ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. BEAVER CREEK, Colo. – Austrian veteran Hannes Reichelt was looking good in downhill training once again at Beaver Creek on Thursday, putting down a run that was nearly two seconds faster than Didier Cuche’s lead time in the first training on Wednesday.

Reichelt, who didn’t qualify to race in Beaver Creek last year but who was third in training Wednesday and has won the super G here twice – in 2005 and 2007 – finished Thursday’s downhill training in 1 minute, 43.64 seconds. Only two other athletes came within a half a second of his time, teammates Matthias Mayer, who, wearing bib No. 67, finished 0.07 seconds behind Reichelt although he missed a gate, and Klaus Kroell, 0.26 seconds back with no missed gates.

The temperature dropped dramatically from Wednesday to Thursday and it was much cloudier. Also, the wind blew up to 45 kilometers per hour throughout the day.

“The visibility with my start number was better than with the beginning start numbers,” said Reichelt, who wore bib No. 29. “I was not perfect on the line. I was falling a little bit inside. The conditions were perfect. The course is very fast.”

Mayer said he missed a gate after The Brink on the steep part of the course, but overall was very pleased with his performance and said he is ready for the race on Friday.

“I jumped too much and missed the gate – there’s a double gate to the right in the steep part. Maybe [it would have been] a few tenths more,” said the 21-year-old Austrian, who landed his first career World Cup top 10 last weekend in the Lake Louise super G. “I’m very happy for today’s training. Yesterday I was four seconds behind the leader and in the evening I thought, ‘that’s not me. I will push hard and give everything.’”

Kroell, who wore bib No. 16, said he felt good on course, too – that he ran the training at about 95 percent of his ability – and also got lucky with the direction of the wind.

“I had a good feeling on the course. It was a little bit windy, changing a bit, I had a good wind sometimes from behind. Other guys got less wind,” Kroell said. “I hope at some corners I can ski faster. The rest was good. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Also right up with the top guys in training was once again giant slalom specialist Kjetil Jansrud, who was fourth Thursday, 0.71 seconds behind the lead time.

The Norwegian was sixth in Wednesday’s training and made a remarkable leap in his speed results last weekend in Lake Louise, when he notched his best career downhill result in 11th.

“I don’t know how lucky the other guys were but I had a nice tail wind,” said Jansrud, who said he completely changed his downhill ski setup this season. “I’ve been doing speed races for a couple of years now. It’s always been a goal to get better, so I’ve kept on training, but it’s never really paid off [until] this year. I’m happy with Lake Louise, but this is a hill that should fit me better. It’s more technical. At least now I know I can keep up with the guys in the flat parts, which is a huge advantage if you’re a good technician, so I think I’ve made a step in the right direction. I can tell you it’s way more satisfying to see your name in the top top-three rather than the bottom top-three.”

After leading training Wednesday, Cuche finished fifth Thursday, 0.82 seconds behind Reichelt.

“I changed what I didn’t do well yesterday. It worked but not everywhere,” he said. There’s a lot of strong guys skiing well here.”

The downhill kicks off at 11:00 a.m. local time (19.00 CET time) at Beaver Creek on Friday.

by Shauna Farnell
FISalpine.com
Thursday 01 December 2011

Switzerland fastest once again, it's Dominique Gisin this time around

LAKE LOUISE, Canada- Thursday was the third and last day of Downhill training for the ladies in Lake Louise, and there were some Swiss ladies on top again. Dominique Gisin was the fastest coming down the slope, and with a time of 1 minute, 53.04 seconds, 0.19 seconds ahead of Lindsey Vonn and .27 seconds ahead of Wednesday’s leader and teammate Marianne Kaufmann-Abderhalden.

Today’s training was a bit of a challenge for the ladies, some really flat light made it hard to see the bumps, and some back wind made the slope much faster than the previous days. Comparing the winning time of the first and last training, the course got more than a second and a half faster.

Dominique Gisin and Lake Louise’s relationship go way back. In 2005, it was here that she was first given the chance to compete in a World Cup race. She lost a ski in one run and got hurt in another, but it was not all bad for her that first time around the “big girls”.

“There was not much snow in Europe that year, so the coaches decided to bring me to Canada for some training, I eventually got the chance to start and I remember even winning a training run, with some really high bib number,” she said of her first World Cup experience.

“Coming down the course, it was just so hard to tell what my time would be after crossing the finish line. I’ve had it all in the past days, from coming down two seconds behind, to being in the lead today. I did so many mistakes, and yet I was fast, maybe that’s the thing - I did the mistakes because I was skiing fast,” Gisin said.

Marianne Kaufmann-Abderhalden was once again able to be among the fastest girls, proving that her name hasn’t been on top of yesterday’s leader board by mistake.

“If only I could keep this speed up for the races, it would be great. It was not easy to ski today, I got some back wind on the flat section, and all of a sudden everything was happening faster than I was expecting. And with the flat light, it made a bumpy ride down the slope,” she said.

Andrea Fischbacher from Austria, who sits in fourth place today, .77 seconds behind Gisin, also found the light to be the biggest challenge of today’s training.

“Finally the slope cleared up from all the soft snow, and as long as you are in the line, you can ski on some really good and compact snow. But it was so dark, you really couldn’t see much of the surface and that was the hardest part of today’s training,” Fischbacher commented.

Elisabeth Goergl lost a ski midway down the slopes and crashed into the nets. She was able to ski down the course on her own, and a first information said that in the impact she might have hurt her thumb.

This was it as far as equipment testing and readjusting to the speed skis for the girls. From Friday on it is race time and things are starting to get serious. With three races scheduled in Lake Louise, and the Val d’ Isere SG rescheduled to Beaver Creek, we will be seeing some exciting speed races.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s Downhill race, it’s scheduled at 12.30 LOC time (20.30 CET time).

by Ana Jelusic
FISalpine.com
Thursday 01 December 2011

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