Val Gardena: US Scalds DH, 5 in top 10

We be bad.

The U.S. men’s team came into Val Gardena looking to make a statement. Here it is: second, fourth, seventh, ninth and tenth. And the Canadians? Third, fifth and 13th.

Michael Walchhofer got the first Austrian men’s DH win in more than a year by duplicating his last win, also at Val Gardena. And the Austrians also had Klaus Kroell in sixth place. But the rest was all North America, and the USA in particular.

Bode Miller, coming off a string of ugly DNF’s, was second with Manuel Osborne-Paradis of Canada third. Marco Sullivan, so strong all week in training, maintained and moved himself to fourth. Canada’s Erik Guay got fifth.

Perhaps the most surprising was the showing of Erik Fisher who rolled from the 52nd start to finish seventh. Steven Nyman was ninth and TJ Lanning, an early race leader, wound up tenth.

We be bad.

The U.S. men’s team came into Val Gardena looking to make a statement. Here it is: second, fourth, seventh, ninth and tenth. And the Canadians? Third, fifth and 13th.

Michael Walchhofer got the first Austrian men’s DH win in more than a year by duplicating his last win, also at Val Gardena. And the Austrians also had Klaus Kroell in sixth place. But the rest was all North America, and the USA in particular.

Bode Miller, coming off a string of ugly DNF’s, was second with Manuel Osborne-Paradis of Canada third. Marco Sullivan, so strong all week in training, maintained and moved himself to fourth. Canada’s Erik Guay got fifth.

Perhaps the most surprising was the showing of Erik Fisher who rolled from the 52nd start to finish seventh. Steven Nyman was ninth and TJ Lanning, an early race leader, wound up tenth.

It didn’t end there, either. Scott Macartney was 15th and Andrew Weibrecht got points in 28th. All told it was a record day for the U.S. team.

The win was also huge for Walchhofer. He had gone a year without a win for the first time in six seasons and he grabbed the downhill standings lead away at the same time.

“This was a very important target for me,” he told the AP. “I’ve waited a long time for this.”
 

He said his run was “almost perfect,” adding he was able to let his skis run as he wanted to.

Miller thought Walchhofer’s run was pretty close to perfect, too. A bobble high on the course may have cost the feisty American some time, but he suggested, “I don’t think that made a huge difference. On a lot of sections of this course Walchhofer is just unbeatable. I was happy with second.”

The odd guy out on the podium was Osborne-Paradis. Saying he was honored to be on the podium with legends like Walchhofer and Miller, he was about as far from a favorite going into the race as one could be. Still bruised from a crash at Beaver Creek a few weeks back, he had what he called “pretty terrible,” training results at Val Gardena. And his race run was not quite perfect, either.

“The Camel Bumps, I don’t really know how I got through it. I was tipping over, tipping over and then caught an edge. The next thing I knew I was in the air. That probably saved me.”

Give Walchhofer his due, but celebrate with the North Americans. Osborne-Paradis, the third Canadian – of a four man team – to make a Cup podium this season said the whole scene reminded him of a Nor-Am race. There were seven North Americans in the top 10, nine in the top 15 and all of them entered scored points. It was unprecedented success and called for all the cylinders firing as hot as they ever have.

Sullivan matched his third best World Cup result ever in fourth. Erik Guay, remarkably consistent this season, got his fifth top 10 of the season in fifth. It was a career best result for Erik Fisher who burned out of the back of the pack (started 52nd) to finish seventh. Steven Nyman got his second best result ever at Val Gardena, behind his win in 2006, finishing ninth. TJ Lanning got the whole thing rolling when he took a full second lead on the field as the sixth man down the course. He got bumped down to tenth, his third career top 10 and second best finish of the season.
 

 

Robbie Dixon scored a personal best downhill result in 13th. Scott Macartney posted 15th, his best result since a final jump crash at Kitzbuehel last season. John Kucera got his best result ever at Val Gardena in 22nd and Andrew Weibrecht got his first scoring result in a year and a month.
 

This is the stuff of legend.

“To stand in the finish and watch teammate after teammate come down and punch in there is awesome,” said Sullivan. “There was a lot of energy in the finish and a lot of excitement with the coaches. It was just a good day and I think the team is going to build off this weekend.”

