Didier Cuche rolled back the years to claim a fourth Kitzbuehel downhill title yesterday, using all his experience to master what is considered the toughest course on the circuit.
The 36-year-old Swiss speed specialist clocked 1 minute, 57.72 seconds to finish a massive 0.98 seconds ahead of American Bode Miller, with France’s Adrien Theaux taking a surprise third, a further 0.20 seconds adrift.
The Streif course used for the men’s downhill is considered the most testing on the World Cup circuit and again came under the microscope after Austrian Hans Grugger’s gruesome fall in Thursday’s training.
Photo: Reuters
However, the course that is more than 3.3km long, with racers reaching motorway-coasting speeds of 130kph while being forced into negotiating 80m jumps, posed no such problems for Cuche.
The Swiss veteran, who was fourth in Friday’s super-G, cut a masterful line from start to finish in front of 55,000 spectators packed into the finish area.
The victory added to downhill wins last year, in 2008 and in 1998, and his success on the Hahnenkamm mountain also includes winning the super-G title last year and five other podium placings over the years.
Photo: Reuters
His victory yesterday saw him leapfrog Michael Walchhofer, Silvan Zurbriggen and Klaus Kroell atop the discipline standings.
Walchhofer was the biggest high-profile casualty after the home favorite and winner of two downhills this season managed to tumble in one of the most innocuous and flattest passages of the largely vertiginous piste.
? WOMEN’S DOWNHILL
AP, CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy
Lindsey Vonn made another massive mistake and handed victory to overall World Cup leader Maria Riesch in the traditional downhill in Cortina yesterday.
Riesch had an error-free run and clocked 1 minute, 39.30 seconds on the sun-drenched Olympia delle Tofane course for her fourth win this season.
Julia Mancuso finished second, 0.91 seconds behind, and US teammate Lindsey Vonn settled for third, 1 second back.
Vonn was faster than Riesch through the first checkpoint, but lost control on a right turn midway down. Her left ski slipped out wide and the American nearly did a split and would have hit the fences at full speed if not for a strenuous recovery.
Vonn also nearly wiped out in Wednesday’s opening training session and several of her recent races have been marked by spectacular recoveries. The three-time defending overall champion had an error-free run to win in Friday’s super-G and she’ll be looking to clean up her skiing for another super-G today that will conclude the weekend’s racing.
Meanwhile, Mancuso is improving race by race, having finished fourth on Friday. She took silver behind Vonn in last year’s Olympic downhill, but hadn’t finished as high as second in a World Cup race since a super-G in Cortina three years ago.
Swedish standout Anja Paerson had a slight bobble during her run and skied off course.
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