Fourth win for Daron Rahlves

SESTRIERE, Italy, March 10 - American Daron Rahlves won the final
World Cup men's downhill of the season on Wednesday with an advance of 10/100 of a second on Austria’s Fritz Strobl, the reigning Olympic Champion, while Stephan Eberharter was a strong 3rd at 13/100 despite a series of mistakes in the last turns. Eberharter clocked the fastest intermediate times but could not hold his lead until the end.
Yet he reaches his eighth consecutive place in the podium since Chamonix quite an impressive performance for the 34 year-old Austrian who won his eighteenth downhill last Saturday. He was fighting for his 30th World Cup triumph today.

Switzerland's Ambrosi Hoffmann was fourth ahead of Austria's Michael Walchhofer, the 2003 World Champion. Switzerland’s Bruno Kernen, the 1997 World Champion here, ended in 7th position behind Italy’s Alessandro Fattori.

It’s Daron’s fourth victory this winter – his second in downhill after his success in Beaver Creek. Last Sunday, the Californian also dominated a Super-G in Kvitfjell, Norway.

This spectacular race was also marked by other big surprises - Austrian overall World Cup leader Hermann Maier and challenger American Bode Miller both failed to pick up points as well as Benjamin Raich. The battle for the overall men's title remains wide open between four skiers with only three more races to go.

Maier finished an angry and disappointed 18th, 2,08 seconds off Rahlves's time, while Miller was 22nd and Raich 24th . Under special rules for the World Cup finals only the top 15 finishers score points. Apparently, Hermann’s not running as smoothly as he expected.

Those surprising results allowed Austrian Stephan Eberharter, who had already wrapped up his third downhill World Cup title in Kvitfjell to close the gap on Maier in the overall standings. His third place finish took him to within 22 points of Maier with Miller third in the standings a further 45 points adrift. He would have taken the lead with another win!

Another great final for Rahlves

Rahlves, who had an average run in the upper part of the course, was once more particularly fast at the bottom where he clearly dominated all his rivals. He was more than delighted with his eighth World Cup win of what has been an excellent season.
"It’s awesome, I’m having such a great time this winter," he said. "It is not such a tough course here but it’s pretty fast and you really have to work hard all the time. That makes it a good course for me," he added.
"This has been a wonderful season for me with two super-G and two downhill wins but at the end of next season I want to be where Eberharter is - on top of the downhill podium," also said the 30-year-old American.
"I have learned a lot this season, especially to be more professional. I was sick during three weeks after my great week in Kitzbühel because I caught a cold during a party. It prevented me to keep my best form in Garmisch and St Anton. Something like this would happen to Eberharter! Next year I will aim for the downhill, Super-G and even the overall World Cup title. My GS is not so bad after all! "

A great season for Eberharter

Maier's misfortune means Eberharter, who won the overall Cup last season,
now has a better chance of retaining his title. He was a little disappointed that a late error cost him top spot in the race.
"I was flying down the mountain today, my skis were incredibly fast and it’s just too bad that I made a mistake near the end," said the Tyrolian, who hinted again that he may be considering retirement. "I’m really pleased by my results but this may have been my last downhill, who knows? So it would have been nice to win my 30th World Cup race. My aim at the start of the season was to win my third downhill title and since January the season has been fantastic. Whatever happens in the overall, we will see tomorrow," he said referring to Thursday's super-G.
"I feel relaxed because I have done my job and whatever comes now is a bonus. It will be very interesting. I have nothing to lose so I’ll try hard to reach the podium in the next two races. But for sure, I’ll not compete in the slalom on Sunday. It just makes not sense for me.”

This season, the GS Olympic champion from Salt Lake City has not reached any podium in Super-G or in giant slalom. On the other hand, Maier won twice and was always finished among the best 3 since his return on course last year!

Maier was bitterly upset with his result, which also meant he had to settle for third place in the downhill standings. He put the blame on a wrong choice of new skis which his selected in agreement with his serviceman. The skis were brought in from Austria in the evening and prepared for the race during the night.

Wrong skis.

"It seems we took the wrong skis and I couldn't hold on to the track," said Maier. "The course was too slippery, I had no grip. It was painful. This is very frustrating. I was not sure of getting a good result here after the training run but to not even get points is very sad. It makes things difficult for me now. I already lost too many points in Kvitfjell where I was not able to be as aggressive as I wanted," he added.

In fact, the points Hermann failed to score today may well be decisive in the battle for a fourth overall title. With a good race in the Super-G, Miller could well dramatically increase his chance even is Maier wins again.

"If my delay on Hermann or Eberharter is less than 150-160 points, I’m still in the race for the overall title before the last two technical races," Miller told the press. "I’m not really surprised by Maier’s problem, everything can happen in ski racing. The battle goes on! My race was OK – I made several mistakes and on such a course it’s impossible to make up some time in the lower part. I remain confident because I have been skiing well in Super-G even if my results don’t show it. "

Rahlves may help him again in that crucial Super-G. With another victory, Daron could prevent Maier and the other Austrian favourites to score as many points as they aim for. An interesting team battle will be going on this Thursday.

Philippe LANG