Cuche wins Hahenkamm DH, pushes Bode Miller to second

By Published On: January 22nd, 2011Comments Off on Cuche wins Hahenkamm DH, pushes Bode Miller to second

Didier Cuche Kitzbuehel HahnenkammDidier Cuche is a man among men.

The 36 year old Swiss won the most celebrated ski race for the fourth time Saturday (Jan.22) taking the Kitzbuehel downhill by nearly a second, denying America’s Bode Miller the one prize he has yet to claim, that of Hahnenkamm champion.

Adrien Theaux was third earning the first Kitzbuehel downhill podium for a french male in 13 years.

Kitzbuehel’s Streif course upheld its reputation as a savage course. It had put Austrian Hans Grugger in hospital and an induced coma from a training crash and six men failed to complete the race, including World Cup standings leader Michael Walchhofer and Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis. On a circuit where the start list normally runs in the 70’s, just 55 even attempted the challenge.

Cuche not only accepted the task, after nearly losing his pole at the start, he attacked the length of the bone rattling Streif for his first win of the season, gaining some redemption for finishing second last week in Wengen’s Lauberhorn downhill. He knew as soon as he finished he had put down a world class run. The win matches him with Franz Klammer and Karl Schranz with four DH wins at Kitzbuehel and makes him the oldest racer to win a World Cup race. More importantly to this season, it put him in the lead of the DH standings, moving past Walchhofer and Silvan Zurbriggen.

It was bittersweet for Miller. Despite drawing up easily his best skiing of the season in the one race he needs to flesh out a stunning resume’ he was no match for Cuche. But then, no one else was either.

Bode Miller“I didn’t take as much risk as he did for sure,” said Miller. “He (Cuche) has this course pretty well figured out. He’s won here a few times and he takes risks in just the right spots.”

“The skis were like rockets,” Cuche told Patrick Lang. “It could easily have gone wrong.”

He said he was honored to be on the same list as Klammer and Schranz, but said he would have to do “lots more to be considered their equal.”

Besides, he said, “I consider it three and a half (DH) wins because my first win was a sprint (two-run) downhill. … Maybe I will manage (four) next year.”

Though Miller doesn’t focus on wins and statistics, he did admit this race is one he would like to win. “I was happy when I came across the finish line. I thought I had skied a good race. When this course is as difficult as it is this year more risks tends to lead to making more mistakes and more risk of death or serious injury.”

Miller gave Cuche all the credit he could. “You just more or less have to take your hat off. You know you skied a great race and the other person just took more risk, executed better and probably had faster skis. … I was happy with my race.”

The result mirrored 2008 when Cuche also won and Miller was second.

The Austrians missed the podium of their marquee race for the second straight year, perhaps a bit tentative after their teammate’s threatening crash in training. Mario Scheiber was fourth with Klaus Kroell, Romed Baumann and Georg Streitberger finishing nine-ten-eleven respectively.

Most disappointing, though, was Walchhofer’s DNF and a relatively flat and easy portion of the course. “It was a beginner’s fault,” he said.

World Cup leader Ivica Kostelic, discovering his speed aptitude at Kitzbuehel with Friday’s super G win, tied for 11th to put more room between he and standings leader Aksel Lund Svindal who finished 17th.

Beyond Miller the U.S. group had Ted Ligety adding speed to his repertoire in 27th place while Travis Ganong posted 28th. Ganong posted the fastest time at the bottom of the course hitting 85mph.

Erik Guay led the Candians in 16th while Ben Thomsen got his second career scoring result in 26th.

Guay is coming off of back injury and pointed out the roughness of Kitzbuehel hardly makes it the ideal location for a come back bid. He was satisfied with the performance, at least in sections. The main objective was to regain confidence at speed. “I think I’ve accomplished that,” he said.

There may not have been a man at Kitzbuehel more excited that Theaux. “I knew I skied well on top and had a lot of speed on the road, but when I saw that I was third I could not believe it all,” he told French reporters. “Frankly, being on a podium with Cuche and Bode, I can not ask for more.”

