WENGEN, SWITZERLAND — The famous Lauberhorn race here in the shadow of the notorious Eiger mountain has a history going back 80 years, and when the World Cup comes to town, things get crazy.
There’s a huge stage in the middle of this little town, and there are several thousand people there partying all night long, blasting Euro-techno music. I came prepared with ear plugs, so I was able to sleep well.
It’s not as loud as Kitzbuehel, the Austrian town where we race this week. Kitzbuehel is louder with a bigger ruckus, but there’s some serious intensity going on in Wengen as well. The level of drunkenness isn’t quite what you’ll see in Kitzbuehel, but they still bring it.
Kitzbuehel is often called the “Super Bowl of ski racing,” but Wengen is special as well. The hill’s personality is second to none for the slalom and the downhill, too. The downhill is the longest on the tour. In the slalom, there’s a farmhouse right in the middle of the trail. You go on the right side of the farmhouse the first run, on the left the second run.
I had a pretty good weekend. I had a great downhill run in the combined (14th) Friday and made a pretty clean run in the combined slalom, moving up to fifth. I was happy with that, considering that I hadn’t scored points in a combined all year.
Then getting eighth Sunday in the regular slalom was good, because I’ve been struggling to finish slaloms this season. I felt like I could have gone faster, but I was really satisfied with that finish. It felt good to get that off my chest.
I’m going to do the whole shebang this week in Kitzbuehel: super-G, downhill and slalom. I’m very excited because super-G has gone well for me this season — I had my first super-G podium (second) at Val d’Isere in December — and I feel like I have a really good opportunity in the downhill this year to get a pretty good result.
I’m not really a speed skier, but Kitzbuehel is so technically difficult that I think I can do well there, and that’s really exciting.
Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety reports regularly from the World Cup tour in collaboration with Denver Post ski writer John Meyer.
