Wengen: Classic Miller tames the Lauberhorn

By Published On: January 13th, 2007Comments Off on Wengen: Classic Miller tames the Lauberhorn

Bode Miller blazed through the longest downhill on the World Cup tour Saturday, leading at every checkpoint and hitting nearly 90 mph at one stretch to capture the 77th Lauberhorn, succeeding former teammate and last year's winner, Daron Rahlves. It's Miller's 25th World Cup victory, putting him two behind American great Phil Mahre. Miller won his fourth race of the season — and his first-ever European World Cup downhill win — with Didier Cuche second and Peter Fill third.
WENGEN, Switzerland — Bode Miller blazed through the longest downhill on the World Cup tour Saturday, leading at every checkpoint and hitting nearly 90 mph at one stretch to capture the 77th Lauberhorn, succeeding former teammate and last year's winner, Daron Rahlves. It's Miller's 25th World Cup victory, putting him two behind American great Phil Mahre.
    Miller won his fourth race of the season — and his first-ever European World Cup downhill win — in 2 minutes, 28.89 seconds, crashing across the fiinish line on the relentless Wengen course. Switzerland's Didier Cuche was second, a whopping 0.65 seconds behind, and Italy's Peter Fill rounded out the podium, 1.47 seconds off the winning time.
    Defending World Cup downhill champion Michael Walchhofer, in bob No. 30, skied out to secure the win for the American.    
    Miller's win also ended a strange streak for U.S. skiers on the Lauberhorn. The Americans had waited 11 years between each downhill victory here before now.
    'It's tough. I knew I was pretty much going to crash in the finish if I skied the last 'S' like I wanted to,'' Miller said. ''I was pretty prepared for it.
    ''When you ski for 2 minutes, 30 seconds before that and you don't know how far you're going to jump, well, let's say I didn't have it in my head I was going to land on my feet.''
    At 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles), the Lauberhorn is the longest downhill on the World Cup circuit and also one of the most physically demanding slopes.
    The final ''S'' turn just before the finish line is a spectacularly difficult set of sharp curves. Skiers then end their run with a huge jump and land just meters before the finish line.
    Miller nailed the ''S'' section but appeared to have no strength left in his legs when he landed the jump, slumping to the ground and sliding across the finish line.
    He wasn't the only skier to fall across the finish. Austria's Fritz Strobl, the 2002 Olympic champion, and Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin of France also had scary crashes there.
   Walchhofer didn't make it near the bottom. He crashed near the top of the course, scraping along the nets for about 40 meters. The Austrian stumbled out of the starting hut after hitting his skis together. Then just 18 seconds into his run, he caught a ski in the safety netting and tumbled.
    Walchhofer was bruised and battered, and his elbow was sore, Austrian coach Toni Giger said. His participation in Sunday's super-combi is uncertain.
    Teammate Christoph Gruber complained of pain in his right knee following his seventh-place finish. He will be examined in Austria.   
    Cuche’s strong showing in front of his home fans maintained the recent upturn in performances by Switzerland’s skiers.
    “I was really nervous at the start and it was very emotional to be on the podium when the best I’ve ever managed before here was eighth,” said Cuche. “It’s certainly the best of all my second-place finishes this year. Bode was just out of reach though — it was one of his incredible race days where you cannot beat him. I’m sorry for Walchhofer but pleased that he didn’t get seriously injured. It’s good to increase my lead in the downhill standings but the season is still long.”
    The carnage started early in Saturday's race. Roland Fischnaller of Italy, the second skier out of the starting hut, crashed into the safety nets at the ''Austrian Hole,'' a deep dip in the course. He was taken off the hill by sled with torn right knee ligaments, organizers said.
    Canadian Vincent Lavoie suffered a concussion in a crash. In all, 11 competitors failed to finish. Italy's Peter Fill, who placed third, crossed the finish line at high speed and crashed into the safety padding when he tried to stop.  
    The final ''S'' turn has been the site of gruesome accidents over the years. In 1991, Austrian rookie Gernot Reinstadler died from massive internal injuries after crashing there. Adrien Duvillard of France suffered a serious head trauma in 1997 after hitting the fencing at more than 90 kph (55 mph).
    It marked Miller's second downhill win of the season, after his triumph at Beaver Creek, Colorado.
    American Steven Nyman was 11th, Ted Ligety 31st, Scott Macartney 36th, JJ Johnson 37th and T.J. Lanning 47th. Marco Sullivan did not finish.