Gepa photos

The SCOOP
By Hank McKee
Men’s World Cup downhill, Kitzbuehel, Austria, Jan. 22, 2011
Equipment

Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Cuche, Head/Head/Head
2 Miller, Head/Head/Head
3 Theaux, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
4 Scheiber, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
5 Fill, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
6 Innerhofer, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
7 Heel, Head/Head/Head
8 Hoffmann, Head/Lange/Head
9 Kroell, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
10 Baumann, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

Men’s World Cup downhill, Kitzbuehel, Austria, Jan. 22, 2011. … It is the 71st running of the Hahnenkamm. … It is the second of four at Kitzbuehell this season. … It is the 121st Cup race hosted (at least in part) by Kitzbiuehel. … and the 52nd downhill.

It is the 15th career World Cup win for Didier Cuche. … his eighth in DH and his fourth in DH at Kitzbuehel, a record shared with Franz Klammer (75, ’76,’77 and ’84) and Karl Schranz (’66 pre-dating World Cup, ’69, ‘and ’72 twice). … It is his fifth win at Kitzbuehel including a SG win in 2010. … he becomes the oldest man at 36 years five months and six days to win a World Cup race. … The Swiss have won the Kitzbuehel DH for four straight seasons. … It is his first win of the season of four podium placings.

It is the 70th career World Cup podium for Bode Miller. … his 17th in DH. … It is his sixth podium at Kitzbuehel and the second time he has finished second to Cuche in the DH. … It is his second podium of the season the other a third in the Munich parallel city event.

It is the second career World Cup podium for Adrien Theaux and the second of the season having been second in SG at Beaver Creek Dec. 4. … His previous best DH result had been sixth at Are March 11, 2009.

It is the worst of nine scoring results at Kitzbuehel for Erik Guay. … matching his fourth best placing of the season. … It was the second career scoring result for Benjamin Thomsen, the previous a 16th in DH at Val Gardena Dec. 18. … It is the second best of three career DH scoring results for Ted Ligety, one coming last weekend at Wengen. … It was the third time Travis Ganong has finished 28th in five career World Cup scoring results. … He clocked the fastest speed at the bottom of the course hitting 85mph.

Ivica Kostelic (11th in race) maintains his lead of the World Cup overall standings 850-585 over Aksell Lund Svindal (17th in race). … Cuche is now third at 573pts. … Ted Ligety (27th in race) is the top American overall with 422pts. … Erik Guay (16th in race) is the top Canadian in 30th with 145pts. … Cuche moves into the lead of the DH standings 279-270 over Silvan Zurbriggen (13th in race) with Michael Walchhofer (DNF in race) third with 269pts. … Bode Miller moves to fifth in the DH standings with 190pts. … Manuel Osborne-Paradis is the top Canadian in 17th with 80pts. … Austrian leads the men’s Nations Cup standings 3371-2276 over Switzerland. … France is third with 1604pts. … The U.S. is sixth with 928 and Canada ninth with 763pts.

Place   Kitzbuehel
(AUT)
  Discipline   Downhill
Date   22.01.2011   Category   FIS World Cup
Race codex   0150   Gender   M
Valid for FIS Points   YES   TD Name   Dart Robert (USA)
       
