Michael Walchhofer and other downhill leaders fought back

Manuèle Lang 01.12.2007 10:41 Uhr

It was about time - a month and four races after the World Cup start at Soelden, Austria’s men’s team finally celebrated its first season victory in Beaver Creek where former downhill World Champion Michael Walchhofer managed to beat other top-favorites after an almost flawless run down the shorten yet still challenging “Birds of Prey” run.

The two-time downhill World Cup champion ended a three-year-winning streak of the US Ski Team here as he beat by 5/100 of a second Steven Nyman while Switzerland’s defending downhill World Cup champion Didier Cuche came in 3rd at 10/100.

Two other Swiss – Didier Defago and Marco Buechel, who is in fact racing for Liechtenstein even though he wore a Swiss racing suit – missed the podium by a few hundredths.

Peter Miller, the winner here last year, survived several critical situations including a near-crash at the start when one of his poles slipped while he pushed himself out of the start-hut, was a strong 6th ahead of Italy’s Peter Fill.

Another US Skier made into the top-10 – unheralded Andrew Weibrecht was an impressive 10th despite starting in 53rd position and ended ahead of Hermann Maier himself. Yet the former almost invincible “Herminator” who amassed eight victories here including two gold medals at the 1999 FIS World Championships was only half a second shy from the podium – showing that he still has the potential to excel on tough conditions.

John Kucera finished 12th – he was the best racer of a rather disappointing Canadian team. Better performances were expected from Erik Guay - 15th - and Jan Hudec - 17th - after their previous strong weekend at Lake Louise. Their teammate Manuel Osborne Paradis had an even harder time as he had to be content with a far 50th place!

A long wait for Walchhofer
Michael Walchhofer’s triumph brought back some momentum into the Austrian team which somehow struggled in that specialty this year. In fact the tall innkeeper from Zauchensee, south of Salzburg, was the last champion of his group to have won a downhill – in fact two in a row at Bormio at the end of last year.

“It’s an important win for the team and also for me, it’s no longer so easy for us to win races, there are now many other excellent skiers in different teams,” he told the press afterwards.

“In the past, most of my teammates were my toughest rivals, now it’s no longer the case,” he added. “That’s why this win is crucial. There was some pressure on our squad.” Michael was 14th in downhill in Canada last week where he was very lucky to avoid a major accident when he crashed during warm-up near a snow-gun. “I have been very lucky, I could have been dead,” he quietly said to his friends at Lake Louise.

There is another reason why Walchhofer, who ended already twice on the podium here, was a happy man after the race. The 32-year-old after of three kids is eager to establish himself among other prominent downhillers in the history of the sport and wants to win all World Cup “Classics” on the tour.

So far, he already triumphed at “big” events as Kitzbühel, Wengen, Val d’Isère, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bormio, Lake Louise. He also reached several podiums in Val Gardena and Chamonix and he was once 4th at Kvitfjell.

“There are only a few left now, I’ll do my best to win the remaining ones as soon as possible,” added the relaxed speed specialist who only began racing downhill in 2001. In the following six years, he accumulated an impressive total of 25 top-3 finishes!

With his total of nine downhill wins, Walchhofer is still way behind other top-specialists such as Franz Klammer (25), Peter Müller (19) Stephan Eberharter (18), Hermann Maier (15) or Franz Heinzer (15). Interestingly enough Müller won on 14 different runs, Klammer on 13 and Eberharter on 12 as Heinzer!

Nyman back on the podium
Along Walchhofer, two other top-guns fought back after disappointing results last week at Lake Louise. Nyman, 3rd last year in Beaver Creek, achieved a superb performance considering the fact that he had to race by difficult weather conditions. It was snowing when last year’s winner at Val Gardena started – which was no longer the case for his main rivals wearing higher numbers. Nyman had bib number 8 – not as good as late 10’s and 20’s. In fact all the skiers starting early were handicapped by poor visibility.

Nyman didn’t care - skiing with great determination, the American moved mostly at his limits – often very close to crashing as at mid-course when he nearly lost his balance on the Golden Eagle jump while skiing on one ski only for a few seconds. “It was wild but that’s the way I like it. I’m basically very satisfied with my run, I skied the way I wanted and it was exciting,” Nyman said. “It’s good to be back on the podium here in front of my fans.”

Didier Cuche was much less satisfied – he knew where he lost some time and eventually his first victory of the season after clocking the fastest times in training and in the downhill leg of the Super-combined of Thursday.

“I think I was too greedy, I took too many risks in the compressions and I made a few unnecessary mistakes in the upper part,” the Swiss explained. “I was really charging but at the end of the day 3rd is not bad because so many skiers finished within a second,” he added. “It’s good to feel that I’m skiing well enough to aim for more victories from now on.”

Last week at Lake Louise, Cuche had to be content with a far 17th place – just behind Nyman and Maier – and tied with Aksel Lund Svindal and Erik Guay. Miller was behind them in 20th position!

In Saturday’s Super-G race, the skier to beat could well be Bode Miller, who also lost much time following a few mistakes which he could not recover because of the short track. Cuche, Maier, Albrecht, Raich, Mario Scheiber , promising 8th today, Defago and Fill should be his main contenders along Canada’s John Kucera. In recent years Miller – the defending Super-G World Cup champion - won twice the downhill and once the giant slalom – so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him at the top of the standings in that third competition.