He did it: Hermann Maier has accomplished one of his greatest performances today on the legendary "Streif" course, capturing the third Super-G race of the season after an unbelievable competition. This marks Maier's 12th win in a Super-G in the last three years.

	Maier in Action

Wearing his usual "lucky number 8," the reigning Olympic and World Champion in this event, skied an aggressive, yet very controlled, run down the treacherous course, beating by 62/100 his teammate Werner Franz, and by 63/100 Switzerland's Didier Cuche, the '98 Sprint downhill winner.

Yet the great dominator of the season had to wait longer than usual to enjoy his 25th World Cup success — as the weather conditions improved for skiers starting with higher bib numbers. That's how skiers such as Franz or Marco Buechel, a giant slalom skier from Liechtenstein who came in 2nd in Vail last year, scored their best career result in a Super-G in Kitzbühel.

Kjetil Aamodt from Norway also skied very fast in this race – reaching an encouraging 6th place, one of his best results in recent seasons. Also, America's Daron Rahlves, starting in 18th position, had a good day – he was 10th at 1.23 second from Maier – a very promising result for him before tomorrow's legendary downhill race.

"There was great pressure on me here because all my fans wanted me to win on this course and I didn't want to delude them. It's a great feeling to have reached this goal. It gives me great momentum before the downhill race..." — Austria's Hermann Maier

A success on the "holly" Hahnenkamm mountain was in fact one of the last achievements that the skier from Flachau was fighting for. He only competed once in Kitzbühel, last winter, to finish 8th in the Hahnenkamm downhill won by his teammate Hans Knauss. In the previous "sprint-race" dominated by Lasse Kjus, he skied out in the second run after taking too many risks at the bottom on the technically demanding "Hausberg" traverse.

This time, he had no problem at all handling this tricky part, which requires all the power these skiers can muster. In fact he was one of the few who manage to stay on the highest possible line to drop with maximum speed down the last schuss leading toward the finish line.

"I was thinking about Franz Klammer when I cruised down this part," Maier said. "I was really fast all along the course and I nailed this part almost perfectly."

"The intensive training I did last summer to improve my downhill technique helped me a lot here. I was able to attack the course without being too rough and I glided smoothly on the flats. I don't know if I could have skied so well last year."

"There was great pressure on me here because all my fans wanted me to win on this course and I didn't want to delude them. It's a great feeling to have reached this goal. It gives me great momentum before the downhill race. It will be a difficult one to win because some of the favorites such as Ghedina or Aamodt are skiing very well now. I will do my best to come on the podium."

Another success this weekend would allow him to join his hero Franz Klammer as the top winner on the World Cup tour. From 1973 to 1983, the '76 Olympic Champion clinched 26 wins in downhill (25) and in combined (1). Maier needed less than a year to score his 25 victories – only Sweden's Superstar Ingemar Stenmark was at this level in the late 1970s when he won approximately 40 races from 1977 to 1980.

"To win the downhill, the most prestigious on the Alpine Ski World Cup calendar, Hermann will have to recover fast..."

To win the downhill, the most prestigious on the Alpine Ski World Cup calendar, Hermann will have to recover fast from his efforts and the post-race celebrations. He was smart enough to organize himself a quiet retreat outside of Kitzbühel where he lives with his clan.

He'll have his work cut out for him tomorrow when he will have to fight hard to beat top skiers such as Italy's Kristian Ghedina, a strong 8th today despite the poor visibility, Austria's Josef Strobl, who achieved an excellent 4th place in that race, Werner Franz, Kjetil Aamodt, 2nd last year or Didier Cuche, who celebrated his first victory in a two-run downhill here in 1998. Later on Didier also won silver in Super-G at the Olympics in Nagano.

	Werner Franz, 2nd

After facing some disappointing moments at the beginning of the season, Cuche is now regaining his momentum and his confidence. He scored his first top-10 in downhill last week at Wengen.

Maier's chances will also depend on the decision of the FIS jury to shorten the course Saturday due to bad weather. Because of fog and heavy snowfalls, the upper part of the Super-G had to be taken away today, and a downhill could not have been raced (instead of the Super-G). Without the treacherous and icy top part, the "Streif" is much less demanding and would favor gliders such as Ghedina and Weber. So Hermann as his entire country are hoping for gorgeous weather this weekend.

— Manuele Joyce, MountainZone.com World Cup Correspondent