The Herminator (AUT)

Wearing his usual lucky number 8, which brought him the gold medal at Nagano, Austria's Hermann Maier celebrated his second win of the season in today's Super-G in Val d'Isère, France.

Coming down the slope in the only sunny moment in the first hour of the race, Hermann, after a very aggressive run, crushed his rivals once more. He beat Aspen's winner, Stefan Eberharter, by 1.18 second and by 1.37 Lasse Kjus, the winner of yesterday's downhill.

	Eberharter, l, and Maier

The 1994 overall World Cup champion Kjetil Aamodt once again took 4th, the third time this winter. Two more Austrian's took 5th and 6th. Christian Mayer, the World Cup leader before this race, finished 19th, losing by almost two seconds.

After this competition, Stephan Eberharter regained hid lead in the Overall standings in which Hermann Maier only came in 4th. Daron Rahlves came at a strong 12th place at l.69 second from the leader. Chad Fleischer was 34th and Jakub Fiala 47th.

Maier, unbeaten in Super-G last season, had to be more patient this winter. In Aspen, he was second behind Eberharter after a difficult run on the icy "Ruthie's Run" course because he chose to race with his Olympic skis which didn't suit the tough conditions. This time, he took the "engines" designed for hard courses which he used last January in Schladming.

"I had no problem this time," Maier said with a grin. "The course was really fast and demanding, exactly the way I like it. You had to takes risks to set a fast time. I had no problem forgetting my disappointing result from the downhill. I feel strong since the season's start - I had twice bad luck in Park City in GS and in Aspen, but I was not nervous at all.

Yesterday's race was a non-event for us - we had fun about it at the end. The conditions became too crazy after a while. Now I'm looking forward to Val Gardena. I expect a lot from myself in downhill this season. I have more experience now and I will fight for more wins in that specialty. But I have also learned to lose so I'm not too tense," Maier said.

In winning in Val d'Isère, where over 100 World Cup and Olympic races have taken place since 1968, Maier put his name on the list of great skiing heroes of the past such as Karl Schranz, Franz Klammer, Ingemar Stenmark, Pirmin Zurbriggen or Marc Girardelli who have all won races here.

Stephan Eberharter, who collected his fourth place on the podium this season, twice 2nd and twice a winner, was not too disappointed by his big loss. "I made two big mistakes in the middle of the course, so I must be satisfied by my result," he said. "The race was fair today yet very fast. So far my form remains excellent - I aim for another good result next week in Val Gardena's downhill races."

Both skiers also mentioned the doping controls made in Val d'Isère on Saturday. "They should make more of them, including blood tests to be sure that there is no doping in skiing. I don't think that doping can help in our sport because the technical aspects are much more important."

With his strong 3rd place, Norway's Lasse Kjus has confirmed that his win in the downhill was not a fluke and that his form is improving. "I still can ski better and more aggressively," he said. "I was still too cautious this time. So far, I'm very pleased by my season's start."

Daron Rahlves was quite happy after his race.

"Since I haven't trained so much since I got injured last summer, this is a very promising result for me," he said after being congratulated by USSA's CEO Bill Marrolt. "I need another full month of hard training to find the best form. This result is great for my morale. I had a solid run, but I was not aggressive enough for a top spot."

Puckett, who had a good result in Aspen, doesn't feel ready for the tough European World Cup races. "It was again a tough race today," he said. "I don't have enough experience in the speed events. It was my first major downhill yesterday. I will focus on the technical events for a while. I plan to compete some European Cup races to come back at Alta Badia in the next World Cup GS," he said.

Only 49 out of 68 skiers made it across the finish line. Many racers had problems with visibility and crashed on the difficult part of the run. Fortunately, nobody was seriously injured. The next race, a night slalom, will take place on Monday evening in Sestriere, Italy.

—Mountain Zone European Correspondent