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Stephan
Eberharter fights back
Austria's Stephan Eberharter had to wait to be 32 to
win his first "Classic" on the World Cup tour
- in Val d'Isere, where he was twice 2nd in the past,
the silver medal winner from St Anton beat by 4/100
of a second Switwerland's Didier Cuche the Olympic silver
medallist in Nagano in 1998.
Another Swiss, the promising Silvani Beltrametti, came
in 3rd at 65/100 in front of Austria's strong Christoph
Gruber and Fritz Strobl.
France's Pierre Emmanuel Dalcin reached a surprising
6th place ahead of Sweden's expert Fredrik Nyberg.
It was a slow day for Norway's favorites, Lasse Kjus
only 13th and Kjetil Aamodt, a far 19th.
America's Daron Rahlves had a disappointing run - he
only finished 24th at 2,62 seconds behind the winner.
His teammate Bode Miller crashed out of the race.
Stephan
on the edge
With this newest success, his 9th in a World Cup race,
the Austrian veteran took the lead in the Overall World
Cup standings with 180 points, 16 mores than his teammate
Mario Matt. He is by far the top-favorites in this year's
competition for the Crystal Cup.
The Super-G World Champion from 1991 needed some time
to believe that he has a strong chance to celebrate
his first victory of the winter on the famous "Oreiller-Killy"
course used since 1969 for World Cup ski rqcing.
"It was quite a demanding race and I made several
mistakes so that I was not sure at all after my arrival
that I could reach the podium" he said. "
I had a very aggressive run. I guess that everybody
had a hard time today with the course and the snow conditions
and that I won because I made the less mistakes".
"It's very positive to have such a strong start
in the speed events after my 2nd place at Soelden in
Giant Slalom. I enjoyed to race again after this long
break. Over a month without a race is pretty long.Now
I'm looking ahead for the downhill which is quite open
too. I don't want to think too much about the World
Cup in this moment, it's still quite early. I rather
focuse on each race for the moment".
The
Swiss in progress
While Didier Cuche's second place can't surprise because
he often reached a podium in that specialty, Silvqno
Beltrametti impressed in taling 3rd place only five
weeks after injuring himself at the crossed-ligaments
on his left kee. He trained less than a week in the
meantime but his pleasure to ski again apparently helped
him to find back all his momentum.
" It's my first top-10 finish in Super-G so I'm
pretty excited by this result" he said after the
race.
" I had a solid run, nothing special so it's great
to reach again the podium. It's a great boost for my
moral for the coming zeeks".
Beltrametti, 2nd last season in the opening downhill
at Lake Louise behind Eberharter, is considered by many
trainers as one of the greatest talents of his generation
in the speed events. He definitely contributed to the
return of the Swiss speed skiers among the World Elite.
The last Swiss victory in a World Cup Super-G goes back
to the success of Paul Accola in Morioka in 1992.
The skier from Davos was a solid 11th today.
In the downhill on Saturday, Eberharter is again the
skier to beat. Last year he was one of the best downhillers
on the tour and only lost the Cup in the last race against
Hermann Maier, who celebrated his 29th birthay this
Friday in Flachau.
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