Kvitfjell: Heel wins, Miller second to bolster lead

Werner Heel charged to his first career World Cup win in the first of two downhills scheduled on the 1994 Olympic course at Kvitfjell, Norway Friday. Heel, an upset winner, just unseated Bode Miller from the win by a tenth of a second. Miller, with a second place result, made up significant ground on his competitors for two World Cup titles. Downhill tour leader Didier Cuche finished sixth, his worst showing in the discipline since November, and overall leader Benjamin Raich failed to get a point.
    Klaus Kroell provided a podium for the powerful Austrian team in third. Canada had two top 10 finishers with Manuel Osborne-Paradis in fourth and John Kucera ninth. There were just two U.S. Ski Team entrants, Steven Nyman in 14th place and Marco Sullivan who failed to finish.
    It was the first men's downhill win for Italy in eight years, the last coming from Kristian Ghedina at Val Gardena on Dec. 14, 2001. Heel's best previous result had been sixth, scored at Lake Louise last November, and his second best previously had come at Kvitfjell.

Werner Heel charged to his first career World Cup win in the first of two downhills scheduled on the 1994 Olympic course at Kvitfjell, Norway Friday. Heel, an upset winner, just unseated Bode Miller from the win by a tenth of a second. Miller, with a second place result, made up significant ground on his competitors for two World Cup titles. Downhill tour leader Didier Cuche finished sixth, his worst showing in the discipline since November, and overall leader Benjamin Raich failed to get a point.
    Klaus Kroell provided a podium for the powerful Austrian team in third. Canada had two top 10 finishers with Manuel Osborne-Paradis in fourth and John Kucera ninth. There were just two U.S. Ski Team entrants, Steven Nyman in 14th place and Marco Sullivan. Sullivan hit a gate early in the race and crashed into a safety net with his back first. He escaped unhurt.
    It was the first men's downhill win for Italy in eight years, the last coming from Kristian Ghedina at Val Gardena Dec. 14, 2001. Heel's best previous result had been sixth, scored at Lake Louise last November, and his second best previously had come at Kvitfjell.
    Changing light from incoming clouds contributed to the DNF rate, particularly late in the run. Nine of the 67 starters failed to finish.
     Miller took control of the overall rankings, pushing his advantage to 125 points. And, with another DH on the same track Saturday, his Team America crew is hoping that margin can increase.
    "I thought the young fella was going to win," said his coach John McBride. "But all things considered, with Cuche not having a great day, his destiny is in his own hands and I love being in that position."
    Cuche, the DH standings leader, saw his lead evaporate to 25pts, as he was hampered during his run by a lack of visibility.
    "For sure Cuche had some bad luck," said McBride. "The light just went away for his run."
    McBride noted it was the first time in years the Kvitfjell course had been run from the top, and said some of the DNF's could be attributed to the course running faster than it did during the one training run.
    "I think the race speeded up. It was faster today and they were on their race boards. It was coming at them a little quicker and it was a little more rattley, especially after 30 or so starters the light got pretty rough."
    Heel indicated it took a perfect run to best Miller, and that he surprised even himself with the win.
    "I had a good feeling from top to bottom, but I really did not expect to win," said Heel, the first Italian downhill winner at Kvitfjell. "It was a perfect day. It's a nice location and nice people here. … Fantastic!"
    The 25-year-old Heel, a late bloomer who has competed only three years on the World Cup circuit, skied Kvitfjell for the first time last season.
    "Last year, I was ninth in the downhill and now victory," he said. "It's great. My goal was to make the top 10. I did not make any mistakes at all today. It was a perfect run."
    Heels impact on the downhill standings was negligible, and Miller said he felt he could do better on the course in the second downhill. Coach McBride agreed. "Yeah, I think he can clean up some sections," he said.
     "I was generally pretty happy with it,'' Miller said. ''It's hard for me with one training run trying to go 100 percent. It helps me if I have two or even three training runs to sort the course out. Then in general I can go 100 percent pretty comfortably.
    "I knew coming in here it was going to be a challenge. I had a lot of small mistakes. I was not very comfortable when I got across the finish line that it was going to be the winning run."
    He stopped well short of predicting a win, however. "There are a lot of guys who can win here," he said. "The hill favors technical skiing, but it's not overly challenging. Today was good for information gathering. I learned a lot. Hopefully I will ski a lot better tomorrow. But it's still anybody's race."
    Among those anybodies will be Osborne-Paradis, who said he had more in the tank.
    "I lost a lot of time near the bottom. I made a mistake going into the compression and went into some soft snow. I missed a gate the day before [in training] at that same place, so today I wanted to make sure I made all the gates. I'll be much more aggressive tomorrow."

