Rahlves Reflects on Kitzbuhel
Hey everyone!
I'm sitting here next to my Kitz trophy punching out a few e-mails. This gold one looks better than my bronze from 2001. ha,ha,ha Check it out.
I've included a picture. It puts a huge smile on my face when I think back to the day. The official awards were incredible. Thousands of fans
yelling. The noise shook me to the core when I heard, "Hahnenkamm Sieger...from the United States of America...Daron Rahlves!". Then they played the national anthem with me holding a flag and my golden gams trophy. It was a feeling that will live with me forever. That's when it finally settled in and I knew I had won the big one!
Friday, the day before the DH, Shash my sister and I skied with Jamy, Josh and this guy Ralph that I met the day before. He grew up in Kitz and now lives in Malibu, CA. Anyway after a great day of skiing pow and eating a big old weinerschnitzel I headed down the gondola for town. As I was going
down I read off every name on the gondolas passing by. Every winner at Kitzbuhel is honored with their own gondola. Then 4 blank gondolas went by and I said to myself that one of those will be mine. The next morning I woke up and had this feeling like I was destined to win here.
After inspection and getting myself ready to go we were put on hold at start time, 11am. It was a long day waiting around for the fog to lift. Every 30 mins it was pushed back. Finally at 1:45pm they made a decision to lower the start and get the race off. I was disappointed because the top is a blast to ski and I'm fast up there in the first 35 secs. What can you do? At least we were going to have the race. I felt fine about starting lower. I've always been competitive from there down.
Starting from the alte shnessi it's a full sprint. Every turn must be nailed and a tight bull is important. Not running from the top puts more
guys right in the hunt close in time.