It surely is a good base to build from, and coach Sasha Rearick confirms the excitement level. “Oh yeah,” he says, “they’re all really fired up. It was a great day.”

So coach, will we become accustomed to this?

“I’m not going to tell you that.” says Rearick. “I will tell you we will continue to focus on the same stuff. We’ll concentrate on the boys’ health and on the things that make us fast.”

Which was what we all needed to hear anyway.

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The SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment

Men’s Downhill, Val Gardena, Italy, Dec. 20, 2008

Skiers, skis/boots/bindings

1 Walchhofer, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

2 Miller, Head/Head/Tyrolia

3 Osborne-Paradis, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

4 Sullivan, Nordica/Nordica/Marker

5 Guay, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

6 Kroell, Salomon/Nordica/Salomon

7 Fisher, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

8 Hoffmann, Head/Lange/Tyrolia

9 Nyman, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer

10 Lanning, Nordica/Nordica/Marker

Men’s Downhill, Val Gardena, Italy, Dec. 20, 2008. … It is the 11th race of the men’s 38 race 2008-09 World Cup schedule. … It is the third of nine scheduled downhills. … It is the 64th Cup race scheduled at least in part at Val Gardena. … the 47th downhill.

It is the 14th career World Cup win for Michael Walchhofer. … His first since winning Val Gardena a season ago Dec. 15, 2007. … It is his 11th DH win, making him seventh all time among men. … He passes Pirmin Zurbriggen, Lasse Kjus, Luc Alphand and Helmet Hoeflehner with the win.

It is the 66th career World Cup podium for Bode Miller. … His 15th in DH. … It is his second podium of the season, the other coming at Levi in slalom Nov. 16. … It is his third Cup podium at Val Gardena, but first in DH, the other two a SG win Dec. 15, 2006 and a SG 2nd Dec. 14, 2007.

It is the fourth career World Cup podium for Manuel Osborne-Paradis. … All of them coming in DH. … His last came at Wengen Jan. 13, 2008. … He is the third Canadian to podium this season after John Kucera (2nd Lake Louise SG) and Erik Guay (3rd Beaver Creek DH).

Marco Sullivan matches his third best career showing in fourth. … And matches his career best at Val Gardena having also scored fourth two seasons ago (Dec. 16, 2006). … It is his third top five result of the season… It is the 16th career top five placing for Erik Guay. … It is the fifth time he has been fifth or better at Val Gardena. … It is a career best placing for Erik Fisher and just his third scoring result ever. … All three of his scoring finishes have come this season. … Steven Nyman matches his seventh best career result in ninth. … It matches his second best result at Val Gardena, where he also collected his only win (DH 12/16/2006). … It is his third scoring finish of the season. … It is the third top 10 career result for TJ Lanning. … He has been better than tenth once, a ninth place finish at Lake Louise earlier this season. … It is the third best career result for Robbie Dixon and his best in DH. … It is his fifth scoring result this season. … It is the eighth best result for Scott Macartney’s career and his third best result at Val Gardena. … He was third in DH at the site Dec. 15, 2007 and seventh SG Dec. 16, 2007. … It is a career best result at Val Gardena for John Kucera. … His 11th best DH result. … It is the third career scoring result for Andrew Weibrecht. … His first since November 2007.

Aksel Lund Svindal (34th in race) maintains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 398-315 over Carlo Janka (did not race). Benjamin Raich (did not race) is third at 297. … Didier Defago and Michael Walchhofer move to fourth and fifth respectively at 291 and 290. … Top American is Bode Miller in ninth at 240. … Walchhofer takes over control of the DH standings 165-136 over Svindal and Peter Fill (19th in race) tied in second. … Klaus Kroell (6th in race) is fourth one point back. … Erik Guay is fifth with 131 and Miller sixth at 95.

