The Austrian men's Alpine skiing team hope to bounce back from their unusually dismal start to the season when they hit the home slopes of Hinterstoder this week.

The Upper Austrian resort stages a super-G race on Wednesday and a giant slalom on Thursday with both races offering chances for the home favourites to redeem themselves following a miserable showing in Alta Badia.

Heading to the Italian venue last weekend with only one win from the opening ten races, and just five further podium finishes, the Austrians probably thought things could not get much worse.

Things did.

A fourth-place finish for defending overall World Cup champion Benjamin Raich in Sunday's giant slalom was a mediocre enough start, but in Monday's slalom the sport's previously dominant nation failed to get a single skier in the top 30.

It was the first World Cup slalom since March 1986 in which Austria had failed to garner a single point, though 20 years ago points were awarded only to the top ten finishers.

Overall, the Austrians had managed to score at least one point in every men's World Cup race since January 2003.

"It's not as big a deal as everyone is making out," Austrian head coach Hans Pum said after the Alta Badia whitewash. "Our racers are still skiing well but they have just not been able to put together two good runs or manage a perfect run from top to bottom.

"For any other team the results we have managed would be seen as good but of course for Austria it is not good enough, and we are also surprised by how things have gone so far."

Austria's unexpected slump has left the slopes wide open for racers from rival nations with 11 different winners taking top honours in the 12 events held so far.

Only American former overall World Cup champion Bode Miller has managed two wins -- following up his downhill victory in Beaver Creek on December 1 with a super-G triumph last Friday in Val Gardena.

Along with Miller, Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal and Switzerland's Didier Cuche will be aiming to build on strong starts to the season.

Svindal heads the men's World Cup standings with a single victory in the Beaver Creek combined event and four further top six finishes.

Cuche is just 34 points behind in second place after managing top-ten finishes in seven of the eight races he has contested this season.

World Cup slalom champion Giorgio Rocca of Italy will be missing in Hinterstoder, having decided to take a break to give a knee injury time to heal.