5th win for Christoph Gruber

Patrick Lang 22.02.2008 08:21 Uhr

Austria’s Christoph Gruber stunned the rest of the field today on the Olympic run at Whistler Mountain winning his first race of the season – his fifth in his career - on the World Cup tour. The 32-year-old veteran beat by only 3/100 of a second his teammate Hannes Reichelt, the winner at Beaver Creek earlier this winter, while Slovenia’s Ales Gorza came in 3rd at 11/100 celebrating his very first World Cup podium and completing the impressive clean-sweep for Fischer skis.

Italy’s reigning World Champion Patrick Staudacher achieved his best ever performance in a World Cup event taking 4th place aside Canada’s Erik Guay.

Switzerland’s Didier Cuche, the leader in the Super-G World Cup standings, got a strong 7th place, good enough to reinforce his 3rd in the Overall standings while USA’s Bode Miller skied out after slightly hurting himself at his left hip and his hand in hitting a pole.

Benjamin Raich could not take advantage of Bode’s problems as he only came in 11th at 70/100. He is now 69 points behind the American while Cuche is 3rd at 149 points.

Croatia’s Ivica Kostelic achieved another amazing performance ending in 8th position after having clocked the fastest intermediate time at the top of the challenging “Dave Murray” run. A slight mistake at the bottom may well have cost his first podium in a speed event. He is now in 5th position in the Overall standings just a few points behind France’s Jean-Baptiste Grange.

Hermann Maier, the most successful Super-G champion on the World Cup tour, failed to finish the race after crashing at mid-course. The former “Herminator” was having a good run when he lost his balance skiing over a bump and fell on his right hip before skiing out. Last month, he was 2nd at Kitzbühel in the previous Super-G race.

Gruber was relaxed
A gifted skier having already excelled in downhill, Super-G and giant slalom in previous years, Christoph Gruber has still not achieved his potential so far in his career. This winter he only managed to reach once the podium in Super-G, at Beaver Creek, yet he is known to be an expert on challenging courses. A three-time winner on the treacherous “Kandahar-Kreuzeck” run at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in recent seasons, Gruber immediately felt very comfortable this morning on the course planned to be used at the 2010 Olympics.

“The nice weather and the technically difficult run reminded me the tough course we normally ski in February at Garmisch-Partenkirchen,” he explained afterwards. “I told myself to be relaxed and act as if I would be racing in Bavaria,” Gruber added. “It was the right tactic, I had no problem finding my best rhythm and charge the way I use to in Germany.”

“It’s amazing, I feel so good about this win because it’s getting each year harder to reach the podium,” added Gruber who moved up at the 11th place in the Overall standings. “I’m also delighted to share this success with my girl friend Julia who travelled here with me. I can’t wait to come back here in two years for the Olympics in case I qualify for the team. It’s for sure a beautiful course, perfectly prepared today and really nice to ski on.”

Gruber is now only 55 points away from Cuche in the Super-G standings and able to create a major surprise in capturing the Crystal globe with two other strong runs at Kvitfjell, Norway, next week and then at the Finals at Bormio.

Miller went down
Miller, the defending Super-G World Cup champion is now 171 points behind the Swiss ace and has probably lost a great chance to retain his title in the specialty. The skier from New Hampshire was just lucky that his two closest rivals for the big cup didn’t score more points.

Didier Cuche was aware of the lost occasion even though he was also pleased to have finished ahead of Raich in that competition. “I had an OK run but I didn’t try hard enough in some parts,” the Swiss veteran explained. “I could have taken more risks and score more points too. I’m only a few hundredths behind 4th place. But it was not so easy. When I started, I knew Raich was way behind and Miller out. So I didn’t want to blow it too!”

Hannes Reichelt was pleased to get back on the podium after a series of disappointing results in past weeks yet he also knew that another win was pretty close this morning without a small mistake done in the lower part of his run. “I skied really well at the top but I lost some time with that error,” he admitted afterwards. “It was very close. I won at Beaver Creek by a few hundredths – here I was not as lucky but that’s ok. The most important for me was to reach again the podium and remain in the hunt for the Crystal globe.”

It was also a great day for Slovenia’s Ales Gorza who has been fighting hard for this podium finish in past winters. A former giant slalom specialist, the 27-year-old made the best out of his low start-number to score the first Super-G podium for Slovenia since it becomes an independent country.

Jure Franko, racing for former Republic of Yugoslavia, finished twice 3rd in Super-G during the 1983/84 season yet it was before the country fell apart.

Andrej Jerman was 4th earlier this winter at Lake Louise just behind the podium and his success in downhill certainly inspired his teammates this season.

“I have been waiting for a long time for this result, it’s awesome,” said Ales, 5th at Val d’Isère in the last Super-combined of the season. “The course was just perfect and I had a dream run,” he added. “I was often close to that podium and it’s wonderful to finally get it here on this Olympic run. It’s for sure a crucial result for our team which is doing fine this winter despite difficult times.”

The next men’s event – a giant slalom - is scheduled for Saturday. It could be another turning point for the World Cup leaders prior the coming speed events in Norway.