Schladming - AFP
World Cup leader Klaus Kroell relished the thought of depriving Switzerland\'s Didier Cuche of an end-of-career bang ahead of the season\'s last downhill race here on Wednesday. \"I would of course love to get the crystal globe against Cuche,\" local boy Kroell told journalists in the Austrian resort following training on Tuesday. \"You can\'t say when you\'ll be in this position again. It\'s a great opportunity for me during Didier\'s active career to still take it away from him,\" he said with a twinkle in his eye. Kroell currently has a 48-point lead on 37-year-old Cuche with one race to go, while Swiss Beat Feuz is another three points behind. \"It\'s better to be 50 points ahead than 50 points behind but it\'s not a massive lead that you can count on, and I know Didier will go totally for a win,\" said Kroell, who is striving for his first ever crystal globe. \"I\'ll make sure I have a good run and then we\'ll see what happens. I will certainly not say \'Hey, I just need to be 3rd,\' -- that\'s rubbish!\" Cuche, who retires at the end of the season, already has four downhill crystal globes to his name and a fifth would equal the record of Austrian Franz Klammer. Austria\'s top female racers, meanwhile, hoped for icy temperatures overnight as they described their new downhill course -- used for the first time in competition -- as \"boring\". \"It was pretty unspectacular, kinda boring,\" said Elisabeth Goergl, third in the downhill World Cup standings, after soft snow conditions slowed down the course. \"But for a first experience, it was okay, you know. Start off easy!\" she laughed. \"Today was not such a challenge... (but) I think it can get interesting if it gets harder tomorrow.\" Wednesday\'s race will make little difference in the women\'s standings, with US star Lindsey Vonn already guaranteed the downhill and overall crystal globe trophies. The men will kick things off at 0830GMT, followed by the women at 1000GMT.