Hop on the train, it's time to head for Wengen

By Published On: January 10th, 2008Comments Off on Hop on the train, it's time to head for Wengen

Wengen, Switzerland, the site of the men’s World Cup races this weekend, is one special place.
    Tops on the reasons why list is the train. One either rides the train or doesn’t go to Wengen. Second on the list is the Eiger, a 13,025-foot towering monolith of rock that forms a ninth of the Jungfrau range in the Northern Swiss Bernese Oberland range. Third is the Lauberhorn, the oldest — since 1930 — and longest — 2.65 miles  — downhill race of the World Cup circuit.
WENGEN, SWITZERLAND,
the site of the men’s World Cup races this weekend, is one special place.
    Tops on the reasons why list is the train. One either rides the train or doesn’t go to Wengen. Second on the list is the Eiger, a 13,025-foot towering monolith of rock that forms a ninth of the Jungfrau range in the Northern Swiss Bernese Oberland range. Third is the Lauberhorn, the oldest — since 1930 — and longest — 2.65 miles  — downhill race of the World Cup circuit.
    Being the oldest, the Lauberhorn has been "grandfathered" in that it has features that could not be allowed on a course being approved for the first time today. The Hundschopf, a 41-degree drop, is entered from a passageway barely five meters wide and corralled by nothing but rock and net. The Water Station sends skier beneath a stone railroad bridge.
    Features of the course are many, and several are named for having brought grief to those who race it. Canadian Corner, Austrian Hole, Minsch-Kante and the freshly re-named Kernen-S, all reflect crashes by competitors on this historic course.
This season’s downhill has already been postponed a day by predictions of an incoming storm. The slalom and downhill flipped with a super combined still set for Friday, the slalom Saturday and the downhill Sunday.
    The last three combineds have gone to Austrians with successes already this season. Mario Matt won last season’s contest and was second in GS at Beaver Creek and first in slalom at Adelboden last weekend. Benjamin Raich won the Lauberhorn combined in 2006 and 2005. He leads the World Cup overall standings with a win and three seconds in three disciplines to his credit this season.
    The slalom hill at Wengen traditionally sends skiers on one side of a barn for the first run, the other side in the second. Italian Giorgio Rocca won the slalom in 2006, as well as in  2003, and Raich has won the race three times —  1999, 2001 and 2004. Ivica Kostelic also has had success at Wengen, winning the slalom in 2002 and earning podiums in the three consecutive season following that. So far this season no male has won two slaloms and only Manfred Moelgg, Felix Neureuther and Raich have made two slalom podiums. If the expected storm develops, the surface will be relatively soft, favoring those with early start numbers.
    But it is the downhill that fills those trains up from the valley. The winners create a Who’s Who of racing. Karl Molitor, Toni Sailer, Karl Schranz, Jean-Claude Killy, Franz Klammer, Marc Girardelli. In the last 18 years only Stephen Eberharter won the downhill two times. Bode Miller has a chance to match that, having won last season and putting down the fastest training time this week.
    The other contenders include one other with a chance to win his second Lauberhorn downhill trophy, Michael Walchhofer. He’s won twice this season, at Beaver Creek and Val Gardena, but fell well back in the finish order at Bormio with a critical mid-course error.
    Swiss Didier Cuche has three downhill podiums this season and was second on the hill last season. Andreas Buder has two podiums this season and could threaten. Marco Buechel won the first training run, Werner Heel the second and Miller the third. The U.S. Ski Team part of the American entries include Steve Nyman, Marco Sullivan and Scott Macartney, and all of them have been on a downhill podium this season. With a course that has provided the U.S. with wins before — Bill Johnson, Kyle Rasmussen, Daron Rahlves and Miller — nothing is out of the question.
    The women will be in Maribor, Slovenia, for a Saturday GS and Sunday slalom. That should favor Anja Paerson as she has won seven of the past eight races contested on the Pohorje (GS) and Radvanje (slalom) race courses. But Maribor has had a devil of time in recent years getting races in. It’s been two years since the hills were tested by the World Cup women and a lot has changed since then.
    Marlies Schild decimated the slalom competition last season while Nicole Hosp and Tanja Poutiainen shot it out for the GS title. This season Marbor is more likely to see challengers coming from last season’s best-ranked skiers than from any veteran with a good history at the site.
    That means Denise Karbon in GS and anyone who can keep pace with her. So far that would mean Austrians Elisabeth Goergl and Kathrin Zettel, Poutiainen and Julia Mancuso. Karbon has won all four GS’s contested. Georgl and Mancuso each have two podiums. Zettel has been third and fourth in four chances.
    In slalom, Schild took the first step in recovering from a pair of DNFs with her third win at Spindleruv Myln last weekend. Hosp has put in three podiums, Italy’s Chaira Costazza has a couple of podiums, Poutainen has two podiums and there are a handful of others with a couple of top-five showings: Therese Borssen, Ana Jelusic, Maria Riesch, Sarka Zahrobska and Veronika Zuzulova, each representing different countries.
Should be an interesting weekend at Maribor.

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About the Author: Pete Rugh