First downhill win for Walchhofer

Wengen, Jan. 15th - Reigning downhill World Champion Michael Walchhofer finally celebrated his first season win in downhill in Wengen after accumulating a nice series of five podium finishes in the past six races.
It's his second win this season - in December, he won a Super-G competition in Italy's Val Gardena.

After a very aggressive run down the longest downhill course on the World Cup tour, the 29-year-old downhiller from Zauchensee, near Altenmarkt beat by 9/100 of a second his teammate Christoph Grubber while USA's Bode Miller was 3rd at 18/100. Miller reached his first downhill podium since his win in Beaver Creek last month.

Hermann Maier was a promising 4th, his best result in the event. He was 6th in Lake Louise and 8th in Chamonix. Another Austrian, Werner Franz, the winner in Val d'Isère, was 5th and Italy's Kurt Sulzenbacher 6th , Peter Fill 6th and Lasse Kjus, very fast in the upper section, 7th after making a big mistake in the final part.
Italy's veteran Kristian Ghedina was a solid 11th. Great-Britain's Finlay Mickel reached an excellent 18th place - finishing ahead of the 2003 winner, Switzerland's Bruno Kernen. His colleague Silvan Zurbriggen, a slalom specialist, was again the best Swiss in that downhill as in Bormio after the spectacular crash of Didier Defago in the last turns prior the Zielschuss. Defago set very fast intermediate times before crashing out after missing those icy turns.

A great dream for Michael

Michael Walchhofer realized more than a childhood dream on Saturday with victory in the 75th Classic Lauberhorn downhill race in Wengen. He crashed twice in a row in his first two races here and was 2nd in 2003 behind Kernen after being flagged down in his first attempt to come down the mountain because another skier has crashed.
“It's nice to win the downhill of the 75th birthday of that race, it's quite prestigious,” he said. When I arrived here, I was given a book about the 75 years of the competition, and I hope now to be included in the book of the 100th anniversary" Walchhofer added.
“It's been a dream for me almost since I was a child to win at Wengen. It's so spectacular and very hard just to make the finish."
This win put Walchhofer in 3rd place in the Overall rankings, behind Miller and Austria's Benjamin Raich. Walchhofer also extended his lead over Miller in the downhill standings. He has 431 points to Miller's 378.

“It badly wanted to get my first win of the season in the downhill because I have been on the podium so often, and while I went up to the start, I told myself this would be the best place” Walchhofer also said. “So I put some extra pressure on me and I was quite nervous before my start. It was a wild run at the end, I had to fight hard until the end. It's great to win this Classic - it's the perfect way to prepare the coming races from Kitzbühel and Bormio. I felt very confident, but there is nothing better than a win to show that the form is fine!”

In finishing 2nd after a great finish, Christoph Gruber keeps a strong chance to race the Worlds in Bormio. It's by far his best finish in a World Cup downhill - he was 5th here two years ago. “I gave all what I had, I needed such a result,” he said. “It's important to be back on the podium after my disappointing season start. I got some top-10 results recently so I knew I was doing better. I changed skis last summer and I know that I can win again. I didn't glide so well at the top, but my final was great.”

Miller was pleased

Miller, who was disqualified from Wengen's combined slalom on Friday after straddling a gate, was also pleased to be back on the podium.
“This was such an exciting race, just perfect, it was about time about the past disappointing races we had since Val Gardena because of the difficult weather conditions,” he said. “The crowd along the course was amazing, this is a real event.”
“I attacked hard all along the course, that's the best way to race on such demanding courses. Yesterday, I was punished in the combined slalom for not taking all risks. I straddled this gate in a stupid way without even noticing it. I should have been more aggressive.”
“Although I haven't made it into the top-3 in the last downhills, I've felt good about my skiing all that time. I knew I can do it but my legs were burning in the final part. Racers complained about lack of oxygen in the muscles but I can tell you it's also missing in the brain at the end” added the Overall leader who skipped the inspection to rest and better prepare the race. “Inspection doesn't make always sense when you are sure about your line,” he explained. “I felt confident so I was happy to remain longer in my bed.”
Miller increased his lead in the Overall standings to 258 points on Raich who didn't race that downhill. In Kitzbühel, Bode will definitely belong to the group of favourites on the treacherous Streif!

Maier ready for more

One of those favourites could well be Hermann Maier, who is coming back strong in this specialty after struggling in Bormio and Chamonix. The defending Overall World Cup champion said he still made too many mistakes in the upper part, but at least, he felt fast again on the demanding sections. “It's going better, I skied well the finals turns, but I'm still not where I want to be with my material, there are still some details to fix,” he said. On the demanding Streif, he will certainly be ready for his first win of the season - as in 2003, when he crushed all his rivals in Kitzbühel, less than two weeks after his dramatic comeback!

Patrick Lang