From Skiracing.com:

Wengen: Miller matches Mahre win mark
Sunday, 13 January 2008

Dust off that record book. Bode Miller has won the Lauberhorn downhill in no uncertain fashion and caught Phil Mahre's 25 year old U.S. win record with his 27th win.
Miller scorched the longest downhill on the World Cup circuit overpowering the field. Only Swiss veteran Didier Cuche, in his ninth official World Cup trip down the famed course could come within a full second of Miller's time of 2:30.40. Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis was third, one and a third seconds back and downhill standings leader Michael Walchhofer was fourth, giving up the standings lead.
The win marked the third straight year Americans have claimed Switzerland's premier downhill. Miller also won last season and Daron Rahlves in 2006.
"It was extremely fun," said Miller. "It didn't feel that good in terms of the quality of the skiing but I was very aggressive. I kept really pushing forward the whole time. There was no braking."
Miller trailed Osborne-Paradis at the first split and failed to match Cuche's speed under the Water Station tunnel. But the American pulled away on the long gliding sections in the second half of the course. After clearing the jump into the finish he looked at his time and pumped his fist.
"I take a little bit more of a direct line," he said. "I just cut off a lot of distance, especially when the speeds are a little slower."
Miller also said finishing third Friday in the super combined, which includes a shortened downhill and one run of slalom, helped him sort out some speed sections. "I learned that there were curves I couldn't ski full speed. I took them a bit slower today and I had a tighter line." He added, "If you ski crappy the wins don't mean that much. Today, I"m very proud of the way I skied. I fought hard."
Snows overnight dumped a meter of snow on the upper reaches of the course and although course workers did a fantastic job of clearing down to the ice underneath, some sections were notably slower.
"It was amazingly beautiful," said U.S. Head Coach Phil McNichol. "just a killer day. They got way more snow than was forecasted. They cleared it all off and the track was pretty damn good."
The coach said Miller has just become comfortable at Wengen and skied that way.
"He tore up the SG turns after the tunnel, really picked up a bunch of heat. The finish turns can be quite daunting and he just nailed them. Wengen has really turned into venue he's really comfortable with."
Behind Osborne-Paradis at the first checkpoint, Miller blew past the Canadian in the second section.
"I screwed up just before the Minsch-Kante," Osborne-Paradis said, "and figured I had nothing to lose, so I just pinned it the rest of the way. In the S, he said, "I caught my (boot) buckle a little bit on the (safety) bag. I wanted to take that line and was wondering if I could get away with it. It was line I hadn't tried all week, but I had screwed up Canadian corner and so and was a little slower…so I thought I'd try it." He said he was surprised when he got to the finish and discovered he was in the lead.
Five skiers later, Miller changed that. U.S. coach Chris Brigham called Miller's run, "Fantastic skiing. He crushed it."
Miller wasn't the entire U.S. story. Marco Sullivan finished seventh and Steven Nyman 11th.
"Marco had a fantastic run," said McNichol. "He did a great job all the way down. He would have put himself in contention if he'd killed the bottom. He slid out the finish S turn… You have to put a little slide in there and then stomp on the edge and he never really hooked up that turn, slid the next one and lost three to six tenths in there. But top ten at the Lauberhorn for him is a big race. He's really starting to build some good momentum."
Miller joins an elite group of skiers to have won the Wengen downhill more than once. Stephan Ebertharter, the man now just ahead of him on the all-time win list won in 2003 and 2003. Kristian Ghedina, Marc Girardelli and Franz Klammer are the only other skiers in the World Cup era to have accomplished the feat. Before that Karl Schranz, Toni Sailer, Othmar Schneider, Karl Molitor, Rudolf Graf, Heinz VonAllmen, Christian Rubi and Fritz Steuri collected multiple wins on the course which has held annual races since 1930. Molitor holds the record with five wins between 1939 and 1945.

Great news! Thanks Ski! Go Bode!

Yes! Go Bode..... Give em all the what fer..... yes yes yes.... Stay at it, don't give up.... shut em all up, pleeeeeease.







A full second, unheard of? hahahahahaha JEA!!

Kids really don't care much about Bode these days. It would be like the final scene of Clockwork Orange (where they force open the gang leader's eyes with a metal contraption) trying to get a kid interested in the Lauberhorn.

IMO, downhill and SuperG racing is so far removed from what most race kids---especially in the East---can relate to. I'd say that more than 95% of PARA kids will never even see a speed course and even New England programs hold just a couple speed races almost as a novelty. Ligety is far and away the better technical skier than Bode, who is 15th in the world in giant slalom and 23rd in slalom. DH and SG are more about who gets the best base material and who's tech hits the right wax. The greatest downhiller on the planet will give up 2 to 4 seconds on a DH course to the skier with the fast skis and right wax.


