3rd season win for Michael Walchhofer

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, Feb. 18th - Austria's Michael Walchhofer celebrated a crucial win today on the treacherous Kandahar course in Garmisch-Partenkirchen where he beat by almost a full second his teammate Hermann Maier while USA's Bode Miller came in 3rd despite a huge error in the last turn.

Johan Grubber was 4th, only a tenth of a second behind Bode, and Daron Rahlves an unhappy 5th - the Californian aims to win his first race of the season as soon as possible.
Also among the top 10, Austria's Andreas Schifferer who achieved a promising comeback after his impressive crash from Adelboden, and Canada's Erik Guay, who collected his best World Cup result of the season.

Benjamin Raich was a strong and a pleased 11th, his best ever result in downhill. This allowed him to remain close to Bode Miller in the Overall World Cup standings. His delay on the American only slightly improved to 131 points - so their fight will continue for a while.

Three medals for Michael in Bormio

Walchhofer, who collected three medals at the recent Worlds in Bormio, achieved an important goal in that race which he badly wanted to win. This third season victory, his second in downhill, helps him to reinforce his position in the downhill World Cup standings which he leads now with an advance of 93 points on Miller. But he was very motivated at the start of this eighth downhill of the season!

“I crashed four times in past years at the bottom of this course during the last five races, so it's a great satisfaction to finally achieve my potential today with an almost flawless run,” he said after his race. “I fought hard and didn't think about my past problems in that last left-hand turn, but I surprised myself with this huge margin.”
“I felt I was skiing fast, but I didn't expect to be so much ahead. I also wanted to prove that I deserved to win in Bormio where I was unlucky when I skied over a stone in the upper part of the downhill race.”
“I won the last downhill prior the World Championships in Wengen, and the first one afterwards. It means a lot to me. I feel confident now for the downhill World Cup title. I have a good chance to make it if nothing really bad happens to me. I finished seven of the past eight downhills on the podium - I had no chance in Val Gardena where there was such a bad wind.”

In fact, even if Bode Miller would win the remaining three downhills, Walchhofer would keep the lead until the end with two second and a third place!

First podium for Maier since February 2004!

Maier was very pleased too by his result - his best in the specialty for a long time. In fact, he didn't reach a downhill podium since his win a year ago in St Anton! “It's great to get my first downhill podium on this course on which I won my first ever race in 1997,” said a jubilant “Herminator” whose best downhill performance so far this season was a 4th place in Wengen.
“I skied well, but I'm still far from my best level in that specialty,” he added. “I'm already testing a few things with my material in order to prepare the coming season, so I was not so sure to be so fast today. The course was quite demanding - so I had fun. I hope to be able to remain at this level during the entire weekend. It would be great to get my 50th World Cup win here tomorrow or Sunday!”

In fact, the triple World Champion has official won 48 World Cup races in his career - yet he likes to add his first victory from Val d'Isère taken away from him afterwards when he was disqualified because he took off his skis before crossing the infamous red line which marks the “take-off” zone in the finish area.
“It would be awesome to equal Alberto Tomba here, I have been thinking a lot about this while I worked out hard during my rehabilitation following my motorcycle accident. I would have been much closer to the record of Ingemar Stenmark now without that accident.”

The legendary Stenmark captured a total of 86 wins in slalom and in giant slalom from 1974 to 1989. Tomba won 50 races during his superb career.

Bode wanted more

Bode Miller lost much time in the last turn where he could not remain on the fastest line. “I came out wide and lost much speed there,” he said. “It's frustrating, because I skied the upper part really well. But I'm not sure about catching Michael today, he was impressive. He is so big and yet so smooth and precise. A 3rd place is OK - but not with this mistake.”
“The course was much faster today, especially at the jump and we were surprized. It will be touch to challenge Michael in the downhill standings, but I don't think too much about this. I rather focus on my skiing. I have to execute better.”

Miller was not surprized by Raich's performance. “Benjamin has the talent to be an excellent speed specialist too. I expected him among the top-10 today. Our competition will definitely be tough until the end.”

Two more speed events are planned this weekend end in Garmisch-Partenkirchen - another downhill Saturday followed by a Super-G on Sunday.

Patrick Lang