Hudec wins just as the Austrians start thinking that they have a double win.
Jan Hudec completed his recovery from injury in winning the second Chamonix World Cup Downhill. The race was just as exciting as the rearranged first downhill yet for different reasons: the first may have had the closeness of the racing as its advert. This race did not let the crowd rest for a minute as racer after racer came down and posted what they thought was a race winning time, only for the next racer to defy the odds and post a better time. Hudec won on what was a memorable day for the Canadians as they took three in the top five with Erik Guay taking third and Ben Thomsen a career best fifth place. Romed Baumann took second and fourth was Beat Feuz.
The light may have been better for the racers but with the improved visibility from the day before came much colder weather. Facemasks and tape covered racers faces as the air temperature dropped down to -20C at the start and with the wind chill factor taken into consideration, it was suggested that the racers were having to cope with temperatures as low as -40C with everything taken into consideration.
After his win on the first race, Klaus Kroell was considered to be the hot favourite by many on the morning yet this was not what the script writers laid out. The crucial section of the Erikson Passage leading into the Panorama Turn and the small jump after that leading to the second split was the area that would see who gained the upper hand on the times. Get that section right and you would set yourself up for a fast time.
Heading into the top seeds from start number 16, Johan Clarey was leading. Disappointed with his 23rd in the first race, Clarey wanted to put things right. Despite having taken five top ten results this season, he had dropped out of the elite top seven racers and wanted back in to the exclusive club. Posting a time just slower than Kroell’s winning time from the day before, Clarey was overjoyed.
Next down though was the main man. The man that all the racers wanted to beat: Didier Cuche. Cuche took a tight line around Panorama, put in some great jumps and when he crossed the line with the lead he gave a nod of the head as if to say to the rest of the field “Yep, that was good, beat that!”
Next man down was Beat Feuz. Many feel that Feuz could be the man to take the mantel from Cuche in the Swiss team and his disdain for the Master in literally battering his time added more respect to the 24 year old. Feuz grabbed the lead by over a third of a second. Would this be the winning time?
From national team mate rivalry to same brand rivalry: Hannes Reichelt was next up. If Feuz’s Salomons were running fast then surely the Austrians would be as well. Something went wrong for Reichelt and he dropped off the pace from the start. Maybe it was the pressure of being in the top seven seeds for the first time that caused him to try too hard and he was over a second behind the Swiss racer.
Despite not making the same mistake that he had made through Panorama on his winning run the day before, Klaus Kroell could not make it a double header win. Try as hard as he did to let his skis run as fast as they had the day before through the long gliding section, Kroell was three hundredths ahead of Cuche in the finish. This was small consolation in cutting the gap in the Downhill globe for the Austrian.
And still they came.
Erik Guay was the next matador to attack the Les Vertes Piste in Les Houches, Chamonix. The Canadian is skiing with more passion and excitement than since the World Championships last year. His second in Garmisch the previous weekend seems to have given him a new lease of life and Feuz soon had to express the admiration of the Canadians run as his time was bettered. Could Guay hold on with just Baumann and Miller of the top seeds to come? Surely the winner would come from these three?
Before Guay could get comfortable in the leaders enclosure Baumann had wrenched the lead from him. The Austrians were now dreaming of that second bus coming along! They had waited all season for one of their speed racers to win and now it looked like Baumann was going to make it two in two. Clean jumping was the basis of his fast time yet with Miller still come, there would still be more twists to the tale.
Miller had been a little down after having been on the wrong side of the hundredth in the first race. Had he timed his hand better it would have been the Stars and Stripes on the top of the flag pole and not the red white red of the Austrians he felt. He likes to win Miller and gives his all to try and make this happen. It was not to be and Miller was left with another top ten placing but he only wants to see the wins.
And so the Austrians started celebrating. It was their day again. Or so they thought. As Baumann was hauled off to talk with the TV stations, Jan Hudec left the start. The Canadian has had a great couple of weeks that started with 10th on his debut in Kitzbuehel and was followed up with 6th in Garmisch a week later. Starting 24, Hudec ripped into the course and posted blistering times all the way down. A lead of over half a second by the time he crossed the finish line had the crowd aghast. This was the way the course should be skied and the Canadian was back on the top of the podium for the first time since 2007.
When Hudec’s teammate, Ben Thomsen came down from bib 50 and posted the fifth fasted time of the day, Canada was in awe: Three in the top five and they still have Manny Osborne-Paradis to come back from injury. It seems that the Own the Podium Programme that was set up for the Winter Olympics in 2010 is paying dividends albeit two years after it was supposed to deliver in Whistler (Vancouver).
What a race!
TJ Baldwin placed 55th for the British team.
