THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
VAL GARDENA, Italy — Beat Feuz’s recent transformation into a standout on a Swiss ski team full of standouts is all about intensity, and the ability to throw his relatively small frame down the mountain at full speed.
While most commentators were already treating Bode Miller as the winner of Friday’s World Cup super-G, Feuz took advantage of shifting weather conditions and claimed victory after all of the top-ranked skiers had already come down.
Feuz has impressed throughout this season, but the result was a surprise considering how poorly he performed in downhill training Wednesday and Thursday, finishing more than three seconds behind leader Hans Olsson one day and more than four seconds back the next.
"I do much better on race day. I’m a race animal," Feuz explained in comments translated from Swiss-German. "I’m very relaxed in life but I just go to the start and concentrate as much as I can, and probably the most important thing is I have fun with my skiing."
Feuz clocked one minute 21.51 seconds down the twisty and terrain-filled Saslong course, with Miller 0.30 seconds behind and Kjetil Jansrud of Norway third, 0.44 back. Calgary’s Jan Hudec was the top Canadian in 10th place.
Miller was an early starter with the No. 8 bib and put down a near flawless run in decent, although snowy, conditions and watched as the top-ranked super-G racers — starting with Nos. 16 and 22 — were slowed by poor visibility.
Just as Miller was getting ready to celebrate, however, the snowfall and visibility lightened and Feuz got into the starting gate with the No. 26 bib. Feuz led Miller at every checkpoint to clinch the second win of his career, having also won a downhill in Kvitfjell, Norway, at the end of last season.
"Beat has been skiing that way the whole year, so I’m not surprised," Miller said. "He skis smart and with a lot of intensity and skiing with a lot of intensity on a day like today makes a big difference."
Feuz finished second in the opening two downhills this season but his best previous result in super-G was third in Beaver Creek, Colorado, two weeks ago.
"It was really tough at the start because you could hear about the problems with the weather and people were losing time, but the coaches told us on the radio that everything on the course was OK and you can attack it and that’s what I did," Feuz said.
Feuz began celebrating even before he came to a stop, pumping his poles up and down in the air.
"It’s an incredible feeling not just because I won but also to have Bode Miller behind me," added the 24-year-old Feuz.
Miller’s only reaction to Feuz’s run was a slight sniffle.
"I knew I left something out there," said Miller, who didn’t look pleased when he finished his run, shoving his poles into the ground.
At five foot eight and 187 pounds, Feuz resembles Swiss team leader Didier Cuche in stature.
The 37-year-old Cuche has won the World Cup downhill title three of the past four years, and Swiss coaches have commented that if it were not for his success, smaller racers like Feuz may have not been given a chance to race on the World Cup circuit.
Feuz is a year younger than two other Swiss standouts — 2009-10 overall World Cup winner Carlo Janka and Sandro Viletta, who won the previous super-G.
The Swiss team also contains Olympic downhill champion Didier Defago, who is still regaining his form after missing last season due to injury.
"We’ve got a lot of guys that can win in the speed events right now," said Feuz.
For Jansrud, the Olympic silver medallist in giant slalom, it marked his first podium in a speed event. Now he’s aiming to become an all-around skier in the Norwegian tradition of Kjetil Andre Aamodt, Lasse Kjus and Aksel Lund Svindal.
"Now I can finally call myself an all-arounder," Jansrud said.
Erik Guay of Mont-Tremblant, Que., was 33rd overall. Robbie Dixon of North Vancouver, B.C., finished 40th, Benjamin Thomsen of Invermere, Ont., was 50th and Louis-Pierre Helie of Berthierville, Que., placed 60th.
Svindal finished fourth to keep the overall World Cup lead, although Feuz now trails the Norwegian by only 24 points. Ted Ligety of the United States, who sat out the race, dropped to third, 75 points behind.
.Miller is fourth overall, 101 points behind.
Svindal also held onto his lead in the super-G standings, 59 points ahead of Feuz.
"(Feuz) has not been good in the training here and now he puts down a super run like that," Svindal said. "He’s compact and gets after it — he’s a good skier."
The start of the race was lowered by about 250 metres due to low visibility.
The changing conditions led to a couple surprising names in the top 10. Max Franz of Austria finished fifth with the No. 54 bib for his best career result and Andreas Romar, the only Finnish racer in the field, placed seventh with the No. 40 bib.
The traditional downhill is scheduled for the Saslong on Saturday, then the circuit moves across the Gardena pass to nearby Alta Badia for giant slalom and slalom races Sunday and Monday.