Reichelt crashes Swiss party in Wengen

WENGEN, Switzerland — It was a long time coming. Hannes Reichelt had finished on the podium four times in Wengen — three times the runner-up. On Sunday, the Austrian finally climbed to the top step, claiming his first career victory on the Lauberhorn.

The weather couldn’t have been much better for a downhill race, bluebird conditions and little if any wind. It had been an ominous few days leading up to the Lauberhorn downhill with upwards of 40 centimeters of snow falling on the track — as seen during Saturday’s slalom. Earlier in the week, organizers were quick to shift the downhill to Sunday, which proved to be the right call; however, with all the fresh snow, conditions remained soft.

Reichelt, running 19th, came through with the fastest full-length time of 2 minutes, 36.14 seconds to the dismay of the Swiss fans who had enjoyed seeing their countrymen hold the top two spots. First Carlo Janka and then Beat Feuz laid down impressive times. The Swiss are no strangers to success on the Lauberhorn. They’ve won four of the previous six downhills on the famed race hill. This year, they were just shy, as Feuz and Janka hung on to round out the podium in second and third and Patrick Kueng finished fourth.

Reichelt’s win, for Austria, is a weight off the nation’s shoulders. Austria hadn’t landed a victory in downhill yet this season. The fans and the media had become impatient, and the victory provides some needed momentum heading into next week’s Hahnenkamm races in Kitzbuehel.

“It feels really great to get that top spot on the podium in Wengen,” said Reichelt. “The last few years, I missed the victory here sometimes very closely, so I’m really happy to be here at the top of the podium.”

The winner of the race rarely complains about course conditions. Those who took a lower line learned the hard way that the snow was soft in spots. Reichelt obviously managed it better than anyone else.

“The conditions were really good because the snowfall in recent days was very big, so respect to the guys here for making the race come together,” he said.

Meanwhile, Janka was disappointed that the Swiss got knocked back to second and third. The 28-year-old has really been the biggest story of the week from Wengen, with his first World Cup victory since 2011 on Friday and now a podium in the downhill. But the Swiss racer, who once swept the races in Beaver Creek, clearly was gunning for the top spot today.

“The soft conditions were not a big problem. My problem today was … a near-DNF, so I have to be happy that I’m still on the podium,” Janka said. “The skiing for sure was OK for me this week. I hope I can take it with me to Kitzbuehel, but it’s a different slope next week.”

For Feuz, who won this race in 2012, there is much satisfaction and pride to do well on home snow.

“It is true: Here in Switzerland, the Swiss racers are always strong,” Feuz said through the aid of a translator. “It’s perhaps also a thank you to the fans and the organizer who fulfill the wishes of the athletes and make us very comfortable and happy.”

The Americans didn’t fare quite as well in the soft conditions. Steven Nyman, who was fighting off a stomach bug all week, was able to regain some energy in time for the race, but he was skiing at something less than 100 percent, finishing 14th.

“I was really happy they moved the race back to Sunday,” said Nyman. “I’m amazed we ran the full thing today. My legs were toast by the Ziel-S (near the bottom). I lost a lot of time there, but I’m happy with my run overall.”

Nyman never had a chance to train the top part of the course this week. Due to illness, he simply kicked out of the start on Tuesday to assure eligibility for the race — and on Thursday, training was shortened to the combined start house. So he certainly had less time on the hill than his competitors.

Marco Sullivan, who ran fourth, radioed up to Nyman saying, “Stay in the track,” because the snow was soft and bally from the snowcat passing through. It was advice Nyman said was helpful during his run. Sullivan finished well back in 44th after experiencing some of that fresh snow first-hand.

Similarly, Travis Ganong, who’s never had much success in Wengen, was also challenged by the conditions and skied to 31st overall.

“I just didn’t have a very good run,” said Ganong. “I felt good in places. I just kept getting dragged low into the soft snow. There was so much powder and soft snow on the low line. It just kills your speed. I felt like my skiing was pretty good. I just tactically didn’t adjust enough for this really soft snow.”

A bright spot for the Americans was young gun Jared Goldberg finishing in the points in 23rd, and Canadian fans were saved from tears by Ben Thomsen’s 29th-place finish from bib 49.

The men’s World Cup now moves to Kitzbuehel, Austria, for a week of racing, as downhill training runs on the famed Hahnenkamm start on Jan. 20.

See more photos from today’s race here.

The Scoop

By Hank McKee

1. Reichelt, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
2. Feuz, Head/Head/Head
3. Janka, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
4. Kueng, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
5. Jansrud, Head/Head/Head
6. Fayed, Head/Head/Head
7. Stechert, Head/Head/Head
8. Viletta, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
9. Bank, Nordica/Nordica/
10. Defago, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol

Men’s World Cup downhill, Wengen, Switzerland, Jan. 18, 2015:

• It is the focal race of the 85^th annual Lauberhorn … the 20^th race of the men’s 35 race World Cup calendar, the fifth of 10 scheduled downhills. … The race was pushed back one day by weather concerns.
• It is the ninth career World Cup win for Hannes Reichelt … his third in downhill. … It is his first win, but fourth podium in DH at Wengen. … He is the first Austrian to win the Lauberhorn DH since Klaus Kroell in 2011. … It is his second win of the season having also claimed the Beaver Creek super G Dec. 6.
• It is the slowest Lauberhorn downhill since 1976 when Franz Klammer won in 2:40.36. … The winning margin is .12 of a second. … Top four skiers are within the same second … top 16 within two seconds.
• It is the 17^th career World Cup podium for Beat Feuz. … His third at Wengen (2 DH, 1 Combined). … It is his second podium of the season, he was also second in DH at Beaver Creek Dec. 5.
• It is the 22^nd career World Cup podium for Carlo Janka … his 11^th at Wengen. … His only two podiums this season have come at Wengen where he also placed first in combined Jan. 16.
• The last three Swiss to win all made strong bids to win again: Feuz (’12), Janka (’10), Kueng (’14).
• It is the third best career finish at Wengen for Steven Nyman and his third best finish of the season. … It is the eighth career scoring finish for Jared Goldberg and his fourth scored at Wengen.
• Marcel Hirscher (did not race) maintains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 836-669 over Kjetil Jansrud (fifth in race). …Fritz Dopfer (did not race) and Felix Neureuther are third with 542pts each. … Ted Ligety (did not race) is eighth with 420pts. … Manuel Osborne-Paradis (DNF in race) leads the Canadians overall in 26^th place with 153pts. … Jansrud leads the downhill standings 339-232 over Beat Feuz and Dominik Paris (19^th in race) who are tied for second. … Steven Nyman is sixth and Travis Ganong (31^st in race) seventh in the downhill standings.
• Austria leads the men’s Nations Cup 2798-1971 over France. … Italy is third with 1791pts. … Switzerland leads the downhill standings 835-756 over Austria.

Results