Kitzbuhel victory for Cuche

22nd January 2011, by Chris Gill

The classic. Kitzbühel, Austria

Didier Cuche of Switzerland has matched the best in Kitzbühel’s history books, with a storming performance to win the men’s Hahnenkamm downhill.

Cuche claimed his fourth win on the classic race course, only the third man to achieve such a record – putting him up there with the legendary Austrian, Franz Klammer.

Cuche took the title almost a second ahead of Bode Miller, after a rather shaky start that almost cost him a ski pole. But he flew down the difficult course to the finish way ahead of the pack.

Miller’s podium place was his best result of the season so far. France’s Adrien Theaux took the third position. Overall leader Ivica Kostelic only managed 11th place in the downhill, but did pull off another win in the Super-G to keep him 265 points ahead in the series.

Kitzbühel’s race weekend atmosphere was however marred by a serious accident in Thursday’s training event. Austria’s Hans Grugger sustained head injuries in a bad crash on the Mousetrap jump, taking off awkwardly and impacting his back and head.

Grugger was airlifted off the slope and underwent emergency surgery to remove blood from his brain, but remains unconscious in hospital.

• racing
• kitzbuhel
• hahnenkamm
• cuche

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