Risky business
    “I took a huge amount of risk in some places and made it stick, so I feel good about that,” Miller said in the finish area. Temperatures were in the mid-30s and the strong sun softened the track; 11 skiers — a high number for a downhill — failed to finish their run.
    He tore out of the start and rolled down the 4.48 km course like an avalanche, gathering steam all the way. He was .32 ahead at the first interval, .43 at the second, then .56, .89 — hitting 144.4 kph (89.73 mph) through a speed trap, and finally 1.47 ahead when he crashed across the finish line.
    “I watched Daron win here last year and was pretty impressed — the way he skied and his intensity. After the training run [Thursday — where Cuche led and Miller was 17th] I knew I would have a hard time with it. It’s hard physically and hard mentally,” Miller said.
    “When I kicked out of the gate, I had the full intention of winning every section. I pushed everything the whole way down. To make the finish as I did [shaving nearly 1.5 seconds off the leader’s time] was awesome,” he said.
    Miller skied 26th and in a bizarre episode, Austrian champion Walchhofer, running 30th and the last serious challenger for him, stumbled out of the gate and skied off-course after dislodging the timing equipment and causing a brief delay.
    The sheer length of the course is demanding, Miller explained, but when the snow is soft — so soft Friday’s race was canceled — and the sun is shining, it becomes even tougher. And then there are the sporadic places where it’s icy in the shade, he said.
    “It’s hard, how physically tiring the course is. You ski back on your tails and you use more strength, and when you go from the sun to the shade, you also move to the back of the ski and that’s tiring,” Miller told reporters. “They did a great job to get this race off with this little snow … and I’m pretty happy they did.”
    He crashed at the end of the track where there is a jump before the finish area. Saturday, he said, “I skied that straighter. I carried a huge amount of speed to the finish. &hellip
;
    “All the parts I needed to do well I did well in,” he said. “I’ve been close to winning here but have missed it, in my mind, for mental errors. It’s unbelievably taxing. You just have to overpower your body and give it a try [in the final stretch]. You’re absolutely getting bad messages from your body to not make any more turns. Your body is saying ‘Go straight.’ … I was gonna come off that last jump and go straight for the finish and then get on my butt [to slow down] as fast as I could.”
    “It was impressive, the way he went after it,” said head coach Phil McNichol. “Bode came out of the start and he was rolling right away. He held a clinic on how to ski the Lauberhorn.”
    The triumph was his fourth in downhill, his first in any venue outside of North America. Mahre, the all-time winningest U.S. skier, had 27 victories — all in slalom, giant slalom and combined — before retiring in 1984.
    “Bode did a fantastic job all through the top part and then the super G turns in the middle are where he must’ve been flying. Then he skied very aggressively on the bottom, especially for the bottom of a 2:30 downhill. He just laid one down; it was fantastic,” said men's DH head coach Chris Brigham.

Miller in overall hunt
    “And he’s skiing good slalom, and he’s fired up, so that could mean a big bounce back tomorrow for combined. He’s definitely fired up, though, with the overall [points race] a tight game with him.”
    Miller, the 2005 overall champion, stands third overall with 640 points; he leads the super G points. Cuche is second overall at 651 and Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal, who was eighth in the Lauberhorn race, leads with 671.
    Brigham said he was highly impressed by Nyman’s run. “It was fantastic for Steven — his second time here, and he struggled in the training run the others day, but he really took care of business today,” the coach said.

— Patrick Lang, USSA and The Associated Press contributed to this report


THE SCOOP
By Hank McKee 

Equipment
Men's downhill, Wengen, Switzerland, Jan. 13, 2007
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Miller, Head/Head/Tyrolia
2 Cuche, Head/Head/Tyrolia
3 Fill, Dynastar/Lange/Look
4 Hoffmann, Stoeckli/Atomic/Atomic
5 Buechel, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
6 Kroell, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
7 Gruber, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
8 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
9 Maier, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
10 Dalcin, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

