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The Stelvio
was soft.
the 10th start. Cuche had started 21st to get eighth. The other two top- 10 finishers
were deadlocked in ninth starting outside our parameters, Dominik Paris from the
third start and Hannes Reichelt from the 26th.
“I was happy to wear a low bib number today,” said Defago. “I thought it would help
me achieve a strong run, but I didn’t expect to win that race, even when I saw I was
faster than Patrick Kueng. I was aiming for a top-five here. My main goal this season
was a downhill podium. Apparently things went much faster for me than I thought.”
Kroell said he had been aiming for more than third place but that he had a difficult
time handling the softer course and made a bad mistake at the top of the last pitch.
“But I can live with this,” he said. “I’m convinced my day will come soon.”
The rest of the top 10 had plenty of significance. Guay said — in retrospect — he
might have taken a few more chances, but said he had a pretty solid run. “It’s a really,
really challenging downhill this year,” he said.
It was the third fourth-place finish of the season for Canada’s men’s speed team, all
coming from different skiers. “It’s definitely frustrating,” said team coach Paul Kristof-
ic, “but we are heading in the right direction.”
Bode Miller, in fifth, had a major error coming across a traverse high on course that
forced him to ski uphill to make the next gate. When hopes for a win evaporated, he
continued to fight his way down for fifth. Combined with Feuz’s exiting of the course
and Cuche finishing behind him, Miller took over the lead of the downhill standings.
Though he won super G titles in 2005 and 2007, neither he nor any other American
man has ever won the World Cup downhill title.
The conditions, Miller said, called for subtle moves — a complete contrast to his nor-
mal hell-bent-for attack. “My main problem is that I always go in a little too quickly and
too straight,” he said. “I’m not subtle on the skis. So on these big turns if [the snow
surface] gets even more aggressive, that’s tough for me to adapt to.”
Svindal, in sixth, took back the World Cup overall standings lead after a two-race
hiatus.
With Wengen and Kitzbuehel on the horizon, the World Cup’s best downhillers were
looking forward to a rematch.
The long-suffering
Swiss celebrated
the first Bormio
World Cup win.
