The world’s most legendary and demanding downhill race for men was first held in 1931 and this weekend will celebrate its 75th anniversary.
This latest Tirol’s latest video snow report from Kitzbühel, taken on Tuesday, was compiled as preparations begin for the weekend.
My Tirol magazine has published ’10 things you may not know about the Hahnenkamm’
1. The inaugural 1931 race was won by a Brit! Gordon ‘Mouse’ Cleaver scooped sixth place in the downhill and second place in the slalom becoming the first combination Hahnenkamm winner.
2. During the race weekend, over 25,000 people book into hotels and B&Bs around Kitzbühel.
3. 85% – the gradient at the start of The Mousetrap; the race’s steepest section.
4. In 1935, a cable car joist failed, meaning racers were hoisted to the top of the course by rope.
5. Over the years, the race has only been cancelled a total of three times due to lack of snow; in 1964, 1988 and 1993.
6. In 1953, the Kitzbühel Section Committee ruled that all shops in Kitzbühel had to close during the race. A great boost to audience figures and a nice break for hard-working shop assistants in town.
7. 1:51.58 – Franz Strobl’s winning time of the 1997 Hahnenkamm downhill has yet to be beaten.
8. With a time of 1:57.72 minutes (and an incredible 0.98 seconds ahead of USA’s Bode Miller), Switzerland’s Didier Cuche won the Hahnenkamm downhill for the fourth time in 2011 (he’d won previously in 2008 and 2010 and scooped the Downhill for the first time in 1998). With five wins he is the undisputed master on the Streif, followed by Karl Schranz and Franz Klammer with four wins each.
9. During the race of 1977, 592 journalists – including 14 television crews – were registered in attendance. It was a new record; 20 years earlier in 1956, just 40 reporters covered the race.
10. In the initial years after World War II, details and events of the Hahnenkamm race became clouded in mystery. Even the names of all the top five finishers remain unknown to this day.
