Didier Cuche’s greatest win

Patrick Lang 19.01.2008 14:15 Uhr

Switzerland’s Didier Cuche certainly celebrated his most prestigious win today at Kitzbühel where he captured the treacherous “Hahnenkamm” downhill after a very aggressive run down the “Streif” course.

Cuche, already a winner in Kitzbühel ten years ago in a shorter two-run “sprint downhill” confirmed his strong form from training to beat by 27/100 of a second America’s Bode Miller who shares 2nd place with Austria’s Mario Scheiber.

Michael Walchhofer, the winner here two years ago came in 4th ahead of an outstanding Hermann Maier, again the fastest man on the slope prior the last section where he lost much time on the leaders.

The downhill which started 50 meters below the usual start-hut because of strong gusts of wind was stopped during half an hour because of the bad crash sustained by USA’s Scott Macartney who lost his balance while cruising at 141 km/h over the last jump situated a few meters prior the finish line. He lost conscious after the violent shock on his back and had to be transported to the hospital at Innsbruck for further examinations.

France’s Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin, the winner at Val d’Isère last year, also fell roughly in the upper part of the course after losing his left ski in a high speed turn, yet without injuring himself.

Friday’s winner Marco Buechel came in 8th after making a mistake in the middle section losing 80/100 on his training partner Cuche.

Austria’s Benjamin Raich also scored precious World Cup points in skiing among the top-20 while Switzerland’s Daniel Albrecht crashed in the middle part but the young Swiss remained uninjured.

Didier Cuche was more than elate to win his fourth World Cup downhill after reaching the podium several times this winter in the specialty. A week ago he was 2nd in Wengen 65/100 ubehind Miller.

“I have the feeling to be in a dream, I don’t remember my run so well but I know I gave my best from top to bottom,” the Swiss said on Austrian TV after the race. “I have been looking for a long time for such a run here. I felt confident after yesterday’s podium finish in the Super-G and my promising training runs earlier this week. I just like this challenging course so much, it just perfectly suits my style and my love for aggressive skiing. It was not possible to achieve a perfect run today because of the difficult course conditions but I fought all the time and it paid off at the end.”

Cuche also said that he plans to compete in Sunday’s slalom in order to score a few points in the “Classical” Hahnenkamm combined which Bode Miller has a strong chance to grab now thanks to his strong advance on Raich.

As Maier, the American also had a strong chance to capture that race and win his third consecutive downhill this season. The skier from New Hampshire who reached his first downhill podium here after clinching the combined four years ago was very fast at the top prior skiing a few seconds on the plastic banner hanging in the safety net on the left side of the course just at the exit of the impressive “Steilhang” turn.

This incident cost him much time which he was not able to totally recover in the lower part of the “Streif” where he regained almost half a second.

“A top-3 finish today is fine for me today considering that incident, it was for sure not the best line in that section,” Miller admitted afterwards.

At least the American proved again that he has the talent and the potential to win the “Hahnenkamm” downhill on the full length of the course which has not been achieved by any US racer since Buddy Werner’s triumph here in 1959!