Cuche sets his stall out in first training run
Didier Cuche gave the rest of the Downhillers a wake up call and laid down his intentions with the opening training run for the 70th Hahnenkamm Downhill. In perfect conditions: blue sky and hard snow conditions, the atmosphere surrounding the premier Downhill of the Alpine Skiing World Cup season was fantastic. From the early arrivals of spectators, keen to get a feel of the legendary course, to the racers arriving at the start, this was time to get down to business.
For the 63 racers putting their selves down the course, the vision and snow conditions could not have been better. Mario Scheiber from Austria was the man entrusted with being the first man through the Rolex timing gate and out onto the course; he did not disappoint the crowd lining the course at the top. Scheiber is a relative novice in Kitzbuehel yet he gave many of the seasoned racers a lesson in how to tackle the fearsome course. Scheiber’s time was fast and smooth: it took many a racer to post a better training time, yet he felt he still has more in the tank to give come race day. This was only Scheiber’s second experience of the Kitzbuehel downhill course due to his injury last year yet on his previous visit he had finished second!
The only man to beat Scheiber was the current World Cup Downhill point’s leader, Switzerland’s Didier Cuche. Cuche is a seasoned veteran of the Hahnenkamm and would have preferred the course to have been slighter tougher, especially the Zielsprung jump. Cuche admits that come race day he will by flying a little further through the air from the final jump. With many of the racers relaxing approaching the run in to the finish, the speeds witnessed on the Rolex speedometer in the finish area were not as fast as can be expected on race day, Cuche still posted a speed of 137.3kmh, fifth fastest behind Klaus Kroell (138.7kmh through the speed gun).
The Austrian fight back after their disappointment in the last World Cup race was highlighted by Michael Walchhofer who finished third in the training run just ahead of young Croatian Natko Zrncic Dim who had started near the back of the field.
This article also appears on www.hahnenkammnews.com