The Austrians will enter the XXI Winter Olympics without a World Cup downhill win after getting shut off the podium at the 70th Hahnenkamm DH. Swiss master Didier Cuche made it two for two at Kitzbuehel, Austria Saturday (Jan 23) by adding the downhill win to Friday’s super G title.

Slovene Andrej Sporn, sitting in the leaders spot through 13 of the best downhill racers in the world got second .28 of a second back and Italian Werner Heel was third.

Mario Scheiber led the Austrians in fourth place, a half second off the pace. Austria’s most consistent downhill, Michael Walchhofer, kissed the nets on the way down the treacherous Streif course and did not finish, though he appeared uninjured.

American Bode Miller was ninth, 1.16 seconds back leading five U.S. skiers into the top 30 scoring positions. Marco Sullivan and Erik Fisher tied for 18th, Steven Nyman was 24th and Andrew Weibrecht 26th.

The Canadians settled for Erik Guay in 14th and Manuel Osborne-Paradis in 20th.

It was the 13th career World Cup win for Cuche and his fourth of the season. It marked his fourth career win at Kitzbuehel, his first coming 12 years ago. The biggest problem he had on the day was slipping and fall in the finish area while holding his skis over his head for photographers.

He said his run had been error free and that he had considered the possibility of the double win after taking the Super G on Friday. As in the super G, Cuche owned the lower reaches of the course, though Heel bested his times through the last two timed sections. “This is one of the most beautiful weekends for me,” said Cuche. “It makes me correctly proud.”

With Walchhofer already out and the best of the ten Austrian starters well off the winning pace, Scheiber said he knew he had the weight of his country square on his shoulders.

“I knew at the start that I am the last hope,” Scheiber told the Austrian press. “I am nevertheless content,” he said. “It is still my comeback season.”

Though Walchhofer did complain of knee and chest pain after spinning out into the safety nets, he said he was confident he would be recovered before the Olympic downhill Feb 13.

U.S. coach Sasha Rearick said despite the course being tamed down some, with jumps being leveled off and some extra attention paid to surface preparation, the legendary Streif course still provided plenty of challenge.

“From top to bottom it was a challenging race,” he said, adding that the competition always seems to rise to the occasion for Kitzbuehel, especially on an ideal Saturday in January. “Everybody was coming out to win today,” he said. “The slope was perfect, bluebird skies.”

Rearick said the U.S. group was lacking little in its effort. “The guys came out aggressive, which is something we’ve been looking for. We skied some sections really good, but just didn’t link the whole thing together.”

Rearick said the staff had been whooping it up on the radios after Miller’s run, anticipating a better time than was recorded. “Bode skied very aggressively up top. In the middle he lost some time. I’m not quite sure what he did there, we’re going to have to look at the analysis. At the bottom he didn’t ski as aggressively a fine line as he normally can.”

Sullivan said the end result wasn’t as good as he was looking for, but said,” Coming through the finish I had a big smile on my face. It’s such a pleasure to run this course.” He said he didn’t make any major mistakes, “but just didn’t have the skis I needed.”

Fisher said a big mistake high on the course cost him, but it also fired him up. “It made me kind of angry and I was able to charge the bottom to make up a little time. I just have to put a whole run together.”

With the combined being scored in the classic format, using results from the downhill and slalom, the downhill placing of seventh from Ivica Kostelic looms large for a potential combined win. Miller in ninth will have a say in the combined and Natko Zrncic-Dim with a 10th-place finish should be in the hunt as well. The 11 and 12 finishers, Carlo Janka and Romed Baumann respectively are also considered combined threats.

Cuche photo by GEPA

The SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men’s downhill, Kitzbuehel, Austria, Jan. 23, 2010
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Cuche, Head/Head/Head
2 Sporn, Elan//Elan
3 Heel, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
4 Scheiber, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6 Grugger, Head/Head/Head
7 Kostelic, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
8 Defago, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
9 Miller, Head/Head/Head
10 Zrncic-Dim, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

Men’s downhill, Kitzbuehel, Austria, Jan. 23, 2010. … It is the central race of the 70th annual Hahnenkamm. … It is the 22nd race of the men’s 35 race 2010 World Cup schedule. … The sixth of eight scheduled DH’s. … It is the 137th Cup race held at least in part at Kitzbuehel. … the 50th DH.

It is the 13th career World Cup win for Didier Cuche. … His sixth in DH. … It is his fourth Cup win of the season and second in DH after winning Lake Louise Nov. 28. … It is his fourth win at Kitzbuehel and second in two days. … It is his third DH win, though the first Jan. 23, 1998 was a two-run DH. … It is the ninth win of the season for the Swiss team. … It is the third straight season a Swiss has won the Hahnenkamm downhill.

It is the first career World Cup podium for Andrej Sporn. … His previous best result is a fifth in combined, also at Kitzbuehel (2006). … His previous best in DH is a 13th at Val Gardena earlier this season.

It is the seventh career World Cup podium for Werner Heel and fourth in downhill. … It is his third podium of the season having also placed 2nd in DH at Lake Louise (Nov. 28) and third in SG at Val d’Isere (Dec. 12). … It is the 14th Italian podium of the season.

It is the 136th career World Cup top 10 for Bode Miller. … His 42nd in DH. … It is his seventh top 10 of the season and third in DH. … It is his 13th top 10 at Kitzbuehel. … sixth in DH at Kitzbuehel. … It is the 56th best of 90 World Cup scoring finishes for Erik Guay. … His fifth best of eight this season. … It is his sixth best of seven career scoring results at Kitzbuehel. … His third best in DH at Kitzbuehel. … It is the 31st best of 48 career Cup scoring results for Marco Sullivan. … 22nd of 33rd in DH. … It is his fifth best result of the season. … third best in DH. … It is his sixth best of seven career results at Kitzbuehel, third best in DH at Kitzbuehel. … It is the third best career Cup result for Erik Fisher, his best result of the season and his second best career placing at Kitzbuehel. … Manuel Osborne-Paradis matches his 29th best career Cup result. … The result ties his career best at Kitzbuehel. … It is his seventh best of nine scoring finishes this season. … Steven Nyman matches his 31st best result of 41 career scoring finishes. … It is his fourth scoring result of the season. … It is his third best of four career scoring finishes at Kitzbuehel. … It is the ninth scoring result of the season for Andrew Weibrecht.

Top seven finishers were within the same second. … Carlo Janka (11th in race) maintains his lead of the World Cup overall standings 793-743 over Benjamin Raich (45th in race). … Cuche sits third overall with 726pts. … Ted Ligety (41st in race) leads the U.S. on the overall list in eighth with 401pts. … Bode Miller is ninth at 361. … Osborne-Paradis is the top Canadian in 10th with 359. … Cuche leads the DH standings 396-308 over Janka. … Osborne-Paradis is third with 235pts. … Bode Miller is the top American in DH ranked 12th with 110pts. … Austria leads the men’s Nations Cup 3307-3082 over the Swis
s. … Italy is third at 1996. … the U.S. is ranked fifth with 1208pts and Canada sixth with 1124.