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Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Total Time	FIS Points
1	18	50041	WALCHHOFER Michael	1975	AUT	1:50.57	0.00
2	19	532431	MILLER Bode	1977	USA	1:50.95	4.54
3	13	102899	OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel	1984	CAN	1:51.11	6.45
4	15	533131	SULLIVAN Marco	1980	USA	1:51.25	8.12
5	9	102263	GUAY Erik	1981	CAN	1:51.33	9.07
6	17	50753	KROELL Klaus	1980	AUT	1:51.39	9.79
7	52	534939	FISHER Erik	1985	USA	1:51.90	15.88
8	14	510767	HOFFMANN Ambrosi	1977	SUI	1:51.97	16.71
9	29	533866	NYMAN Steven	1982	USA	1:51.98	16.83
10	6	534567	LANNING T.J.	1984	USA	1:52.09	18.15
11	7	191740	CLAREY Johan	1981	FRA	1:52.22	19.70
12	22	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI	1:52.24	19.94
13	49	102961	DIXON Robbie	1985	CAN	1:52.31	20.77
14	24	501076	OLSSON Hans	1984	SWE	1:52.42	22.09
15	28	532490	MACARTNEY Scott	1978	USA	1:52.54	23.52
16	23	51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT	1:52.55	23.64
17	11	50423	MAIER Hermann	1972	AUT	1:52.61	24.35
18	32	500150	JAERBYN Patrik	1969	SWE	1:52.69	25.31
19	20	292455	FILL Peter	1982	ITA	1:52.70	25.43
20	36	192932	FAYED Guillermo	1985	FRA	1:52.74	25.91
21	1	50858	STREITBERGER Georg	1981	AUT	1:52.83	26.98
22	2	102873	KUCERA John	1984	CAN	1:52.84	27.10
23	8	292514	HEEL Werner	1982	ITA	1:52.92	28.05
24	12	560332	JERMAN Andrej	1978	SLO	1:52.98	28.77
25	42	50831	GRAGGABER Thomas	1981	AUT	1:52.99	28.89
26	40	561067	PERKO Rok	1985	SLO	1:53.02	29.25
27	10	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:53.09	30.08
28	39	530939	WEIBRECHT Andrew	1986	USA	1:53.14	30.68
29	41	290998	STAUDACHER Patrick	1980	ITA	1:53.29	32.47
30	25	191116	DALCIN Pierre-Emmanuel	1977	FRA	1:53.47	34.62
31	30	510747	GRUENENFELDER Tobias	1977	SUI	1:53.48	34.74
31	27	50451	GRUBER Christoph	1976	AUT	1:53.48	34.74
33	33	510890	ZURBRIGGEN Silvan	1981	SUI	1:53.51	35.10
34	16	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	1:53.68	37.13
35	47	421400	MYHRE Lars Elton	1984	NOR	1:53.81	38.68
36	5	191591	BERTRAND Yannick	1980	FRA	1:53.88	39.52
37	56	201900	WAGNER Hannes	1986	GER	1:53.93	40.11
38	44	293236	HOFER Elmar	1985	ITA	1:54.02	41.19
39	3	192746	THEAUX Adrien	1984	FRA	1:54.17	42.98
40	34	50761	ALSTER Christoph	1980	AUT	1:54.18	43.10
41	4	191964	POISSON David	1982	FRA	1:54.23	43.69
42	21	350032	BUECHEL Marco	1971	LIE	1:54.40	45.72
43	43	560447	SPORN Andrej	1981	SLO	1:54.77	50.14
44	54	201987	STRODL Andreas	1987	GER	1:54.89	51.57
45	37	292291	THANEI Stefan	1981	ITA	1:54.93	52.05
46	53	561006	GLEBOV Alek	1983	SLO	1:55.01	53.01
47	48	40171	BRANCH Craig	1977	AUS	1:55.08	53.84
47	26	293006	INNERHOFER Christof	1984	ITA	1:55.08	53.84
49	51	201542	STRODL Peter	1982	GER	1:55.10	54.08
50	35	50919	STRUGER Peter	1982	AUT	1:55.12	54.32
51	31	380260	KOSTELIC Ivica	1979	CRO	1:55.43	58.02
52	45	150421	ZAHROBSKY Petr	1980	CZE	1:55.50	58.86
53	55	380298	SIROKI Tin	1987	CRO	1:55.99	64.70
54	46	293550	MARSAGLIA Matteo	1985	ITA	1:56.06	65.54
55	38	380292	ZRNCIC-DIM Natko	1986	CRO	1:56.81	74.49
56	57	60159	VAN BUYNDER Frederik	1988	BEL	2:03.29	151.85

Did not finish 1st run: KEPPLER Stephan (GER)