CHAMONIX, France — Switzerland’s Didier Cuche won his second straight World Cup downhill Saturday, positioning himself as a strong favorite in alpine skiing’s showcase event at next month’s world championships.
A week after taming the technically demanding Streif course in Kitzbuehel, Austria, Cuche showed his versatility in Chamonix by capturing his ninth career World Cup downhill on a course that favors gliding ability.
It was Cuche’s first win in this French Alps resort and his second World Cup victory of the season.
“The most important thing to win a World Cup downhill is to be consistent from top to bottom,” Cuche said. “Today I achieved a perfect run.”
In perfect race conditions, Cuche clocked 1 minute, 58.91 seconds down the 2.09-mile Verte course, with Dominik Paris of Italy 0.67 back in second.
Travis Ganong overcame a stomach bug to finish 35th for a depleted U.S. squad. Teammates Steven Nyman and Wiley Maple also were sick, while Bode Miller and Ted Ligety skipped the races this weekend.
Cuche trailed the leading time by 0.09 seconds at the first intermediate, but found the perfect line in the Rocher Blanc turn, a big right curve where many skiers lost time.
“I won four-tenths of a second in this sector, and it would have been impossible to make that difference anywhere else,” Cuche said.
Cuche extended his lead in the downhill to 379 points, 65 ahead of Michael Walchhofer of Austria, who moved to second after finishing fifth in the race.
Silvan Zurbriggen of Switzerland is third with 285.
The race was interrupted for about 30 minutes after Canadian skier Manuel Osborne-Paradis crashed, breaking his left fibula and tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in that knee.
He was taken to a Geneva hospital, and the Canadian team later said he is out for the rest of the season.
World Cup overall leader Ivica Kostelic of Croatia finished 2.25 seconds back in 28th place.
Women’s race postponed.
The women’s World Cup downhill in Sestriere, Italy, was postponed because of snowfall and thick fog. The race will be made up today, with a super-combined pushed back to Monday.
