Austrian Hannes Reichelt made up for teammate Marcel Hirscher's disappointing slalom with victory in the famed World Cup downhill in Kitzbuehel on Saturday.
Starting with bib number 22, the 33-year-old Reichelt stormed down the 3.4km-long course on the Hahnenkamm mountain to clock 2min 03.38sec despite suffering from back pain.
In a dramatic day of racing in front of a huge crowd, Norway's reigning world downhill champion Aksel Lund Svindal finished second (2:03.59) with American star Bode Miller (2:03.72) third.
Reichelt's sole previous downhill win came in the Italian resort of Bormio last year, and the victory was his seventh of his career on the World Cup circuit.
Under the watchful eye of Austria's favourite son Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former Mr Universe, action-film actor and governor of California, it was the perfect riposte after Hirscher saw his slalom hopes go up in smoke on Friday.
Importantly, Svindal's second placing saw him increase his lead in the World Cup overall standings to 102 points over Hirscher, with a super-G and super-combined scheduled for Sunday.
With racers reaching speeds of 140km/h while negotiating 80-metre jumps, the Kitzbuehel downhill nearly always favours the more experienced racers.
Saturday was no exception, and with the downhill cut short in Wengen last weekend, the Hahnenkamm was the perfect workout for the speed kings before next month's Sochi Olympics.
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