ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. BEAVER CREEK, Colo. – With snow, wind and fog causing course delays in the second training run in Beaver Creek on Wednesday, the latter half of the field did more of a high speed inspection rather than a true run and with too much moisture gathering on racers’ goggles, the training was cancelled altogether after racer No. 45.

U.S. ski racer Bode Miller stands in the starting gate as high winds blow snow during training for the men's World Cup downhill ski race in Beaver Creek, Colo., on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010. Training was stopped after 40 racers because of the weather. (AP Photo/Nathan Bilow)

The first 21 racers ran without delay but about an hour hold was put on training for No. 22 onward as a heavy snow began to fall. Training resumed when the snow let up and some athletes were able to bounce into the top 10 finishers, but course holds were placed after every couple racers between racers No. 30 and 45, and finally the jury canceled the run.

Before training was canceled, wearing bib No. 17, Michael Walchhofer – who was the third fastest in Tuesday’s training run – tied Italian Peter Fill for the fastest training time on Wednesday. Both finished in 1 minute, 48.34 seconds.

Even when Walchhofer ran, he said visibility was bad and his goggles were icing up. He said the superior condition of the course itself was likely the only reason training was able to go on for as long as it did.

“The piste is really in perfect shape, maybe that is the reason that you can ski today,” he said. “You have really very bad light, the ice on the goggles, normally you have to stop during the run. Beaver Creek slope [has good] grip, it is a really impressive piste, very fun to ski. With this bad light today it was maybe not so much fun.”

Fill, who was the 11th racer on course, also gave compliments to the conditions on the ground but not so much those in the air. “The snow, it is really perfect, it’s not so hard snow, it’s really grippy. But the visibility is not so good today.”

After Fill and Walchhofer, Hans Grugger was the next to finish, he was 0.06 seconds off the lead pace although with bib No. 27, he started after the first long course hold. Erik Guay started No. 12 and was 0.07 seconds off the lead pace and Aksel Lund Svindal, running just before the course hold, was next, 0.31 seconds back. Starter No. 15, Klaus Kroell was 0.46 seconds back as U.S. skier Travis Ganong, wearing bib No. 37, popped ahead of the field, finishing seventh before the cancellation, 0.50 off the lead pace.

Switzerland's Didier Cuche skis the course during training for the men's World Cup downhill ski race in Beaver Creek, Colo., on Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010. The downhill is scheduled for Friday. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)

Bode Milller, who started right after the course hold wearing bib No. 23 and finished 11th, said the visibility was “surprisingly good” during his run.

“It seems good,” he said. “The snow is really nice and smooth.”

But conditions changed rapidly from racer to racer.

Last weekend’s Lake Louise super G champion Tobias Gruenenfelder started No. 30 and, tying for 17th before the run was canceled, said that nobody should put much stock in today’s training times.

“Today was a little special because of the weather,” he said. “It was changing. The light was not so good. It always changes a little bit for everyone, also with the wind on the top in the flats. Now it is a little less snow, but it’s hard to compare the numbers and the times, so maybe we will not think much about the times. Before there were some fast guys but behind, also some fast guys.”

Although 45 racers made it down the course, Wednesday’s training run is officially canceled. A second official training run is scheduled for 11 a.m. local time on Thursday with the downhill scheduled for Friday.

by Shauna Farnell
FISapline.com
Wednesday 1 December 2010

Mancuso fastest in Lake Louise DH training run 2

Julia Mancuso of the United States carried the speed she built up during the first downhill training run at the Lake Louise Winterstart World Cup on Tuesday for the fastest time in Training 2 on Wednesday.

US skier Julia Mancuso races in the Women's Downhill second training of the FIS Ski World Cup in Lake Louise, Canada. Mancuso posted the fastest time in a training ahead of Friday's season-opening World Cup downhill. (AFP/Emmanuel Dunand)

Mancuso finished on top in a time of 1-minute, 30.19 seconds, 0.16 seconds ahead of Slovenia’s Tina Maze and 0.50 seconds ahead of young Austrian speedster Anna Fenninger.

“It was much better conditions today. Not as grippy and icy, it’s kind of a better firm surface. I think I skied well but I feel like you can never tell until you cross the finish line,” Mancuso said after her run.

Another young Austrian fared extremely well today, Nicole Schmidhofer, who started in 46th, finished in 4th place just 0.55 off Mancuso’s top time.

France’s Marion Rolland also ran fast for the second day in a row, finishing in fifth in 1-minute, 30.75 seconds. Rolland was fastest in Tuesday’s training run, the first one of the week before this weekend’s season opening speed races in Lake Louise.

US skier Stacy Cook who started in 30th was quick enough to move up 24 spots, finishing 6th fastest on the day only 0.65 seconds out of first.

Overall World Cup champion Lindsey Vonn finished well back in 19th position, but told reporters she was not going at full speed yet, something she doesn’t like to do for training runs.

“You don’t get a medal for training runs, so I just try to ski solid and just get a feeling for the course and the terrain. I don’t ever push it very hard in the training runs, today was like 60 per cent for me, so I’ll probably knock it up to 70 per cent tomorrow and then save the 100 per cent for the races,” Vonn said.

FISapline.com
Wednesday 1 December 2010

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