Walchhofer wins Cup DH at Bormio, Bode eighth, Nyman 11th

The farewell tour of Herr Michael Walchhofer is turning into a victory lap.

The 35 year old Austrian downhill ace cut the third notch of the season in his belt today (Dec. 29), upping his career win mark to 18 and giving him his third win on the treacherous Stelvio course at Bormio, Italy. The nastiness of the bone rattling and relentless Stelvio was on full display as nine of the world’s best skiers, including Walchhofer teammates and contenders Klaus Kroell and Mario Scheiber, failed to complete the two mile run at the high Italian resort.

Two of the season’s downhill sensations held second and third with Val Gardena winner Silvan Zurbriggen in second and Christof Innerhofer, a winner at Bormio in ’08, finishing third.

“Now I can say good-bye to the Stelvio,” Walchhofer told the
Austrian press, after becoming the first man to win three World Cup DH’s
at the site. “I was not too confident in the start. I did not feel so
good in training so I told myself, ‘This is your last time here, just
enjoy it while it lasts.’ It was the key to my victory.” Narrow though
it was at .08 of a second.

Bode Miller, a three time winner (including World Championships) at Bormio, finished eighth, 1.26 seconds off the pace while Steven Nyman just missed the top 10, tying for 11th. Travis Ganong continued a string of strong rookie results in 20th, matching his career best and adding DH to his previous super G successes.

The Canadians had Manny Osborne-Paradis in 13th and Jan Hudec 18th with Robbie Dixon one of the nine DNF’s.

“Bode had a pretty good run,” said U.S. coach Sasha Rearick. “He had a ski hook-up before San Pedro (referring to a section of the course near his vantage point) and had to release. I heard he leaned in a bit lower down, but I haven’t had a chance to see that yet.”

The coach was more than pleased about the overall team showing. “We only had three guys in the race and all of them were top 20,” he said. Marco Sullivan crashed in training yesterday and was in the hospital for observation of a head injury. Andrew Weibrecht is nursing a dislocated left shoulder sustained just before Christmas while training slalom.

“It was a huge step for Steven Nyman,” the coach said. “He’s been making small steps every week and this week he really made a big step.”

“I was pretty psyched starting first,” said Nyman, “because all last year I never drew in the top seven, so I never had the chance to have a clean course so I said, ‘yeah, I can see what I need to do’.”

He said he felt training at Bormio he had “figured out a lot of stuff, just how to drive down the course. I can see what I need to do, I just haven’t always executed.”

Nyman said the atmosphere of Bormio is unique to the tour. He called it “the most strenuous race on the tour,” and said there was a lot of tension among the racers.

Ganong said he felt the course played into that tension. “This hill is crazy,” he said. “It’s a real deal downhill. It’s bumpy, fast, icy, dark. It’s tough skiing top to bottom.”

“Turns out,” he said, “I really like it.” And now he said he’ll try to build on a season already deemed successful by rookie standards. “I’m fired up to score my first World Cup points in downhill. Hopefully we build into Wengen, Kitzbuehel and Chamonix. … and then into Worlds.”

Walchhofer and Ganong photos by GEPA

The SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Men’s World Cup Downhill, Bormio, Italy, Dec. 29, 2010
Equipment
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Walchhofer, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Zurbriggen, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol
3 Innerhofer, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
4 Kueng, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
5 Streitberger, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
6 Sporn, Elan//Elan
7 Theaux, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
8 Miller, Head/Head/Head
9 Keppler, Head/Head/Head
10 Baumann, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

Men’s World Cup downhill, Bormio, Italy, Dec. 29, 2010. … It is the 13th race of the men’s 38 race 2010-2011 World Cup schedule and the 11th held. …It is the fourth of  nine downhills on the schedule and the third held. … It is the 51st World Cup race hosted at Bormio and the 22nd downhill. … Bormio has also hosted two World Championships in ’85 and ’05. … Winning margin is .08. … top five skiers are within the same second.

It is the 18th career World Cup win for Michael Walchhofer. … his 13th in DH. … and his third in DH at Bormio. … It is his third win of the season and second in DH.

It is the 11th career World Cup podium for Silvan Zurbriggen, just his second in the DH, the other a win at Val Gardena earlier this month. … He has had top ten finishes in seven of the eight races he has completed this season.

It is the fourth career World Cup podium for Christoph Innerhofer, all of them coming in the last year and a day. … His lone win came in this race last season. … three of his four podiums have come in Italy.

It was the 131st top eight result for Bode Miller. … The result matches his best of the season from the Lake Louise DH Nov. 27. … Steven Nyman matches his ninth best career placing. … It is his best result of four at Bormio. … It is his best finish of the season. … Manuel Osborne-Paradis matches his 24th best career Cup placing. … and ties his second best mark at Bormio. … The finish also ties his second best result of the season. … Jan Hudec matches his 16th best career placing. … It is his second score of the season after an 11th in DH at Lake Louise. … Travis Ganong matches his career best result and scores his first DH points. … All three of his scoring finishes have come this calendar year starting with SG at Kvitfjell last March.

Zurbriggen claims the lead of the men’s World Cup overall standings by a single point over Walchhofer 395-394. … Ted Ligety (did not race) is in third place with 321. … Osborne-Paradis is the top Canadian overall in 24th place with 116pts. … Walchhofer holds the lead in the DH standings 245-230 over Zurbriggen. … Aksel Lund Svindal (11th in race) is third in the DH standings with 109pts. … Austria leads the men’s Nations Cup 1981-1427 over Switzerland. … France is third at 900pts. … The U.S. is sixth with 537pts and Canada seventh with 534.