Wengen: Surviving the Kernen-S key to victory

By Published On: January 11th, 2008Comments Off on Wengen: Surviving the Kernen-S key to victory

The Kernan-S is where the race is won or lost. Skiers play with fire, going outside of the blue lines and dangerously close to the fencing, making the difference between shaving time or losing more than the race. Marc Berthod was another victim in today’s combined, and would not be the last.
     Miller won Thursday's training run by 1.77 seconds, in a third TR that was absent of any of the Swiss contenders and several of the Austrians. He aced his DH run finishing 4th, bumping Nyman to 5th and learning a valuable lesson for the main event Sunday.
    “There were some areas of the course that I had to see if I could push it,” he said, “and I learned where I can. In the Brückli, usually if you push it too hard, you end up in the fence.”
WENGEN, Switzerland — Friday saw the first edition of the Wengen super combined, which would feature a shortened downhill due to high winds. Organizers moved the start to below the fabled Hundshopf jump as spindrift plumed off the top of the Eiger and Jungfrau looming above the Lauberhorn course.
    America’s Steve Nyman skied a solid downhill run, briefly taking the lead. Adrian Theaux of France took the lead away immediately. Andrew Weibrecht followed, and fulfilled the rite-of-passage crash in the treacherous Kernan-S Turns [formerly the Brückli]. “It was faster on top today, and I tried to take the same line as I did yesterday,” Weibrecht said. “I skied the top much better, and I think I was carrying too much speed.
    “I saw the fence coming, and I hit it, and as I was sliding, I was just wondering how hard the airbags actually were. They were kind of soft, so it was pretty nice. If I have to hit something, that’s what I would want to hit again.”
    The Kernan-S is where the race is won or lost. Skiers play with fire, going outside of the blue lines and dangerously close to the fencing, making the difference between shaving time or losing more than the race. Marc Berthod was another victim in today’s combined, and would not be the last.
     Miller won Thursday's training run by 1.77 seconds, in a third TR that was absent of any of the Swiss contenders and several of the Austrians. He aced his DH run finishing 4th, bumping Nyman to 5th and learning a valuable lesson for the main event Sunday.
    “There were some areas of the course that I had to see if I could push it,” he said, “and I learned where I can. In the Brückli, usually if you push it too hard, you end up in the fence.”
    Last year, Bode Miller found a loophole in the course set at the Ziel-S just before the final finish jump, setting up differently for the chicane and winning the race. “There’s no secret turn there [at the Ziel-S],” said Miller. “But they may have moved the gate just a tiny bit,” he conceded.
    Swiss Didier Cuche chose to dump speed before the Kernan-S, and finished 1.33 seconds ahead of second-place DH finisher, who would be Marco Buechel. They both elected not to ski in the Slalom leg, effectively using the shortened DH as another training run.
    Miller saw the Kernan-S as where Cuche won the DH leg. “You see more guys skiing it clean. Some guys, like Cuche, came in there and threw their skis sideways to dump speed, and he came out with way more speed than I did. Cuche usually errs on the side of skiing more safe and doesn’t take risks, and there are a lot of guys who will take chances and they can be faster [on Sunday].”
    Ted Ligety skied a solid DH run, coming in 25th. “I would have liked to have taken off from above the Hundschopf,” Ligety said of the shortened course. “It kind of takes away from the mystique of Wengen without going off it.”
    The technical specialist and Torino combined gold medalist had a theory on what was making the Kernan difficult Friday.     “It’s a lot faster on that middle road there,” he said.  “There’s kind of a tailwind, so we’re all coming in a few klicks faster into that turn, which is giving some of the guys some trouble as you can see.
    “It’s definitely a tough turn, and you have to be on top of it. I mean, if you misjudge by a tenth of a second of your timing, you’re seeing blue fence. It’s almost like a GS turn in a downhill course, and you don’t have a lot of room to set it up, and you’re right on that red fence, and if you get any closer to it, you’ll hook a boot buckle. You’re riding a very fine line. It definitely tests the technical skiers on their ability to just to turn.”
    The Kernan-S defines the downhill at Wengen. Choose the right line, and you may be on your way to glory. The wrong line may be a season-ender. But as every racer here knows, that fine line is the difference between downhill speed and survival.

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About the Author: Pete Rugh