Kitzbühel truly came to life today. Snowfall overnight confirmed the Tyrolean town’s status as the Alpine Ski World Cup venue. A white covering descended on the roof-tops, trees and most importantly the surrounding mountainsides, cheering the thousands of spectators arriving en masse to support their heroes at the 71st Hahnenkamm Races. Today’s competition, the Super G, is widely regarded as an attractive appetizer for tomorrow’s main course, the downhill.

Ivica Kostelic (CRO), winner of the Hahnenkamm 2011 Super G, Photo credit: Rolex / Kurt Arrigo

Ivica Kostelic (CRO) further pressed his claim for a first Alpine World Cup title by winning the Super G from Georg Streitberger (AUT) and Aksel Lund Svindal (NOR). Last year’s winner, Didier Cuche (SUI) was fourth.

The unseated Cuche showed no surprise at Kostelic’s achievement, “racing here is very technical and that suits him. There is no question of his courage, and, at the moment, with his confidence, he is hot enough to get a top 5 tomorrow.”

But as all racers facing the Streif know well, tomorrow is another day.

Off Piste

Last night, eight-time Le Mans winner and Rolex Testimonee Tom Kristensen from Denmark took the Hahnenkammbahn to the top of the Streif to get a close up look at the start house and the course. More familiar with four-wheels and tarmac beneath him, Kristensen enjoys the sport of skiing, “I’ve had the privilege over the years to ski quite a lot. Many manufacturers don’t let their drivers ski, but Audi think it is really good for health and stamina during winter. So, I do a lot of cross-country skiing, but also downhill whenever I can fit it in. I like to go fast, but never against the clock.”

Used to living on the fine line between control and oblivion, Kristensen can see some connections been the arts of downhill and endurance motorsport, “at the ultimate, the Hahnenkamm, it is all about the clock, it’s all about the time you get down, and all about momentum. I think momentum is the key similarity between a racing driver and a skier. You need to keep momentum to make a great time.”

Acknowledging that both drivers and skiers require an engine to go fast, in the skier’s case the steepness of the slope, Kristensen explained the difference between success and failure at Le Mans, where Rolex is also the Official Timekeeper, “if everything feels or seems under control, you are simply not fast enough. You need to challenge that always, to challenge yourself, to challenge your skill, to challenge your concentration. If you don’t do that somebody else will win.”

Tomorrow, we will find out who challenges best not just the jumps, bumps and hairpins of the formidably steep Streif, but himself.

Course Notes

The Super G course at Kitzbühel starts 300 metres lower down the Hahnenkamm, than the downhill start. It runs just over two kilometres, a little under one kilometre less than the full Streif. It takes a minute and a quarter to complete for the faster competitors. It might lack the notoriety of the Mausefalle and Steilhang, but it still helps emphasise the enduring challenge of the Hahnenkamm downhill. This reduced course offers up the jump over Hausbergkante, the Zielschuβ traverse and the final trap, the Zielsprung, just before the finish. Make no mistake; even at a reduced speed to the downhill, the Super G at Kitzbühel is every bit a demanding run with little room for error. Today, only 37 out of 60 starters recorded a finish time, and for some of the later runners completing the course at all was cause for huge celebration.

The mood at the post-race press conference understandably was overshadowed by the continuing uncertainty over Hans Grugger, who was seriously injured in yesterday’s training, but the skiers involved showed respectful professionalism in outlining how they had conquered the mountain today.

The winner, Kostelic, is a slalom specialist; he is not supposed to podium in speed runs. He is, though, the man in form in the Alpine Ski World Cup. Form builds confidence as he pointed out, “when you realise you can do the things you want to do it is very important going forward.”

Starting third, Kostelic had a long wait to be sure of victory. Only five runners, including Streitberger, outstripped him over the early stages and seven, including Cuche, were faster in the final stages. No one, though, was faster in the middle, “the key section where I think I won the race was coming out of Lärchenschuβ and going into Oberhausberg. I had very good speed there, faster than the other guys. It is very important that you have speed through this long flat section.”

This is the first time Kostelic has ever won a speed event (Super G or downhill) and he expressed his pride at achieving this at Kitzbühel. Did this augur well for tomorrow? Kostelic is too wise to make predictions, “I don’t know how I will do tomorrow, I had a good result (7th) last year here in the downhill, it is actually my best ever downhill result, so we’ll see. I cannot say if I am going to be on top. I just want to ski fast and ski solid. That’s my goal for tomorrow.”

And that is a goal all the downhill racers set for the Streif have in mind.

Hahnenkamm History – Anderl Molterer

Born in Kitzbühel on October 8, 1931, Anderl Molterer was the most prolific skier at the Hahnenkamm Races in the 1950’s. In addition to his two downhill triumphs in 1955 and 1958, the eleven-time Austrian national champion also collected four combination titles (1953, 1955, 1958, 1959) in addition to three slalom wins (1953, 1958, 1959).

Molterer also won Olympic silver and bronze, in giant slalom and downhill, at the 1956 Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo, while competing in the shadow of countryman Toni Sailer’s triple gold medal performance.

Growing up with fellow Austrian “Wunderteam” members Sailer, Christian Pravda, Ernst Hinterseer and Fritz Huber, Molterer defined an amazing generation of Austrian ski racers during the sport’s golden era.

“I was never afraid, when I was racing it was never too fast for me,” said Molterer. “I always went to the little church on Hahnenkammstrasse. I always went in, made my prayer, and then went to the start.”

His prayers were answered – Molterer’s total of nine Hahnenkamm race victories across the three disciplines still ranks as the best all-time of any racer in Kitzbühel’s storied history.

By the Numbers – Greatest Margin of Victory

On January 21, 1967, France’s Jean-Claude Killy won the Hahnenkamm Downhill in the inaugural World Cup season, storming to victory by 1.47 seconds ahead of Germany’s Franz Vogler. Killy would proceed to win the remaining three downhills that winter, culminating a perfect campaign in which he was victorious at all five races of the season.

However, the greatest margin of victory at the Hahnenkamm Downhill in the World Cup era belongs to who else but the "The Kaiser" himself, Franz Klammer. In 1976, the unbeatable Austrian obliterated the field claiming his second Hahnenkamm crown by an unfathomable margin of 2.06 seconds over Norway’s Erik Haker.

Quotable – Past Champions

“Although my gold medal in Innsbruck was generally regarded as my greatest career achievement, winning Kitzbühel in 1984 was very special, especially considering that I hadn’t won here since 1977,” said 52-year-old Franz Klammer to Austrian television in 2006 when asked about the pinnacle moment in racing career.

“Franz Klammer was my great idol in my younger years,” said Hermann Maier about the four-time Hahnenkamm champion.

“I have the feeling that I’m in a dream. I don’t remember my run very well but I know that I gave my best from top to bottom,” said Switzerland’s Didier Cuche following his first Hahnenkamm triumph in 2008. “I need some time to think about this. Of course, I’d like to win an Olympic gold medal, but this is one of the greatest moments of my career.”

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Hahnenkamm Races
Kitzbuehel, Austria
January 21, 2011