Here’s an excerpt from the Vail Daily chronicling this weekend’s race at the famous Birds of Prey course on Beaver Creek. If you missed it this year make sure to plan to attend in future years as it certainly is one of the best World Cup races.
BEAVER CREEK, Colorado — Good things come to those who wait, and that was certainly the case for Birds of Prey 2008.
We lost the super combined to snow on Thursday — for the record, Switzerland’s Daniel Albrecht remains the defending champ — but what followed were three days of enthralling racing at Beaver Creek.
We knew that Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal was going to be one of the big stories coming into the week. Everyone, Aksel included, was just happy that he got down the hill during training on Tuesday. Even everyone in the press corral stopped what they were doing to applaud.
But are you kidding? Downhill win Friday. Super-G win Saturday. Third in the giant slalom Sunday.
Given Svindal’s crash last year, that truly does go up with Hermann Maier’s run from the 1999 Worlds through the 2000 downhill — six wins in as many starts in Beaver Creek — and the Bode Miller-Daron Rahlves podium dance of 2004-05 as one of the legendary stories of the Birds of Prey.
What makes it all the more gratifying is that Svindal is liked by his fellow competitors. They were genuinely happy for him this week, though that may change if Svindal continues his rampage in Europe for the rest of the season.
Seriously, this is not always the case. Jealousy builds up. One such example was the stare of death any reporter got when Austria’s Stephan Eberharter was asked about his teammate Maier. Not a pretty sight.
Don’t be surprised to see Svindal takes back the overall globe from Miller come March of next year.
