Justin J	1977	USA	1:55.30	41.02
46	4	220228	MICKEL Finlay	1977	GBR	1:55.56	44.16
47	50	103512	FRISCH Jeffrey	1984	CAN	1:55.57	44.28
48	53	510307	BRAND Olivier	1980	SUI	1:55.91	48.38
49	55	292784	SENONER Lucas	1983	ITA	1:56.79	58.99

 

Did not finish 1st run:
NOCENTI Cyril (FRA), GARNIER Thibault (FRA), MILLER Bode (USA), OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel (CAN), GRUGGER Hans (AUT)

Disqualified 1st run:
SULZENBACHER Kurt (ITA)

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World Cup downhill standings (after 4 races)
1. Didier Cuche, Switzerland, 285.
2. Marco Buechel, Liechtenstein, 212.
3. Michael Walchhofer, Austria, 186.
4. Steven Nyman, United States, 174.
5. Peter Fill, Italy, 142.
6. Manuel Osborne-Paradis, Canada, 129.
7. Bode Miller, United States, 120.
8. Fritz Strobl, Austria, 113.
9. Mario Scheiber, Austria, 111.
10. Andrej Jerman, Slovenia, 101.
(tie) Marco Sullivan, United States, 101.

World Cup overall standings (after 15 races)
1. Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 539 points.
2. Didier Cuche, Switzerland, 490.
(tie) Bode Miller, United States, 490.
4. Peter Fill, Italy, 378.
5. Kalle Palander, Finland, 287.
6. Ted Ligety, United States, 278.
7. Marco Buechel, Lietchtenstein, 277.
8. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 273.
9. Hermann Maier, Austria, 268.
10. John Kucera, Canada, 253.
11. Steven Nyman, United States, 250.
12. Didier Defago, Switzerland, 245.
13. Michael Walchhofer, Austria, 240.
14. Mario Scheiber, Austria, 239.
15. Rainer Schoenfelder, Austria, 209.