Kriechmayr king of 2019 Lauberhorn

Austrian Vincent Kriechmayr played the role of the spoiler in today’s downhill race in Wengen (SUI), edging Swiss hero Beat Feuz by a mere 0.14 seconds to claim his first downhill victory of the 2018-19 Audi FIS World Cup season.

Third place went to Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who continued to build his reputation as the up-and-coming Attacking Viking. Coming down with bib 17, he finished just 0.26 off the winning pace, knocking teammate Aksel Lund Svindal off the podium and into fourth place on the day.

Mother Nature could not have dished up a better day for today’s downhill as sunny skies and crisp temperatures greeted the racers. 37,000 fans flocked to the small Swiss village lining much of famed Lauberhorn, the longest course on the World Cup tour.

The fans were quickly rewarded for their journey when Feuz came down as the fifth racer and took a commanding lead after an excellent run. But the joy would only last for five minutes until Kreichmayr crossed the finish line two racers later and took over the lead. It was only when Kilde raced with blistering speed through the narrow Kernen-S curve that Kriechmayr had reason to be concerned, but on the last interval, Kilde lost time and skied into third place.

It was Kriechmayr’s fourth career World Cup victory and his ninth overall podium. More importantly, his victory today kept the Austrian men’s dominance since the calendar turned to 2019 alive as the nation has grabbed every victory in the New Year.

While Feuz barely missed his chance to grab his third victory in Wengen, he can still say that the Berner Oberland resort has treated him well during his career as it was his fifth podium here.

Tomorrow, the Wengen weekend wraps up as the technical races take over the spotlight with a slalom.

Results are available here: Wengen DH

Quotes from the Top 3 are available here: Soundlcoud