It is considered the premier downhill of the season. And for Daron Rahlves, it was worth a very long wait. After several delays caused by persistent fog – and 40-plus years of waiting by U.S. racing fans, Rahlves became the first U.S. racer to win the Hahnenkamm downhill since Buddy Werner in 1959 when he conquered a course shortened because of the marginal conditions, edging Swiss Didier Cuche by five-hundredths of a second with Norway's Kjetil Andre Aamodt another .03 back…and World Cup leader Bode Miller eighth and Jake Fiala 18th.

"I just can't stop smiling," Rahlves told reporters in the finish area. "Every downhiller dreams of winning the Hahnenkamm. It's the sign of a great champion - and that's what I did today.

"I'm a little disappointed we didn't start from the top," he continued, "but I'll come back next year and finish that off."

DH/SG Head Coach John McBride added, "I've never seen Kitzbuehel so quiet. We had talked about Black Saturday, meaning no Austrian on the top step, but no Austrian on the podium…wow! Daron pinned the bottom; that took huge stones and that won it for him!"

Stephan Eberharter of Austria was fourth, helping him chew slightly into Miller's overall points lead, whittling the margin to 25 points. The men race slalom Sunday with a combined calculation coupled with Saturday's DH, then are scheduled for a makeup of Friday's weathered-out super G on Monday.

The Hahnenkamm triumph – coming in 1:09.63 – is the fourth victory of Rahlves' careeer, following his downhill win Dec. 29 in Bormio, Italy, and back-to-back wins in 24 hours on the 1994 Olympic course in Kvitfjell, Norway, in March 2000. It's also his fifth podium of the season, going with his second in a downhill a week earlier in Wengen (not the Lauberhorn DH) and his thirds at the Chevy Truck Birds of Prey DH in Beaver Creek and a third in a second Bormio downhill.

Organizers battled the fog, which clung to the middle of the course, forcing delays from the scheduled 11 a.m. start to 11:30, to noon, and to 12:30. They finally decided to drop the start to the Alte Schneisse, just above the super G starthouse and after a TV camera forerunner went down the course at 1:42 p.m., showing many sections of the course grey but no thick layers of fog, went head with the re-re-re-restart time of 1:45.

The lowered start eliminated the challenging Mausfalle and Steilhang but still sent racers through the Seidelalm, Hausberg and Zielschuss sections. Weather had troubled the race crews since midweek after one training run when winds erased a second training run and about a half-meter of new snow wiped out Friday's super G.

— Courtesy U.S. Ski Team