Cuche gets better with age
– even the sun shone
Didier Cuche thought long and hard at the end of last season about
retiring from the sport of ski racing, the feeling of Victory just
gets better, even if he felt he had won “ugly”.
The bad weather tried to stop his progress yet the HEAD Rebel
used his vast experience to edge just in front of his countryman,
Beat Feuz and late starter Hannes Reichelt to grab the tenth World
Cup Downhill win of his career.
A mere eight hundredths separated the three racers!
While one win does not make a season, this is the perfect way for
the defending World Cup Downhill Champion to start the defence of
his title. The season
is long, eleven races, and with this in mind Cuche was not getting
too carried away in the finish when asked how he felt this would
affect his season. “I could not believe it when I came through the
finish,” he explained before continuing “the race is run the way I
wanted it!”
Afterwards in the press conference Cuche admitted
“Hopefully they are not mad I am still here fighting for a victory
or a good place. It was really strange; my training runs didn’t go
so well. The first training run did not go so good, and in the
second I lost 2 seconds, that’s why I had to laugh when I saw it was
a green light for me today. I made a lot of changes to my ski and
boot setting this morning, and I was hoping I would get the luck of
some good weather, with no wind. In the end I had some stable
weather and it was nice to ski.”
The surprise of the day came from Hannes Reichelt. Reichelt is
better known for his Super G racing yet coming down from number 45
to place third, a mere 8 hundredths off the win was something
special considering the conditions. Reichelt pushed Romed Baumann
down to fourth and Klaus Kroell down to fifth as three Austrians
made it into the top five.
Johan Clarey almost matched his result from 2010 in placing 6th,
his third best career result in World Cup Downhill. Bode Miller made
it three HEAD Rebels in the top ten with ninth place. Kjetil
Jansrud, sporting a “go faster” moustache, put in a career best
Downhill result to take 11th place.
So after the heavy snowfalls for training, the weather Gods shone
for the Oldest World Cup winner and he managed to get his run in
during one of the few occasions that the sun broke through the
clouds, many of the other racers had to contend with the wind.
Career World Cup win number 18 for Cuche.
The speed season has started.
Results from Lake Louise
1.
Didier Cuche
(SUI)
2.
Beat Feuz (SUI)
3.
Hannes Reichelt
(AUT)
65. Dougie
Crawford (GBR)
