Kvitfjell
Garmisch
Final Score
After the Vancouver Games, the men resume World Cup racing in Norway
before taking on Finals in Garmisch BY HANK MCKEE
Make no mistake — Didier Cuche was not pleased with his Olympic per-
formance. He made short work of replacing that disappointment with sat-
isfaction. Cuche took the first race after the Games, a downhill at Kvitfjell,
Norway. With the win he cemented the coveted downhill title, his third.
Cuche accomplished this in no uncertain terms, winning both training runs
and putting up a margin of nearly a half-second in his fifth win of the season.
Aksel Lund Svindal stayed in the hunt for second and Austrian Klaus Kroell
skied to third.
Cuche said he had been nervous before the race — something unfamiliar to
the 35-year-old veteran — but added that he calmed down about 30 minutes
before the start. Then, he said, he concentrated on finding the tightest line he
could. “I found,” he said, “a really tight line down the course.”
The time was more than a full second faster than any of his training runs.
With Bode Miller declining to attend the Norwegian races, the U.S. hopes
were pinned on U.S. Olympic bronze medalist Andrew Weibrecht, but he
crashed going off the first jump on he course and spun into the nets injur-
ing his shoulder. He would eventually require surgery and would miss the
remainder of the season.
Despite Cuche’s ample lead, the remainder of the field made for a close, tight
