19 JAN 2001 > Men's Super G
Seventh win for "The Herminator"
Race Results
Hermann Maier seems to have found back his best rhythm - ten days after his superb victory in the demanding giant slalom race at Adelboden, the double Olympic Champion won his seventh race of the season in Kitzbuhel in one of the most spectacular Super-G courses of the past years. Set on the lower sectionof the treacherous "Streif" of the Hahnenkamm course, this competition was quite dramatic - manz skiers crashed or missed gates and only 31 of 61 starters were able to end it.
Maier, aggressive and determined as in his best days, beat by almost a second his teammate Josef Strobl, the favorite of Saturday's downhill while Werner Franz was 3rd just ahead of America's Daron Rahlves.
Another Austrian was 5th - Hannes Trinkl, the fastest man in the last timed run on Thursday. Other experts were far behind, as Kjetil Aamodt 8th at 1,87 seconds. His teammate Lasse Kjus, didn't finish the race while Sweden's Fredrik Nyberg and Kristiasn Ghedina didn't started it.
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Nyberg injured himself badly at a knee and at his head in falling in a small creek while skiing towards the start house. The Italy's a winner her in 1998, strained some muscles at his back after a long jump in training earlier this week. He seems incapable of competing in his belowed downhill.
Casey Pucket 16th, Jakub Fiala, 26th and Thomas Vonn 28th also belong to the group of survivors of the race followed bz a nice crowd. 55,000 people are expected to attend the downhill on Saturday.
Hermann Maier is not a big fan of Kitzbuhel, considered as the most exciting ski area during the famous Hahnenkamm week-end.
It's too noisy and snobish for him and he has often explained that a success on the "Streif" doesn't belong to his list of priorities.
In 1998, he even sort of boycotted the events in order to rest and better prepare the Nagano Olympics. He didn't gain many friends in Kitzbuhel for his attitude.
But as a true race-horse, he gave again his best today in the difficult Super-G to check his form tent days before the start of the World Championships.
After an impressive run down the hard course, he should be totally reassured of his form in this event, by far his best with a total of 15 World Cup victories.
In fact he was quite satisfied of his outstanding performance which brought him another step closer to his third Overall World Cup win.
"I skied ot the way I wanted - I enjozed it really because it was quite a challenging run for me" he said.
"We haven't compete ina Super-g for almost six weeks but everything went on fine today for me. The more difficult it is, the better for me".
The trickz course, the low visivility and the hard now made it particularly difficult for all the competitors - another reason whz Daron Rahlves could be satisfied and proud of himself.
The Californian achieved his best result since his double win at Kvitjell a year ago. "It's wonderful to ba back among the best on such a slope, it's very important for my moral" said the skier from Truckee who has not done so well this season. "I hope to confirm this in the downhill."
Beside Strobl, Trinkl, Maier, Fritz Strobl, Lasse Kjus is the other big favorite for the downhill on Saturday. He came in twice 2nd in training earlier this week. He needs a strong result before taking a break next week. He doesn't plan to compete at Garmisch-Partenkirchen next week to recharge his batteries for St Anton. He has won five medals at Vail in 1999 - this time one would be alreadz fine as long as he gains it in tht downhill in front of all the Austrian....
— Manuèle Lang, World Cup Correspondent
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