ALPINE:

Cuche wins downhill race No. 9, Italy’s Paris 2nd

Jan. 29, 2011

CHAMONIX, France — Switzerland's Didier Cuche secured his second consecutive World Cup downhill victory Saturday to set himself up as a strong favourite in alpine skiing's blue ribbon at next month's World Championships.

The race was interrupted for about 30 minutes after Canadian skier Manuel Osborne-Paradis crashed heavily into a safety net, breaking his fibula.

The World Cup has been marred by serious crashes this month. Mario Scheiber broke his right shoulder blade and fractured his sinuses during training this week, while Hans Grugger of Austria needed emergency brain surgery after crashing in Kitzbühel last week and is still hospitalized.

Another Austrian, Georg Streitberger, also fell on the Verte but didn't appear seriously injured.

A week after taming the technically demanding Streif course in Kitzbühel, Austria, Cuche showed his versatility on a course favouring gliding abilities to win the ninth World Cup downhill of his career in Chamonix.

It was Cuche's first win in this French Alps resort and his second World Cup victory of the season.

"The most important thing to win a World Cup downhill is to be consistent from top to bottom," Cuche said. "Today I achieved a perfect run."

In perfect race conditions, Cuche clocked one minute 58.91 seconds down the 3.37-kilometre (2.09-mile) Verte course, with Dominik Paris of Italy 0.67 back in second.

Cuche trailed the leading time by 0.09 seconds at the first intermediate before finding the perfect line in the Rocher Blanc turn, a big right curve where many skiers lost considerable time.

"I won four-tenths of a second in this sector, and it would have been impossible to make that difference anywhere else," Cuche said.

The Swiss veteran became the oldest man to win a World Cup race last week by claiming the Kitzbühel downhill at the age of 36.

Cuche's only podium in Chamonix was in 2008, when he finished second behind American winner Marco Sullivan.

"I have a very particular relationship with Chamonix," Cuche said. "I was there in 1997, recovering from a crash where I broke my fibula and my shinbone. We went to the top of the slope with my brother and went down walking through the forest, streams and rocks. It took us hours to do this and I can tell you it was much easier today."

Cuche extended his lead in the World Cup downhill standings with 379 points, 65 ahead of Michael Walchhofer of Austria, who moved to second after finishing fifth in the race.

Silvan Zurbriggen of Switzerland is third with 285 points.

The 21-year-old Paris was the first starter and had a nearly flawless run to claim his first podium finish. Paris had never finished in the top 10 in a World Cup race before.

"Apparently only Didier could beat me today," Paris said. "I'm very proud of what I achieved today. But I'm still learning from guys like Didier. I have to be patient and be careful not to rush things."

Austrian Klaus Kroell was third, 0.88 seconds adrift.

"I think Didier was unbeatable. Like in Kitzbühel, he was in a league of his own," said Kroell.
Saturday's race was the last downhill before the World Championships begin Feb. 8 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.

"Didier will be the strong favourite in downhill," Kroell said. "He has been in an impressive form recently and we all will be outsiders."

Overall World Cup leader Ivica Kostelic of Croatia finished 2.25 seconds back in 28th place.

"I lost time constantly," Kostelic said. "I'm a bit surprised with my time because I didn't make any big mistake. Maybe it was a problem with my skis."

Kostelic, who leads Cuche by 405 points in the standings, will have a chance to make up for his disappointing performance in Sunday's super-combined.  S-Magazine

— The Canadian Press contributed to this report

Chamonix men's World Cup downhill results