It is still his weekend. Even if Didier Cuche ended his sports career eight years ago. When he comes to Kitzbühel, on the days when the downhillers drive out their winners on the world-famous Streif, hundreds hit him on the shoulder when they recognize him, want autographs and selfies. He’s got his nickname here anyway. Didier Cuche is the king of Kitzbühel.
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“You have to be able to absorb this special atmosphere,” he told SPIEGEL, and the Swiss obviously succeeded in absorbing it in his time as a skier. He has triumphed five times on the Streif, which is officially called the Hahnenkamm Downhill, but which nobody calls it that. No one else succeeded, not Franz Klammer, not Jean-Claude Killy, not Hermann Maier. Not even Toni Sailer, whom they called Kitz’s Blitz.
Record winner is Cuche. He became world champion, got silver at the Olympic Games, but people remember that the Swiss will always be the one who managed to win the Streif five times.
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You have to “know the limits of the route”
“The most important thing is to know your own limits exactly, but also the limits of this route,” says Cuche when asked what he did better on the Streif than the competition. He got to know the limits of this route during his first Streif season.
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In 1995 young Didier Cuche came to Kitzbühel, full of respect for this notorious slope. And in his first training session the drivers dropped out in rows before him, several downhill drivers had to be removed by helicopter. “I would like to be the other way round, and I thought if the best would fall, how would it be for me?” But he wanted to overcome the embarrassment of driving the gondola down again not give up. And he arrived safely: “I was eight and a half seconds behind, but felt like a tiger.”
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In 2011 he was close to perfection
Later he really was the tiger on the Streif, in 2010 he won with his rib broken, in 2011 he outclassed the entire world elite in fantastic conditions and won by more than a second. “It was a race in which almost everything went well,” says Cuche looking back, “when I look at it today, I can still see a few cosmetic things that could have been done better, but it was a ride close to perfection. ”You can’t get any closer to perfection on the Streif anyway, that doesn’t allow it.
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Mousetrap, steep slope, Hausbergkante, traverse, larch shot – the Streif is full of mythical passages. “Right from the start it goes to hell,” says Cuche, “there is no opportunity to slow down or slow down.” And when you have reached the local mountain, “it means everything or nothing anyway”. For many others who were not called Didier Cuche, the end result was: nothing.
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“I was extremely lucky to never have had the feeling of falling on the Streif,” says Cuche. And yet he always traveled to Kitzbühel “with the strange feeling of anticipation and respect,” and I was always happy to be able to go home on Sunday without injury.
Between self-confidence and self-confidence
Between 2010 and 2012, when he won three times in a row, the Streif was considered his route, Cuche seemed almost invincible in Kitzbühel. “In fact, it makes you even stronger when you arrive as a favorite,” says the 45-year-old today. The intimidated looks of the competition, the doubts of the rivals, “I never knew that”, and still: “Year after year you have to start from scratch on the Streif.” That is not a contradiction for him. It is the boundary between self-confidence and self-assurance.
Kitzbühel, this Oktoberfest for skiing, nowhere is the hype so big, Cuche has always stimulated it. “If you want to be quiet, you can also retire to the hotel”, he didn’t need it. Focusing yes, but “you also have to appreciate how many people come to see this massive show.”
The massive show starts again on Saturday at 11.30 a.m. Cuche is of course present as a spectator on the slopes, and he assumes that a compatriot will follow in his footsteps. “The ideal preparation for the Streif is if you have had a strong season by then, that is the perfect psychological basis,” he says – and can only mean one. Beat Feuz, the 32-year-old Swiss who has been skiing successfully for so long but has never won in Kitzbühel, is due this time, Cuche believes. “The beat has what it takes.”
Feuz actually only has to do what Didier Cuche has always practiced in Kitzbühel. “The Streif is the absolute stress, because you stand with your back to the wall. And when I stood with my back against the wall, I actually always got the best out of myself. ”Absolutely stress and standing with your back to the wall – that should be something that could be done on the Streif.
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