Walchhofer pips Buechel on the Hahnenkamm
Austria’s Michael Walchhofer won the Hahnenkamm downhill on the Streif for the first time ever, beating Switzerland’s Marco Buechel by 0.05 seconds, while USA’s Daron Rahlves finished third.
Finlay Mickel 25th
After last week’s career best 10th on Wengen’s Lauberhorn, Finlay Mickel continued to make improvements on his past performances as he skied to a very respectable 25th on the notoriously tough Hahnenkamm in Kitzbuhel.
While it is his best finish yet at alpine skiing’s showcase weekend in front of tens of thousands of partisan fans, Mickel (28, Edinburgh/The British Land Alpine Ski Team) admitted to being pleased to have scored more world cup points and to have proven himself on the world cup tour’s biggest annual
test but carried a small disappointment that he had not breached the Top 20.
Today was his fourth time of racing the Hahnenkamm and the first time ever he has broken into the Top 30 on The Streif.
“For me, here, (on the Hahnenkamm) that is a decent result. I had hoped to make the top 20 but I made a couple of mistakes. It is always really tough here. I got a little too close to the nets on the Steilhang and lower down on the Hausbergkante got low on the line. The snow was really aggressive and grippy and as the sun shone the course got faster, but overall I’m happy. It’s OK, two seconds out on the Hahnenkamm is OK, knowing where I lost a second. “ said Mickel,
“My confidence is still growing, but this is the hardest one.�
Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup, Kitzbuhel, Austria, Saturday: 1 M Walchhofer (AUT) 1:46.75. 2 M Buechel (SUI) 1:46.80, 3 D Rahlves (USA) 1:47.08, 4 B Miller (USA) 1:47.13, 5 E Guay (CAN) 1:47.13, 6 D Defago (SUI) 1:47.58 GBR: 25 F Mickel (Edinburgh/The British Land Alpine Ski Team) 1:48.91
