World Cup leader Bode Miller (Franconia, NH) saw his unprecedented winning streak come to an end Thursday as unsung Austrian Stephan Goergl grabbed his first World Cup win on the first day of the VISA Birds of Prey mini-Olympics.

NBC will broadcast coverage Sunday at 1 p.m. EST.

Goergl, who never had finished better than seventh in a World Cup race, stormed down Birds of Prey to give Austria its first win of the season in 1:13.40 with Miller - surviving a midrace miscue - second in 1:13.64. He leads the World Cup points with 380, putting him 212 ahead of Hermann Maier of Austria after four of the schedule's 40 events.

"Second place is super. I'll take that any day," Miller told reporters. He chided the media for making his historic streak bigger than it was. No one had won the first three races of a World Cup season until Miller accomplished that, winning a giant slalom in Soelden, Austria, and then back-to-back speed races over the weekend at Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies.

Miller: "totally psyched with second..."

"My streak wasn't going to last forever. I'm totally psyched with second. I skied well. I just made a few mistakes," he said.

He and Daron Rahlves (Sugar Bowl, CA) - second overall in SG last season but a disappointed 17th Thursday - each ran into problems on a turn below Pumphouse, near the midsection of the 1.95K course. As they tried to turn, they hit soft balls of snow - "death cookies," as Miller called them - at the side of the track and couldn't dig their edge into the snow as they wanted.

"I made one mistake in the whole course and that was it," Miller said. "It's a frustrating mistake because I wasn't trying to take any risk there - there was nothing to be gained there; I was just trying to make it through. I just got low on the Pumphouse turn, and the next turns the snow was a lot different. Once I was on a late line there [i.e., turning late], there was nothing to push on..."

"I skied awesome. On the top I didn't take any risk, really, but I didn't make any mistakes. Once I made that mistake, I just opened it up to finish second. I executed pretty well the whole course but in super G, that's not enough, you have to execute the whole time."

He wasn't concerned about the streak, the Carrabassett Valley Academy product said. "The significant thing was winning super-G and downhill over the weekend" at Lake Louise, he said; they were his first two speed victories after 13 wins in slalom, GS and combined, making him one of only five skiers in history to win World Cup events in all five disciplines.

He said he wasn't as concerned about finishing ahead of defending World Cup overall and super G champion Hermann Maier of Austria, with whom Miller battled much of the 2004 season before he finished fourth overall.

Coach "pumped" and "bummed"

"You're racing for the fastest time, not against somebody," Miller said, saying he liked the young Austrians coming along because they're more likely to support all racers as he - Miller - feels the community of racers should do.

U.S. DH/SG Head Coach John McBride was understandably pleased with Miller's fourth straight podium, which kept the U.S. Ski Team in second place behind Austria in the Nations Cup points. Austria has 1,149 points to 686 for the United States with Sweden third (439). But he was glum about the other U.S. men.

"I'm pumped about Bode - he did a great job - but I'm bummed about the rest," McBride said. "I know we have so much more potential...four, five, six guys who can do it, and we didn't show it today. There were flashes of brilliance - 'D' [Rahlves] and [Erik] Schlopy did a great job up top but couldn't put it together on the bottom.

"Yeah, it was difficult to come down and win after the early guys, but we should've had someone in the points. There was just so much lack of execution," he said.

The men run downhill Friday in the VISA Birds of Prey schedule, followed by giant slalom and slalom. U.S. starters in the DH will be: Miller, Rahlves, Bryon Friedman (Park City, UT), Jake Fiala (Frisco, CO), J.J. Johnson (also Park City), Scott Macartney (Redmond, WA) and Jeff Harrison (Steilacoom, WA).

MEN'S ALPINE WORLD CUP
VISA Birds of Prey World Cup
Beaver Creek, CO - Dec. 2, 2004
Men's Super G
1. Stephan Goergl, Austria, 1:13.40
2. Bode Miller, Franconia, N.H., 1:13.64
3. Mario Schreiber, Austria, 1:13.72

17. Daron Rahlves, Sugar Bowl, Calif., 1:14.56
32. Dane Spencer, Boise, Idaho, 1:15.61
33. Scott Macartney, Redmond, Wash., 1:15.64
39T. Jake Fiala, Frisco, Colo., 1:16.08
48. Erik Schlopy, Park City, Utah, 1:17.30

Did not finish:
Wade Bishop, Winter Park, Colo.

World Cup Points
Men's Overall (4 of 40 races)
1. Miller, 380 points
2. Maier, 168
3. Hans Knauss, Austria, 147

6. Rahlves, 106
41T. Schlopy 14
53T. Spencer, 6
59T. Friedman, 3

— Courtesy of US Ski Team