The most successful male downhiller in the history of the U.S. Ski Team is 32-year-old Daron Rahlves of Sugar Bowl, Ca.—and the 13th-year national teamer showed his dominance again Thursday on the friendly slopes of Bormio, Italy.
Racing on new skis, Rahlves gathered speed as he stormed down the Stelvio course and captured his 11th World Cup victory by a .32-second margin over Fritz Strobl of Austria. Rahlves became the first two-time winner in the five World Cup downhills held this season.
With the victory, his second at Bormio, Rahlves (489 points) took over the World Cup overall lead by 18 points over the reigning overall king Bode Miller, 28, of Franconia, N.H. (471). Rahlves moved into fourth place in the DH standings.
Rahlves, who won both training runs, said afterward, "I figure if I'm spending Christmas over here, I wanted to make good use of every minute—and Michelle (his wife) was telling me the same thing, so every day I was pushing it. This was a big day and it was nicely put together."
A graduate of Vermont's Green Mountain Valley School, Rahlves now has eight career DH wins and three more in super giant slalom. He won Thursday's DH on the same Stelvio course where Miller and Rahlves placed 1-2 in the FIS World Championship DH last February.
It meant Rahlves also accomplished the second of his four major goals for the 2005-06 winter season.
He wanted to win the VISA Birds of Prey DH at Beaver Creek, Colo., and that was accomplished Dec. 2 over runner-up Miller. Rahlves wanted to duplicate his 2002 DH victory at Bormio, and he did that Thursday. He also wants to win the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbuehel Jan. 21 and the Olympic downhill Feb. 12.
Rahlves credited Atomic Skis waxing technician Tom Buergler with perfect preparation of a new set of skis. Rahlves used them all week at Bormio and was first all week. Buergler also handles Miller who crashed in Wednesday's final training run and settled for ninth place Thursday.
"They are outstanding skis for Bode and me. We're always looking for something better," Rahlves said.
Here are the overall standings for the top skiers after 16 races: 1—Rahlves 489 (4th-DH, 6th-SG, 9th-GS). 2—Miller 471 (7th-DH, 17th-SG, 3rd-GS, 3rd-combined). 3—Michael Walchhofer (Aust.) 470. 4—Aksel Lund Svindal (Nor.) 450. 5—Benjamin Raich (Aust.) 446.
Next World Cup races for the men are a giant slalom and slalom Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 7-8 at Adelboden, Switz. They are a prelude to the 76th Lauberhorn weekend Jan. 13-15 (super combined, downhill, slalom) at Wengen, Switz.
Kostelic moves into women lead
Janica Kostelic, 23, of Croatia logged sixth in giant slalom and third in slalom at Lienz, Austria last week and moved into the overall women lead by 52 points over two-time defending World Cup overall queen Anja Paerson, 24, of Sweden.
Slalom leader Kostelic has 592 points while giant slalom pacesetter Paerson stands at 540 and super giant slalom leader Michaela Dorfmeister of Austria is in third place with 510. Downhill leader Lindsey Kildow, 21, of Vail and the U.S. Ski Team is fourth (429).
Paerson won last Wednesday's GS at Lienz—her third win of the season and first GS success in 14 months. Kildow was 24th and Kristina Koznick 25th for the Yanks. Kostelic, who finished second, fourth and first in the three previous GS events, settled for sixth at Lienz.
Wednesday's marked the return of two-time U.S. Olympian Sarah Schleper, 26, of Vail, who had been sidelined since October with back pains. She underwent surgery at Innsbruck in November and has been free skiing since earlier in December.
Schleper didn't qualify for the second run in GS but she tied for 13th—the third American—in Thursday's slalom won by Marlies Schild of Austria. Koznick's fourth place in slalom led four U.S. women into the top 20. Others were Kildow eighth and Julia Mancuso 16th.
"It's nice to go into the New Year's break on an up note," said GS/SL head coach Trevor Wagner. "It was just good, aggressive skiing from the girls."
Next World Cup race for the women is a night slalom Thursday, Jan. 5 at Zagreb, Croatia. Then they'll move on to the annual giant slalom and slalom Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 7-8 in Maribor, Slovenia.
Daron Rahlves climbs to the top of the podium Thursday, winning a World Cup men's downhill at Bormio, Italy for the second time.
Photo by Agence Zoom