  
Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Total Time FIS Points
 1  18  510030 CUCHE Didier  1974  SUI   1:57.72  0.00
 2  11  532431 MILLER Bode  1977  USA   1:58.70  11.07
 3  28  192746 THEAUX Adrien  1984  FRA   1:58.90  13.33
 4  20  51005 SCHEIBER Mario  1983  AUT   1:59.08  15.37
 5  14  292455 FILL Peter  1982  ITA   1:59.10  15.59
 6  24  293006 INNERHOFER Christof  1984  ITA   1:59.22  16.95
 7  8  292514 HEEL Werner  1982  ITA   1:59.36  18.53
 8  2  510767 HOFFMANN Ambrosi  1977  SUI   1:59.37  18.64
 9  19  50753 KROELL Klaus  1980  AUT   1:59.50  20.11
 10  9  51215 BAUMANN Romed  1986  AUT   1:59.54  20.56
 11  25  50858 STREITBERGER Georg  1981  AUT   1:59.63  21.58
 11  6  380260 KOSTELIC Ivica  1979  CRO   1:59.63  21.58
 13  17  510890 ZURBRIGGEN Silvan  1981  SUI   1:59.89  24.52
 14  13  560447 SPORN Andrej  1981  SLO   2:00.19  27.91
 15  3  191591 BERTRAND Yannick  1980  FRA   2:00.23  28.36
 16  27  102263 GUAY Erik  1981  CAN   2:00.26  28.70
 17  21  421328 SVINDAL Aksel Lund  1982  NOR   2:00.28  28.92
 18  40  511383 FEUZ Beat  1987  SUI   2:00.35  29.71
 19  44  50742 REICHELT Hannes  1980  AUT   2:00.55  31.97
 20  22  511313 JANKA Carlo  1986  SUI   2:00.63  32.88
 21  23  191964 POISSON David  1982  FRA   2:00.82  35.02
 22  12  511139 KUENG Patrick  1984  SUI   2:00.84  35.25
 23  15  560332 JERMAN Andrej  1978  SLO   2:00.94  36.38
 24  5  191740 CLAREY Johan  1981  FRA   2:00.96  36.61
 25  29  291459 PARIS Dominik  1989  ITA   2:01.02  37.28
 26  50  103271 THOMSEN Benjamin  1987  CAN   2:01.19  39.20
 27  32  534562 LIGETY Ted  1984  USA   2:01.39  41.46
 28  35  530874 GANONG Travis  1988  USA   2:01.51  42.82
 29  30  192932 FAYED Guillermo  1985  FRA   2:01.53  43.05
 30  47  293550 MARSAGLIA Matteo  1985  ITA   2:01.62  44.06
 31  4  510747 GRUENENFELDER Tobias  1977  SUI   2:01.65  44.40
 32  52  150398 BANK Ondrej  1980  CZE   2:01.66  44.51
 33  42  292291 THANEI Stefan  1981  ITA   2:01.70  44.97
 34  37  510498 ZUEGER Cornel  1981  SUI   2:02.31  51.86
 35  41  294911 PATSCHEIDER Hagen  1988  ITA   2:02.48  53.78
 36  7  533866 NYMAN Steven  1982  USA   2:02.53  54.34
 37  49  200379 SANDER Andreas  1989  GER   2:02.55  54.57
 38  31  421483 JANSRUD Kjetil  1985  NOR   2:02.60  55.13
 39  1  501076 OLSSON Hans  1984  SWE   2:02.69  56.15
 40  53  193034 BOUILLOT Alexandre  1985  FRA   2:02.75  56.83
 41  39  511142 LUEOEND Vitus  1984  SUI   2:02.84  57.85
 42  51  561087 MARKIC Gasper  1986  SLO   2:02.99  59.54
 43  36  511529 GISIN Marc  1988  SUI   2:03.18  61.69
 44  54  561085 KRIZAJ Andrej  1986  SLO   2:03.35  63.61
 45  45  294904 PANGRAZZI Paolo  1988  ITA   2:03.69  67.45
 46  55  102403 SEMPLE Ryan  1982  CAN   2:03.70  67.56
 47  48  910004 DEFLORIAN Mirko  1980  MDA   2:05.83  91.63
 48  56  380298 SIROKI Tin  1987  CRO   2:07.05  105.41
Did not start 1st run
     290998 STAUDACHER Patrick  1980  ITA     
Did not finish 1st run
     50041 WALCHHOFER Michael  1975  AUT     
     102899 OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel  1984  CAN     
     380292 ZRNCIC-DIM Natko  1986  CRO     
     534939 FISHER Erik  1985  USA     
     51327 PUCHNER Joachim  1987  AUT     
     294277 KLOTZ Siegmar  1987  ITA     
     201811 STECHERT Tobias  1985  GER   

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About the Author: Hank McKee

In memoriam: The veteran of the staff, McKee started with Ski Racing in 1980. Over the seasons, he covered virtually every aspect of the sport, from the pro tours to junior racing, freestyle and World Cup alpine competition. He wrote the first national stories for many U.S. team stars, and was still around to report on their retirements. “Longevity has its rewards,” he said, “but it’s a slow process.”