Men's downhill, Wengen, Switzerland, Jan. 13, 2007. … It is the 77th annual Lauberhornrennen. … At 4,455 meters (2.8 miles) it is the longest venue on the World Cup circuit. … It is the 19th race of the men's 38-race schedule. … The sixth of 11 scheduled downhills.
    It is the 25th career World Cup win for Bode Miller. … His fourth in DH. … It is his fourth win of the season. … Second in DH after Beaver Creek Dec. 1. … Miller is second on the all-time U.S. win list behind Phil Mahre's 27 wins. … It is the fourth U.S. World Cup DH win at Wengen. … Kyle Rasmussen won in 1995, Bill Johnson in 1984 and Daron Rahlves in 2006. … Phil Mahre won a slalom at Wengen in 1982. … Buddy Werner won the Lauberhorn trophy for a combined win in 1958, predating the World Cup. … It is the fourth career podium for Miller at Wengen, having been third in DH in 2005 and second in combined in both 2002 and 2003. … It is the eighth win of the season for the U.S. team.
    It is the 27th career podium for Didier Cuche. … His 11th in DH. … It is the fourth time he has finished second in DH this season. … It is the largest second-place margin of his season. … Cuche's previous-best result in DH at Wengen is eighth from 2000. … Bruno Kernen was the last Swiss to win the Lauberhorn DH in 2003.
    It is the seventh career podium for Peter Fill. … The fourth in DH. … It is his fourth podium of the season. … Third in DH. … It is the second podium for Fill at Wengen, having placed third in combined in 2006. … Italians have not won the Lauberhorn DH since Kristian Ghedina in 1997.
    It is the sixth-best career result for Steven Nyman. … Fourth-best in DH. … It is his fourth-best result of the season and third-best in DH. … It is his first scoring result in the Wengen DH. … It is the 36th career top-20 placing for Erik Guay. … His sixth of the season. … It is his best career result at Wengen. … It is the 20th career scoring result for John Kucera. … His ninth of the season. … It is his best DH result at Wengen. … It is the 14th career scoring result for Manuel Osborn-Kucera. … Twenty-fourth place bests his career best at Wengen by two placings. … It is the 33rd career scoring result for Francois Bourque. … Just the eighth in DH. … Ted Ligety was just out of the points, finishing 31st.
    Aksel Lund Svindal (eighth in race) maintains the lead in the World Cup overall standings, 671-651 over Cuche. … Miller is third overall at 640. … Cuche leads the downhill standings 410-293 over Marco Buechel (fifth in race) with Michael Walchhofer (DNF) third at 286. … Peter Fill is fourth at 282 and Miller fifth at 270. … Winning margin is .65. … Top two skiers are within a second. … top eight within two seconds. … Head skis collected four of the top six placings.

Wengen men's World Cup downhill results

< td class="ir_21" align="right" style="padding-right: 7px"> 102271

Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Total Time FIS Points
 1  26  532431 MILLER Bode  1977  USA   2:28.89  0.00
 2  27  510030 CUCHE Didier  1974  SUI   2:29.54  5.89
 3  25  292455 FILL Peter  1982  ITA   2:30.36  13.33
 4  13  510767 HOFFMANN Ambrosi  1977  SUI   2:30.45  14.14
 5  29  350032 BUECHEL Marco  1971  LIE   2:30.50  14.60
 6  19  50753 KROELL Klaus  1980  AUT   2:30.59  15.41
 7  15  50451 GRUBER Christoph  1976  AUT   2:30.62  15.69
 8  20  421328 SVINDAL Aksel Lund  1982  NOR   2:30.75  16.86
 9  23  50423 MAIER Hermann  1972  AUT   2:30.95  18.68
 10  5  191116 DALCIN Pierre-Emmanuel  1977  FRA   2:31.01  19.22
 11  21  533866 NYMAN Steven  1982  USA   2:31.14  20.40
 12  31  50625 RAICH Benjamin  1978  AUT   2:31.39  22.67
 13  28  50182 STROBL Fritz  1972  AUT   2:31.44  23.12
 14  24  510478 KERNEN Bruno  1972  SUI   2:31.61  24.66
 15  10  560332 JERMAN Andrej  1978  SLO   2:31.64  24.93
 16  36  500150 JAERBYN Patrik  1969  SWE   2:31.65  25.03
 17  49  510165 HOFER Ben
i
 
