The results from the Bombardier Winterstart downhill at Lake Louise, Alberta Saturday reflected the strange set of weather circumstances it took place in.

For the record the win went to Peter Fill of Italy, his first career win. Second went to Swiss Carlo Janka, his first Cup podium, and third went to Swede Hans Olsson, his first podium. The story was the weather. And the U.S. story was TJ Lanning, who ran in some of the worst conditions of the day from the 39th start.

The day started out like a postcard with plenty of sunshine, but the clouds rolled in after the first eight or 10 skiers. "It was a total whiteout," says U.S. men's coach Sasha Rearick. "You couldn't see the bumps and the guys all got shook around pretty good. And then the wind picked up." And the wind was pushing up the hill along the upper flat. All in all, it made for a bad day for the favored skiers. Bode Miller, who won the first two training runs in impressive fashion, finished 16th. Aksel Svindal had one of the better runs and finished seventh. Marco Buechel was 21st. Didier Cuche, the defending downhill champ finished 32nd. From the perspective of the favored it was pretty danged ugly.

From the perspective of the real late runners, it wasn't bad at all, for just as suddenly as the visibility had socked in, it lifted. Janka, the second place finisher, started 65th out of 73.

Rearick suggested it was unfair to take anything away from Janka's effort. "He's a great young talent. He took advantage of a great opportunity. Unfortunately for our guys, it didn't clear up until after our last guy had gone."

The last U.S. starter was Bryon Friedman, and shortly after his run came a course hold. In the 10 minutes that hold lasted, the weather cleared and the winds died.

The best U.S. finish, ninth, came from TJ Lanning and he ran 39th, right in the thick of the worst of the conditions. Rearick called his run "perfect," saying, "He had no advantage whatsoever. It was just a demonstration of the hard work he's put ain all summer. It was very, very exciting."

How exciting, well, TJ says it would be like driving a car in a heavy fog on a bumpy road.

"I would say so (that I ran in the worst of the conditions). I was just concentrating on having the best run I could have. It's hard to ski like you would on a sunny day on a day like this, but that's what I tried to do. I knew what I wanted to do and I just tried to do it."

Lannings says he couldn't really see the contours of the hill, and had to "stay loose and confident."

It was the first career win for the 26 year old Fill. He is coming off one of his worst season's in 2008 and spent the summer prep period with a new training approach (more rest) and a new equipment sponsor (Atomic). Both moves appear to have paid off.

For Olsson, a 24 year old Swede, the result was his first World Cup podium, and his first trip to a top 10 finish in a downhill.

But the big surprise, the most stunning result, came from Janka who started so far back in the pack folks in the finish area had long since lost interest in who was racing. From the 65th start he stormed his way down the track and moved ahead of Fill, lost some speed right at the end and wound up .08 behind. The 22 year old Swiss had just seven scoring results to his name, the best of those an eighth in combined at Val d'Isere a season ago.

And the surprises didn't stop there. Georg Streitberger, the fourth place finisher, had collected a win last season in the Kvitfjell super G, a race marred by the severe injury to his teammate Matthias Lanzinger.

Canadian Erik Guay finished tenth. Miller, the winner of the first two training runs at Lake Louise, finished 16th, still better than he finished a season ago. Marco Sullivan was 23rd, Canadian Robbie Dixon got 24th.

By Hank McKee    
Saturday, 29 November 2008 
skiracing.com

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