MAIER TIES GIRARDELLI WITH 46TH VICTORY IN ST. ANTON
DOWNHILL
Miller 8th, Rahlves 11th, Friedman 21st; two DHs left
ST. ANTON, Austria (Feb. 14) - Austrian great Hermann Maier
tied Marc Girardelli of Luxembourg for third place alltime in World Cup victories and reclaimed the World Cup points lead Saturday with the
46th win of his career in a sun-splashed downhill before thousands of wildly cheering fans. Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) was eighth and Daron
Rahlves (Sugar Bowl, CA) 11th.
Outdoor Life Network will carry same-day coverage of the race
tonight at 7 ET with rebroadcasts Sunday at 5 p.m. ET and Thursday at 10 p.m. ET.
Maier, who trails only Swedish icon Ingemar Stenmark (86) and
Alberto Tomba of Italy (50), led Austrians into the top four places. His winning time was 1:56.09 with Stephan Eberharter, nearing his third
consecutive World Cup DH title, in second place (1:56.41).
Crash and injury didn't slow Miller
Miller – on the hill where he tore knee ligaments in the
downhill for the combined event at the 2001 Worlds – nailed the bottom of the run and finished in 1:56.89. When the prize-giving was
concluded after the race, Miller and Maier sat on the finish line stage, accepting congratulations and casually sharing some champagne.
Rahlves' time was 1:56.96 while Bryon Friedman (Park City, UT) was 21st with Jake Fiala (Frisco, CO) just out of the points in 31st place.
Miller, the giant slalom world champion (and Olympic GS silver
medalist), said his technical skiing background was a plus on St. Anton's Karl Schranz course.
"I made some mistakes in bad spots but I made some really
good turns, too," Miller said. "This is a course, I think, potentially that could be really good for. It turns a lot of the way
down and a couple of real crucial turns lead onto flatter sections, so if I held those turns I carry more speed into the flats and that
could make a difference..."
Visibly weary at the end of the run, he said his "fatigue
factor is high" although he expected that from his training run Friday. It caught him over the final 15 seconds or so "and I had
to make a couple of little bobbles. Coming into the finish line the speed's so high, I'd gone to a low position and almost went down...
GS training boosts Miller's run
"I think the bottom is good for me, some big swinging
turns and you've got to make a really aggressive transition, get to the front of your skis," Miller said. His GS training helped him
with his balance in the dicey terrain.
At the same time, the Carrabassett Valley Academy product said
the softer conditions reduced some of his advantage. "If it's really icy on this hill, I think I have a good chance of winning or being
right there, but the way it is today you really have to be gentle ... on a lot of those big, hard, swinging turns going into the flat
sections I'm hard on my edges, so even though it's clean you still dig in a little bit more."
Miller said his top-10 was pleasing because it enabled him to
gain some valuable points as he tries to keep pace with the Austrians filling the top three spots in the overall standings.
"You've got to give Maier credit; he's an amazing
individual...and Bode skied a fantastic race," said U.S. Head Coach Phil McNichol. "He was really strong on the bottom, showing
what he really can do in downhill. And Daron's run is just one of those mysteries of downhill – you think you're executing well but all
these miniscule mistakes add up to lost time. When it's not bulletproof, you have to have everything – your equipment, your line, your
suit, your focus, just everything – in order...
"It was such a beautiful day – blue sky, big sun, I
thought I could fry an egg on my shoulder. Today was definitely a cooker but the track held up fantastically...spring-like conditions. I'm
really impressed with what the organizers did," he said.
Eberharter close to DH title
Maier moved past Rahlves in the DH points; with two downhills
left, Eberharter has 671 points to 508 for Maier, 477 for Rahlves. St. Anton, one of the most renowned alpine villages, hosted the 2001
World Championships where Rahlves won the super G gold medal (with Eberharter taking silver and Maier bronze) but this is only the third
World Cup race weekend since the 1988 season, the first since 2000 and the pre-Worlds races.
"I felt I had a really good run," said Rahlves,
"but when I got to the finish I was surprised. I thought I'd be in there. I must've been losing time all the way down. This is a race I
really needed today but I congratulate Hermann and Stephan on great races."
The weekend concludes Sunday with slalom before the men move
on to Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, for the annual GS/SL weekend of racing.
MEN'S ALPINE WORLD CUP
St. Anton, AUT – Feb. 14
Men's Downhill
1. Hermann Maier, Austria, 1:56.09
2. Stephan Eberharter, Austria, 1:56.41
3. Johann Grugger, Austria, 1:56.46
4T. Klaus Kroell, Austria, 1:56.80
4T. Bjarne Solbakken, Norway, 1:56.80
-
8. Bode Miller, Franconia, N.H., 1:56.89
10. Daron Rahlves, Sugar Bowl, Calif., 1:56.96
21. Bryon Friedman, Park City, Utah, 1:58.02
31. Jake Fiala, Frisco, Colo., 1:59.42