Since the best skier in the world was hurt in a crash last month, Bode and Raich (and maybe Cuche) will battle it out for the overall. But it's a less than thrilling battle since one is a great tech skier and the other is winning speed events and they don't battle it out head to head.

yep... just wax

Bode was behind on the first couple of splits, then rocketed ahead through that super long gliding section. He was 2 seconds faster on the flats. Fast skis and his tech hit the wax. Everyone takes the same line through that easy, albeit thigh burning, section.

a couple of current threads from a youth skiing board,

http://newschoolers.com/web/forums/readthr...read_id/335232/

http://newschoolers.com/web/forums/readthr...read_id/327366/

http://newschoolers.com/web/forums/readthr...read_id/297957/

Is that what you call NS when you're trying to add a little credibility? A "youth skiing board"? Too funny. What a wonder that kids on NS would say there should be more racers who get drunk and say fuck you.

as far as I know it is the largest youth skiing board, where kids do express thier opinions. You siad kids don't care. If you noticed, those threads seem to be equally divided amongst the kids who either love or hate Bode. You said kids don't care. They care enough to post about him. I think it is interesting to watch how fast a BOde thread grows on a freeskiing site. That says a lot, because there is not another racer who garners that much interest. Like him or not ski, he is very good for skiing.

BTW I don't need to give NS credibility, in spite of the atmosphere, that board has a huge following by many industry professionals including coaches who want to remain anonymous - you may or may not, have no idea of who is on there on a regular basis, but you can imagine, right?

Whatever. The kids on there are posting to an anti-authority concept, not having actually seen Bode race outside of Utube clips. It's hilarious to consider you are gaging the pulse of ski racing on a Newschoolers message board.

You hang out on NS way too much, Rob. Way too much.

Bode Jibs fence in apparent nod to his Newschooler fans!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XW4Ja-XF9Ow

Newschoolers Show Thier Love for Bode

A grown man that still can't spell "their". It makes it impossible to then click meaningless links...

It's different out here. Sure colleges concentrate on tech races, but in the West, where we can hold speed events, the kids MUST run a speed event to qualify for JO's. If you don't run a speed event all season, you are automatically NOT considered for JO's as the goal is to build more Bodes, i.e., four event skiers.

Bode sucks! He only has more wins than ANY skier in history from the US! Maybe your daughter should tell her boss to fuck off when she grows up. Seems to work for Bode.

Now before you go off on some crazy side topic....................I'm kidding!

damn... is that all you got? besides, we all know you clicked it.

Bode's full run.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4mmebo1LJs&NR=1

'mazin' to sea all da comentz - body rulz

You keep saying Bode sucks. I've said about a thousand times he's an amazing talent. I keep saying I don't care about Bode because I don't admire people who egg on family members who murder cops. If you think Bode is a great role model and a great champion, then fine for you. And how about you don't mention my daughter, Larry, and I won't mention your's?

A grown man that still can't use the apostrophe properly with possessive forms of personal pronouns. It makes it impossible to then read their meaningless posts...

Wow, you got me there, DH. "Your is" just doesn't make sense. Pretty good for someone without a college education. Maybe you can get a job as....uh, well, probably not. It's cool, though, the world needs ditch diggers.

That's a pretty awful comeback from someone who can't grasp basic grammar principals.

Written any novels, DH? Or do just spend your free time trying impersonating Beavis and Butthead?

28 wins? Think he'll catch Stenmark's 86? Maier's 53? Tomba's 50? Girardelli's 46? Maybe he'd catch Zurbriggen's 40 if he wasn't a drunk.

What ARE you talking about? I made no comment whatsoever about Bode himself, only that the US ski team wants four event skiers like Bode. I also cannot imagine why my daughter should tell her boss (??? what boss?) to fuck off. And she is "grown up". WHAT ARE YOU ON?


Ski, I thought he was talking about Siblet, he was quoting ME, not you. Of course, maybe since the person's name started with "s" he thought he was responding to one of your quotes, which would make more sense to me since I never thought he had issues with me.

To be honest, I'm never sure who he's hating on, Sib....and you are right that the US wants four event skiers, as do the European countries that can afford it.

Another golden zinger from the King. Thank you for blessing us with these nuggets of wit and witticism.

this mb is going to sh!t

Doug leaves and it all goes to Hell, eh?

so how about Bode jibbing that fence and still placing the way he did?

His tech probably just got lucky and picked the right kind of wax for protective fencing.

Make all the stupid comments you want, DH, but speed event racing is about the quality of your bases and hitting the right wax. The difference between Hermann Maier's bases at the peak of his career and another Austrian on his team could easily be over two seconds. The number one "driver" gets the fastest skis. For years, the Austrians got the best quality skis from Atomic, which gave them a heavy advantage. There was constant bickering between countries, inside teams, and among sponsored athletes from like companies about who deserved the fastest skis.

