Beat Feuz Wins Lauberhorn DH, Victor Muffat-Jeandet Leads Combined Podium

Taking the win in front of your home crowd, on a legendary track, on a beautiful sunny day, is pretty much as good as it gets. Beat Feuz had the honour today in Wengen as he won the legendary Lauberhorn downhill ahead of Aksel Lund Svindal and Matthias Mayer.

Feuz came down with bib number one and his run held up through a competitive field. Feuz had to sweat it out in the leader's box as one-by-one his competitors came close but could not top the Swiss speed star. He withstood his first major test with Svindal came down two racers later, dangerously close to spoiling the Feuz fairy tale, but ultimately finishing 0.18 seconds behind. 

German Thomas Dressen also challenged two races later, but ultimately had to settled for fifth place nearly a second behind Feuz, the next scare for the home crowd with their red and white flags came when Austrian Matthias Mayer was in the hunt. Wearing bib 11, he was close to Feuz, but finished 0.67 behind, good enough for the final podium place on the day.

After Wengen suffered the after effects of a major storm early in the week, the legendary race recovered amazing well as there was no sign of the major wind damage from earlier in the week. thousands of fans flocked to the Berner Oberland resort and enjoyed beautiful blue skies and as a bonus a Swiss victory.

For the second-straight day, Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley, Calif.) led the way for the U.S. Ski Team, finishing 17th on the famed Lauberhorn downhill course at Wengen, Switzerland Saturday.

For any fans that arrived, or tuned in late, they missed the show as Switzerland’s Beat Fuez came out of the No. 1 start position and took home the victory. Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal was second, followed by Austria’s Matthias Mayer in third.

Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah), competing in only his second downhill since returning from a knee injury, had some blazing top fast splits and made a miraculous recovery off the final jump and finished 28th. Kipling Weisel (San Francisco, Calif.) made his World Cup downhill debut and finished 52nd. Jared Goldberg crashed midway down the course, but is OK.

Bennett secured his Olympic Team selection Friday after finishing ninth in the alpine combined. However, he still has a shot to make the downhill team for the Games with a solid result next weekend in Kitzbuehel, Austria.

“The pressure is still on to throw some results down in downhill,” Bennett said. “I want to compete in downhill (at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games). I think I’m skiing well, and I could have a good chance there if I keep skiing the way I am.”

The alpine combined from Wengen 2018 delivered three maiden winners: Victor Muffat-Jeandet took his first World Cup win, Pavel Trikhichev claimed his first podium and Peter Fill earned his first alpine combined globe.

In the combined the day started early morning with a downhill run on the legendary Lauberhorn track in Wengen, ending with Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr leading the pack, +0.59 ahead of his teammate Hannes Reichelt. However, in the second run on one of the most challenging slalom hills of the tour, the speed specialists had a hard time to keep up and lost a lot of time on the fastest time set by Victor Muffat-Jeandet.

The Frenchman boosted his confidence last week-end in Adelboden, where he laid down the fastest time of the second slalom run. Thanks to an acceptable downhill run (27th, +2.55), the snow conditions were perfect for his slalom run and he was able to clock a time that wouldn’t be beaten by anyone after him. After five World Cup podium in giant slalom (3) and alpine combined (2) so far, Victor Muffat-Jeandet now claimed his first World Cup win.

Pavel Trinkhichev is a name that probably didn’t ring a bell to most ski fans until today. The 25 years old Russian athlete won the Far East Cup Overall ranking last season and participated in 61 World Cup races so far. His best results came in the tech disciplines with a 16th place in the Adelboden giant slalom last week. Just within the Top 30 in the downhill run (29th, +2.59) he could also benefit from excellent conditions on the slalom run and ski onto the podium for the first time in his career.

Among the speed athletes, Peter Fill is the one that could handle the slalom the best. He was able to zig zag between the gates and hold on to his lead from the downhill run (4th) to clinch the third spot on the podium. The 60 points he scored today, added to the 80 he was able to earn with his second place in Bormio, offer a third globe to the South Tyrolean. After two consecutive downhill globes in the last two seasons, Peter Fill will be awarded the alpine combined globe 2018 at the World Cup Finals in Are.