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By ERICA BULMAN AP Sports Writer
BEAVER CREEK, Colo. (AP) -- Bode Miller narrowly avoided a high-speed collision with a course worker Friday to capture his first World Cup downhill victory in two years.
Miller, who had the fastest time in the downhill leg of a super-combi the day before, charged down the Birds of Prey course in 1 minute, 46.15 seconds.
"It's one of my favorite hills, it really has all the stuff I look for, so to ski it the way I did today is just awesome," Miller said.
Swiss downhill veteran Didier Cuche was runner-up, 0.15 seconds behind, while another American, Steve Nyman, was third, 0.33 back.
Miller, known for his steady nerves, had a close call when a gate judge in a green jacket lost his footing on the icy surface and streaked across his path just two gates below the brazen skier. Miller, going into a right-footed turn, neither flinched nor slowed. In fact, Miller even picked up speed and was likely going somewhere around 55 mph.
"It's a little bit of a distraction, but being a ski racer, you're used to those kinds of things and you get past them pretty quick," Miller said. "Once I realized I wasn't going to hit him, he was the last thing on my mind."
"That's just Bode," said teammate Bryon Friedman, who watched the proceedings from the finish.
The same thing happened to Hermann Maier, though the course worker didn't cross quite so close. However, Maier said the distraction did affect him slightly and the Austrian star finished 23rd, 1.98 off the pace.
Americans have won the Birds of Prey downhill -- considered one of the top-three toughest on the World Cup circuit -- the last three years.
Daron Rahlves, the most decorated U.S. speed event skier, won the last edition of this downhill in 2005. Bode Miller snatched the victory in 2004, his last downhill win.
The last non-American to win the downhill here was Maier in 2003, when it featured a second race after poor conditions at the French resort of Val d'Isere. Rahlves won the first race that year.
Miller had been having a slow start to the season.
At the season-opening slalom in Levi, Finland, earlier this month, he failed to qualify for the second run. And at the speed races in Lake Louise, Canada last week, he finished 14th in a super-G and 29th in a downhill.
But the 29-year-old showed he was back on form in Thursday's super-combi, posting the fastest time in the downhill leg before going off course in the slalom run.
His last World Cup victory was at the finals in Are, Sweden in March, when he won a super-G.
"It's contentment when you ski like that. I know I can do it, I've skied like that before, I've skied this hill," Miller said. "I don't know if I was at the end of my potential today but with all the variables I really felt excellent to put down that kind of run, where I was just charging the whole way."
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) APTV-12-01-06 1354MST