— The Associated Press and Alpine Canada contributed

 

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The SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment
Men's downhill, Kvitfjell, Norway, Feb. 29, 2008
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Heel, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
2 Miller, Head/Head/Tyrolia
3 Kroell, Salomon/Nordica/Salomon
4 Osborne-Paradis, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
5 Buechel, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
6 Cuche, Head/Head/Tyrolia
7 Innerhofer, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
8 Hoffmann, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
9 Kucera, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
10 Poisson, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
 
Men's Downhill, Kvitfjell, Norway, Feb 29, 2008. … It is the 33rd race of the men's 41 race 2008 World Cup schedule. … The eighth of 10 scheduled downhills. … It is a make up race for the downhill moved from Val d'Isere due to heavy snowfall Feb. 2. … It is the 32nd World Cup race held at Kvitfjell, all since 1993. … It is the 16th World Cup DH at the site. … There was also a 1995 race that was thrown out after the first seed had completed the run.
    It is the first career win for Werner Heel. … His best previous result had been earlier this season when he was sixth in DH at Lake Louise Nov. 24. … This is just his third top ten career result, the other coming a ninth at Kvitfjell last season. … It is the first DH win for an Italian male since Kristian Ghedina at Val Gardena Dec. 14, 2001. … It is the eighth win for Italy this season, the second coming
from a male, the other a GS win from Massimiliano Blardone at Bad Kleinkrichheim Dec. 8.
    It is the 62nd career World Cup podium for Bode Miller. … His 13th in DH. … It is his ninth podium of the season. … His fourth in DH this season. … It is his best result at Kvitfjell in nine completed races, the previous best a fourth in DH in 2005.
    It is the third career World Cup podium for Klaus Kroell, all in DH. … He has been second twice before (Val d'Isere Dec. 14, 2002 and Garmisch Jan. 28, 2006). … His best previous result this season was 7th at Bormio Dec. 29.
    It is the fourth best career World Cup result for Manuel Osborne-Paradis, and second of the season after a third at Wengen Jan. 13. … The result is the 11th best career result for John Kucera, and his second best in DH, after a seventh at Lake Louise Nov. 24. … Steven Nyman matches his 13th best career result and his fourth best of the season, third best in DH. … He was second at Beaver Creek and 11th at Wengen. … It is the fourth best Kvitfjell result for Erik Guay. … He was second at the site in DH last season.
    Winning margin is .10 of a second. … Top 11 are within a second. … Top 20 within two seconds. … Miller increased his lead of the World Cup overall standings to 1183-1058 over Benjamin Raich (37th in race). … Didier Cuche (sixth in race) sits third at 1038 with Ivica Kostelic (33rd in race) fourth at 686. … Cuche maintains the lead of the downhill standings 504-479 for Miller. … Michael Walchhofer (11th in race) is third with 367pts and Marco Sullivan (DNF) fourth at 278.