On top of that, many speed event races are won and lost by the wax used. Wax is amazingly crucial nd can easily mean several seconds difference in a race.

These two factors easily add up to two to four seconds and beyond in races that are often decided by tenths of a second.

So, you can be a wiseass, or you can learn something.

Results became so predictable in SuperG that they had to do a reverse 30, having the fastest skiers with the best equipment go last in the first flight. In other words, they had to 'punish' the racers with the fastest gear with more difficult start numbers.

^^^^ Good God man relax! You are killing the awesomeness of that feat.

I didn't see it. And killing the awesomeness for whom? You? So what?

I kinda liked it. I kinda like Bode if you must know. I'm no expert when it comes to racing but if nothing more Bode (OK and this post) gets me interested in a sport that I normally wouldn't care to watch. And who doesn't love a car wreck? Hello Britney Spears?!! Oh, and he is looking pretty cute now that he's lost the majority of the beer belly he was sporting. That doesn't hurt.

It was a joke.

Actually, I thought it was a pretty funny remark.

That's funny? Why? I guess you had to watch the video?

That would probably help, yes.

And yet it just doesn't sound interesting enough.

I find it a little strange that you wouldn't be interested in the fact that a racer literally rode both skis on a protective fence and still managed to pull it together to finish second in the race but then again you never really cease to amaze.

I don't have posters of anyone from the cop killing hillbilly clan either.

oh come on.. that's almost uhhh....... what? hatfield and mccoy'ish? - I thought you were a teensy bit more refined than to hold backwood grudges that don't even really affect you. you aren't for real about that, you are just grasping..

Murdering a cop in cold blood is trivial to you? Bode encouraged his cousin, even bailed him out and told him to "show the bastard". Bode himself gave the cop a hard time.

You're an idiot, Rob. A little girl lost her dad to those scumbags.

****


****

Bode made his cousin shoot the cop. I'm sure it's all Bode's fault! He probably had a beer with his cousin at some point. OR maybe it's the guns fault. The wax and the base on Bode's ski is why he wins.............it has nothing to do with his talent. And that fence ride to place second was nothing out of the ordinary.

Ski, I'm starting to think you don't have a single rational thought. Is your helmet a little too tight or what?

My mistake! That fuck off comment wasn't directed at your daughter. Ski has made comments about Bode being a bad role model and teaching kids to tell thier boss to fuck off. That is what I was getting at.

Ski.............I won't bring up your daughter again. I should have worded it that "maybe people should tell their children to tell their boss to fuck off". Remember.......I was kidding and would never sugest that to my kids.

Not to pile on but I have to agree with you on this, good people sometimes have not so great family members. Ski even you would have to admit that even as a parent you never really have 100 percent control over what your kids do, this was Bode's cousin so his interaction could have been somewhat negliable.

Bode is an incredible talent, wax or no wax he still has an incredible set of abilities that very very very few others posess

Bode encouraged a mentally unstable family member who had already been convicted of assaulting the same cop to continue to confront him. Bode felt it was the cool thing to do and called the cop names while he was in town to bail his cousin out of jail. Bode himself joked in a Sports Illustrated article that he fought a speeding ticket (83mph in a 40) written by the same cop just to "antagonize him". Bode also told a Nashua reporter that the cop had it coming. Bode's mother told another reporter that they should have "run the cop out of town".

Again, Bode encouraged a kid who had once cut a tree down to land on another relatives home to keep confronting the cop. Bode's cousin looked up to Bode---Bode was a hero to him and would have backed off if Bode had told him to. Instead, he got his hands on a handgun and committed murder.

Piling on? I don't see it that way. Anyone is more than welcome to root for a guy who encouraged a scumbag to kill a little girl's father for doing his job and trying to keep the peace. Not only did Bode's cousin shoot the cop to death, he then drove over the body.

And I agree that a lot of people have dirtbags in their families. Dirtbags like Bode, his cousin, his father, and his mother. Not a single one of them has shown any sympathy or remorse for the family they destroyed.

No, Bode didn't pull the trigger. He just gave the mentally unstable kid who worshipped him opportunity and encouragement to do what he did.

And my helmet's too tight?



I appreciate that...

you know all those details about Bode as if they are memorized and yet you don't bother watching his racing runs? yeah. your ski racing helmet is certainly very misplaced. IMO of course...

I watched the race. I didn't bother to click your link. The world does not revolve around you.

Oh, and since this thread has a "results" warning:

Bode DNF'd in last night's slalom at Schladming, for anyone interested.