Mario Matt pulled off an extraordinary coup to win the super combined event in Wengen on Sunday after a superb slalom run. First to leave after finishing the downhill in 30th, a huge 2.37 seconds down on winner Peter Fill, the Austrian took advantage of slushy conditions to seal an unlikely victory.
The deplorable condition of the slalom piste at Wengen told a telling story. Brown earth could be seen poking through the thin layers of crumbling snow on each gate; these were spring skiing conditions in January.
As the first skier let loose on the slalom course, Mario Matt held a huge advantage over his opponents - even if his weak downhill run saw the Austrian almost two-and-a-half seconds off the pace, and seemingly out of the equation.
But it soon became apparent that Matt held the cards after his immediate subsequent opponents, all carrying through time advantages from the first leg, failed to match Matt for speed.
Only Ivica Kostelic posed any threat, the Croatian nevertheless still 0.61 seconds off Matt's pace in provisional second.
With the top ten skiers from the downhill on track after two much-needed by equally futile piste-repair breaks, Matt's position looked increasingly unreachable.
Under the hot Swiss sun in Wengen the course was deteriorating as fast as David Beckham's career in European football, and even slalom specialist Benni Raich of Austria could not get anywhere near his compatriot, settling for sixth place.
Swiss pair Marc Berthod and Slyvan Zurbriggen managed to push Kostelic down to fourth, but they still trailed Matt by 0.38 and 0.41 seconds respectively.
It was left to the three fastest runners of the downhill to try their luck. First up was Austria's Michael Walchhofer, second to Fill in the downhill by 0.16 seconds after a tight run.
The piste proved too slow and Walchhofer, who crashed heavily in Saturday's downhill, only posted the 15th quickest time at 1.85 seconds.
Next up was Bode Miller who, trailing Fill by just one hundredth of a second after a solid downhill run 24 hours after his win in the classic Lauberhorn race on Saturday, looked in a perfect position to record his first technical victory of the season.
A glance at Miller's form this season, however, emphasised just how testing the American's predicament was: Miller had yet to complete a World Cup slalom or combined event all year.
And pressing to make up time on the patchy piste Miller kept up his woeful run, straddling an early gate and dropping out of the competition.
Only Fill stood between Matt and a truly remarkable win, and when his 2.37 lead from the downhill was whittled down to just 0.30 seconds at the first check, Matt's face erupted into an almighty smile.
Fill finally crossed the line in lowly 21st place, a massive 2.38 seconds behind Matt, who had managed to take off more time from Fill in the second leg than the Italian did from him in the first.
Swiss pair Berthod and Zurbriggen held on to record podium finishes, but a glossy Matt was the toast of the day.
Had Miller gone on to win or finish second in the event after his strong downhill run he would have replaced Norway’s Aksel Lund Svindal at the top of the World Cup overall standings.
But the American's disqualification means Svindal extends his lead over Switzerland's Didier Cuche to 52 points after finishing the event in eighth.
The Norwegian however lost his overall lead in the combined standings with Berthod now holding a slender one point advantage.
Bron eurosprt.com