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Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Total Time	FIS Points
1	26	292514	HEEL Werner	1982	ITA	1:45.73	0.00
2	17	532431	MILLER Bode	1977	USA	1:45.83	1.28
3	4	50753	KROELL Klaus	1980	AUT	1:45.95	2.81
4	11	102899	OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel	1984	CAN	1:46.03	3.83
5	20	350032	BUECHEL Marco	1971	LIE	1:46.47	9.45
6	21	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI	1:46.52	10.09
7	6	293006	INNERHOFER Christof	1984	ITA	1:46.54	10.34
8	13	510767	HOFFMANN Ambrosi	1977	SUI	1:46.59	10.98
9	25	102873	KUCERA John	1984	CAN	1:46.63	11.49
10	1	191964	POISSON David	1982	FRA	1:46.66	11.87
11	19	50041	W ALCHHOFER Michael	1975	AUT	1:46.68	12.13
12	8	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:46.92	15.19
13	23	191740	CLAREY Johan	1981	FRA	1:47.02	16.47
14	10	533866	NYMAN Steven	1982	USA	1:47.04	16.73
15	9	292455	FILL Peter	1982	ITA	1:47.15	18.13
16	3	50858	STREITBERGER Georg	1981	AUT	1:47.19	18.64
17	24	191591	BERTRAND Yannick	1980	FRA	1:47.20	18.77
18	15	50423	MAIER Hermann	1972	AUT	1:47.55	23.24
19	34	51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT	1:47.62	24.13
20	22	560332	JERMAN Andrej	1978	SLO	1:47.70	25.15
21	16	102263	GUAY Erik	1981	CAN	1:47.80	26.43
22	40	510498	ZUEGER Cornel	1981	SUI	1:47.94	28.22
23	46	421400	MYHRE Lars Elton	1984	NOR	1:48.03	29.37
24	27	50547	SCHOENFELDER Rainer	1977	AUT	1:48.04	29.49
25	37	501076	OLSSON Hans	1984	SWE	1:48.25	32.18
26	30	192746	THEAUX Adrien	1984	FRA	1:48.32	33.07
27	7	290998	STAUDACHER Patrick	1980	ITA	1:48.33	33.20
28	42	192932	FAYED Guillermo	1985	FRA	1:48.50	35.37
29	5	510747	GRUENENFELDER Tobias	1977	SUI	1:48.54	35.88
30	35	561067	PERKO Rok	1985	SLO	1:48.58	36.39
31	47	192122	PITTIN Alexandre	1983	FRA	1:48.61	36.77
32	39	380292	ZRNCIC-DIM Natko	1986	CRO	1:48.66	37.41
33	31	380260	KOSTELIC Ivica	1979	CRO	1:48.72	38.18
34	62	510307	BRAND Olivier	1980	SUI	1:49.00	41.75
35	60	511313	JANKA Carlo	1986	SUI	1:49.12	43.28
35	32	50742	REICHELT Hannes	1980	AUT	1:49.12	43.28
37	28	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	1:49.15	43.67
38	44	102814	BOURQUE Francois	1984	CAN	1:49.28	45.33
39	58	102961	DIXON Robbie	1985	CAN	1:49.29	45.46
40	33	560447	SPORN Andrej	1981	SLO	1:49.35	46.22
41	53	201439	STEHLE Johannes	1981	GER	1:49.64	49.92
42	43	103512	FRISCH Jeffrey	1984	CAN	1:49.72	50.95
43	36	292967	EISATH Florian	1984	ITA	1:49.80	51.97
44	38	291399	GIRARDI Walter	1976	ITA	1:50.05	55.16
45	45	191911	NOCENTI Cyril	1982	FRA	1:50.10	55.80
46	57	501026	RAINER Niklas	1983	SWE	1:50.23	57.46
47	55	193212	DURAND Jeremie	1986	FRA	1:50.27	57.97
48	56	102947	SINE Gareth	1985	CAN	1:50.79	64.61
49	61	421332	KULBECK Ole Magnus	1983	NOR	1:50.86	65.50
50	50	150421	ZAHROBSKY Petr	1980	CZE	1:51.25	70.48
51	67	421483	JANSRUD Kjetil	1985	NOR	1:53.54	99.72

 

Official timekeeper

Did not start 1st run : ERICSSON Daniel (SWE), BRANCH Craig (AUS), KEPPLER Stephan (GER), SCHEIBER Mario (AUT)
Did not finish 1st run : STRODL Peter (GER), PELLINEN Jouni (FIN), SOLBAKKEN Bjarne (NOR), VARETTONI Silvano (ITA), THANEI Stefan (ITA), BOTTOLLIER-LASQUIN Marc (FRA), HARI Konrad (SUI), HOFER Beni (SUI), SULLIVAN Marco (USA), SULZENBACHER Kurt (ITA), GRUBER Christoph (AUT)
    Disqualified 1st run : DALCIN Pierre-Emmanuel (FRA)