49th win for Hermann Maier

Kvitfjell, Norway, March 5th - 2005. More than a year after his last downhill win in St Anton, Hermann Maier celebrated his (officially) 49th World Cup victory in todays first speed race held on the Olimpiabakken course in Kvitfjell where he beat by 13/100 of a second his young teammate Mario Scheiber while Switzerland's Ambrosi Hoffmann came in 3rd at 31/100.

America's Bode Miller was very fast at the top of the perfectly prepared course despite a small mistake in the first big right turn. But he lost some time at the bottom and had to be happy with his third consecutive 4th place in a speed event. Yet, it's still good enough for him to increase his lead in the Overall Standings to 57 points since Benjamin Raich was “only” 12th - half a second behind him.

Daron Rahlves was once more 5th - as in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in downhill and Super-G and in giant slalom in Kranjska Gora. This allows him to be 3rd now in the downhill World Cup standings but only a few points ahead of Maier and Johann Grugger, only 17th today.

Walchhofer crashed

Two of the top-favourites didn't end their race - Austria's Michael Walchhofer, the leader in the downhill classification and Switzerland's Bruno Kernen, the fastest in Friday's shortened training run, both crashed out of the course, yet without getting seriously injured. Walchhofer, who suffers from his right knee already hurt during a crash in Val Gardena's training run, keeps a comfortable lead in the downhill standings - 93 points on Miller - prior to the Finals in Lenzerheide. He hopes to be able to race in Sunday's Super-G. He still has the best chances to become the successor of Hermann Maier and Stephan Eberharter.

Marco Buechel, 2nd in Val d'Isère, was an excellent 6th, a day after suffering a bad crash in the last practise run. Kjetil Aamodt was a promising 11th, yet not good enough to qualify for the last downhill race in Switzerland. He misses the cut by 3 points! He hopes to be at least racing the Super-G in Lenzerheide!

Remarkable also, the 8th place of Switzerland's Silvan Zurbriggen, mostly a slalom skier in recent years, who also came in 5th in Bormio. He is on his best way to become a top allrounder!

Maier's surprise

Hermann Maier was a little surprised by his first season win in downhill - yet also very happy after his difficult season's start in that event. “I'm already experimenting new technical solutions for the coming season, so I was not really expecting this today even if I gave my best as usual on the course,” he said with a grin. “It's a nice reward - it's just too bad that the season is already ending because I made some interesting improvements. I think my colleagues who also use Atomic gears will be happy to hear about my discoveries.”

Maier has a good chance to keep his actual 3rd place in the Overall World Cup standings - but he also reflects that he could still be in the chase for a fifth crown with better results in the first part of the season.
“I did lose too many points at the beginning of the winter, but I'll try harder next winter,” he also said. “Yet I have already reached one important goal in Bormio in clinching another gold medal in giant slalom. At the start of the season, I also aimed to equal Alberto Tomba's mark of 50 World Cup wins! I sort of did it here!”

In his mind, Maier achieved this goal today, because he said he won a giant slalom in Val d'Isère in December 1997, yet he was disqualified afterwards for having taking off his skis in the finish area before the authorized zone! “For me, I already won 50 World Cup events,” he insisted with a big smile.

A perfect win

“This win is perfect, it will boost my motivation for the next races, I still feel much energy in me and I'm enjoying my life a lot.”
Maier also said he doesn't feel any pressure to win his sixth Super-G World Cup title since 1998. Before Sunday's race, he trails Miller by a single point only in the standings - not a big deal for him so far.

“I would have been much more tense and determined a few years ago, but now, I'm pretty relaxed,” he explained. I'll do my best but in a very positive way, because I have in a way more fun now than before. In the past, winning was everything for me, now there are other things which are interesting.”

Scheiber confirms potential

Mario Scheiber, the most promising young skier from the powerful Austrian team, was more than delighted to reach his third podium of the season after a very aggressive run down the course of the 1994 Olympics that he discovered this year.

“It's amazing how good and fast I'm skiing right now, I didn't expect this at all,” said the Austrian, 2nd in a downhill two weeks ago in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. “I'm 8th in the downhill standings and 15th in the Overall World Cup, this is fantastic. It's much more than I imagined at the season start. I'm also very happy to have also passed the limit of 400 points which guarantees me excellent start positions in all specialties next winter. I also plan to ski a lot in slalom and giant slalom.”

Switzerland's Ambrosi Hoffmann became the first skier of his team to reach the podium in a downhill race this winter. It's his best result since finishing on the podium in Kitzbühel! He has now good chance to keep his position in the first seed for the start of the coming season.

Miller wanted more

Bode Miller was aiming for more than another 4th place today. The skier from New Hampshire lost around half a second on most of the other favourites in the lower part of the course. “My early start was perfect,” said the reigning World Champion who wore bib 9. “The conditions on the course were awesome when I went but I just made two mistakes that were in pretty bad spots - I went on my hip on the top and also sort of touched down a little bit on the first turn and made a lousy turn. When you see that, you don't expect to win,” added Miller, who also said he made a mistake at the bottom.

He has been the World Cup leader since winning the opening race of the season last October in Soelden, Austria. Only a few champions as Karl Schranz (1968/69) and Ingemar Stenmark, who won his first six races during the 1977/78 winter), achieved a similar impressive performance.

On Sunday, he wants to apply the same aggressive tactic as in past weeks - with the goal to make fewer mistakes. The quadruple World Champion knows that he is almost invincible after a flawless run. His goal is to achieve his potential and increase his advance near 200 points after the coming speed races in Lenzerheide.

Raich caught a cold

Yet Benjamin Raich, who caught a cold earlier this week, believes in his chances to challenge him more seriously in the coming Super-Gs after finishing twice 3rd in that event, including at Bormio during the World Championships. The 27-year-Tyrolian, who scored his second best downhill result after finishing 11th two weeks ago in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, was hoping to reach the top-10 in that competition.

“I had a solid race until the final part, then I didn't ski as clean as I wanted,” he explained. “I had a good chance to make it among the top-10 today but the visibility was not very good for higher start-numbers.”

France's David Poisson, who turns 23 at the end of the month, confirmed his superb results from Bormio where he was twice 9th in the speed events in coming in 15th his best ever result on the World Cup tour. He was 25th in December in Val Gardena and 29th in his first World Cup race in St Anton a year ago.

On the other hand, Lasse Kjus, a two-time winner here in downhill, ended at a far 33rd place. He will try to do better in Sunday's Super-G.

Patrick Lang