1978  SUI   2:31.66  25.12
 18  18  102263 GUAY Erik  1981  CAN   2:31.69  25.39
 19  9  291641 SULZENBACHER Kurt  1976  ITA   2:31.71  25.57
 20  8  290998 STAUDACHER Patrick  1980  ITA   2:31.81  26.48
 21  12  50695 BUDER Andreas  1979  AUT   2:31.94  27.65
 22  45  102873 KUCERA John  1984  CAN   2:32.03  28.47
 23  7  191591 BERTRAND Yannick  1980  FRA   2:32.16  29.65
 24  17  102899 OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel  1984  CAN   2:32.44  32.19
 25  44  510890 ZURBRIGGEN Silvan  1981  SUI   2:32.53  33.00
 26  1  201606 KEPPLER Stephan  1983  GER   2:32.66  34.18
 27  32  102814 BOURQUE Francois  1984  CAN   2:32.94  36.72
 28  3  220228 MICKEL Finlay  1977  GBR   2:32.96  36.90
 29  39  191415 BOTTOLLIER-LASQUIN Marc  1979  FRA   2:33.05  37.72
 30  35  291399 GIRARDI Walter  1976  ITA   2:33.30  39.99
 31  33  534562 LIGETY Ted  1984  USA   2:33.43  41.16
 32  53 HUDEC Jan  1981  CAN   2:33.82  44.70
 33  34  192746 THEAUX Adrien  1984  FRA   2:33.88  45.24
 34  42  291116 FATTORI Alessandro  1973  ITA   2:34.02  46.51
 35  50  510969 BONETTI Michael  1982  SUI   2:34.09  47.15
 36  4  532490 MACARTNEY Scott  1978  USA   2:34.11  47.33
 37  41  532173 JOHNSON Justin J  1977  USA   2:34.59  51.68
 38  46  501076 OLSSON Hans  1984  SWE   2:34.73  52.95
 39  43  293006 INNERHOFER Christof  1984  ITA   2:34.78  53.41
 40  59  191462 PAQUIN Pierre  1979  FRA   2:34.80  53.59
 41  14  50833 GRUGGER Hans  1981  AUT   2:34.85  54.04
 42  64  421400 MYHRE Lars Elton  1984  NOR   2:34.97  55.13
 43  6  510747 GRUENENFELDER Tobias  1977  SUI   2:35.00  55.40
 44  40  561067 PERKO Rok  1985  SLO   2:35.06  55.94
 45  54  191911 NOCENTI Cyril  1982  FRA   2:35.14  56.67
 46  52  510498 ZUEGER Cornel  1981  SUI   2:35.20  57.21
 47  63  534567 LANNING Thomas (tj)  1984  USA   2:35.33  58.39
 48  47  201439 STEHLE Johannes  1981  GER   2:35.61  60.93
 49  48  191740 CLAREY Johan  1981  FRA   2:35.64  61.20
 50  51  293141 VARETTONI Silvano  1984  ITA   2:36.58  69.73
 51  60  380292 ZRNCIC-DIM Natko  1986  CRO   2:36.67  70.54
 52  65  480736 HOROSHILOV Alexandr  1984  RUS   2:36.74  71.18
 53  16  510727 DEFAGO Didier  1977  SUI   2:37.36  76.80
 54  66  410252 BRIDGWATER Mark  1985  NZE   2:39.89  99.74

Did not start 1st run:
BANK Ondrej (CZE)

Did not finish 1st run:
ZAGORSKI Wojciech (POL), GAYME Maui (CHI), LAVOIE Vincent (CAN), RAINER Niklas (SWE), EISATH Florian (ITA), STREITBERGER Georg (AUT), BAUMANN Romed (AUT), WALCHHOFER Michael (AUT), SCHEIBER Mario (AUT), SULLIVAN Marco (USA), FISCHNALLER Roland (ITA)

Disqualified 1st run:
VON HOHENLOHE Hubertus (MEX), POISSON David (FRA)


World Cup downhill standings
(After 6 of 11 races)
1. Didier Cuche, Switzerland, 410.
2. Marco Buechel, Liechtenstein, 293.
3. Michael Walchhofer, Austria, 286.
4. Peter Fill, Italy, 282.
5. Bode Miller, United States, 270.
6. Steven Nyman, United States, 208.
7. Mario Scheiber, Austria, 171.
8. Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 148.
9. Andrej Jerman, Slovenia, 146.
(tie) Fritz Strobl, Austria, 146.
11. Ambrosi Hoffmann, Switzerland, 136.
(tie) Manuel Osborne-Paradis, Canada, 136.
13. Bruno Kernen, Switzerland, 129.
14. Klaus Kroell, Austria, 127.
15. Marco Sullivan, United States, 123.
16. Hermann Maier, Austria, 120.

World Cup overall standings
(After 19 of 38 races)

1. Aksel Lund Svindal, Norway, 671 points.
2. Didier Cuche, Switzerland, 651.
3. Bode Miller, United States, 640.
4. Peter Fill, Italy, 524.
5. Benjamin Raich, Austria, 480.
6. Kalle Palander, Finland, 387.
7. Marco Buechel, Liechtenstein, 371.
8. Michael Walchhofer, Austria, 348.
9. Hermann Maier, Austria, 316.
10. Mario Scheiber, Austria, 308.
11. Ted Ligety, United States, 292.
12. Steven Nyman, United States, 284.
(tie) John Kucera, Canada, 284.
14. Didier Defago, Switzerland, 283.
15. Markus Larsson, Sweden, 250.

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