Round One to Bode Miller.
With the chase for the overall World Cup title coming down to the final four races of the season, Miller got a big jump Thursday on Austrian rival Benjamin Raich.
The American finished second in the downhill at the World Cup finals, picking up 80 valuable points. Raich finished 11th for only 24 points.
PHOTO: EPA
Miller, trying to become the first American overall winner since Phil Mahre and Tamara McKinney in 1983, now leads Raich 1,428-1,320.
"I think he knows it's going to be a battle," Miller said.
The three remaining races should be closer, with Miller -- the speed specialist -- and Raich -- the technician -- better matched. Miller could clinch the title in Friday's super-G if he wins and Raich fails to make the top 15. Only the top 15 score points at finals.
"[It] can change pretty quick as you've seen in the past," said Miller, who held a 400-point lead on Raich in December before the Austrian closed the gap to 52 points entering the finals.
"If I don't ski well in every race this week, I probably won't win the overall. For sure I have the advantage over him, skiing better in three events, and I have the potential to win in slalom also. But if I don't ski well in those events, it doesn't matter how many events I have."
Next up is Friday's super-G, another event where Miller will be favored to gain more points than Raich. Several skiers said the downhill and super-G are very similar on the extremely twisty and steep Silvano Beltrametti course.
"It's going to be tough," Miller said. "It's probably going to be one of those races like today with a lot of guys not finishing. It's just a challenging hill.''
Miller skied brilliantly in the downhill, crossing the line just 0.14 seconds behind Norwegian winner Lasse Kjus.
"I was surprised that I didn't win," Miller said. "I skied really pretty well the whole way. I didn't make any big mistakes and I was taking a pretty aggressive line. Compared to the guys around me, I was faster than everybody else."
Miller was the penultimate skier down the course, with only Michael Walchhofer of Austria starting behind him. Walchhofer finished fourth in a tie with Hermann Maier and won his first downhill World Cup title.
Kjus started second and Raich was third, giving them cleaner looks at the course than the later skiers.
"If anything, I'd say he was a little disappointed that he didn't do better," Miller said of Raich. "This is a pretty technical course and I'm sure he could have skied better today. Especially with his early start position -- the way that Lasse used that to his advantage."
Both the men's and women's downhills were originally scheduled for Wednesday. They were delayed a day by a severe snowstorm.
"Today was awesome," Miller said. "It turned out to be such a beautiful day too. It was hot at the start, which is not ideal for racing, but I was definitely fired up. It was a great run. I had a lot of fun."
Miller's teammate, Daron Rahlves, was not in such a good mood.
He finished sixth, only 0.01 behind Walchhofer and Maier, and ended his season without a single victory.
"I haven't been this [upset] in a long time," said Rahlves, who has won eight World Cup races in his career, besides the 2001 super-G world title.
Rahlves, a downhill specialist, also just missed a podium finish in the season's downhill standings.
"I had to beat Hermann and I was 0.01 behind him and I just got beat for third. That's kind of how my whole season has been," he said. "It's been just back by a few hunnies [hundredths] every race. It's definitely one of those seasons where you just got to suck it up and kind of move on and hopefully learn a lot and improve for next year."
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