CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy - On a bluebird day with the sheer cliffs of the Dolomites looming in the background, Julia Mancuso led the charge down the action-filled course in Wednesday's downhill training.

Mancuso, the 22nd racer down the course, which begins just at the base of the jagged, vertical rocks that characterize the peaks of these mountains, finished with the top time of 1 minute, 40.17 seconds. She missed a gate in the first third of the course, which her coach said happens often in training (the results don't count for anything) and cost Mancuso no more than a tenth of a second.

Swiss racers Fraenzi Aufdenblatten (1:40.41) and Nadia Styger (1:40.61) were second and third fastest, respectively.

Maria Riesch and Ingrid Jacquemod were within a hair of third place, Riesch finished in 1:40.62 and Jacquemod in 1:40.64.

The Cortina course is recognized as one of the more technical on the women's downhill tour. It begins with a hard left turn on an off-camber runout that takes racers over a tricky uphill jump and into an icy, steep pitch between the rocks called the Tofana. The second jump sends racers sailing about 35 meters with a landing that Mancuso describes as "a slapper."

"The course in Cortina is always a lot of fun," said Mancuso, who has a rich history of success in Cortina, landing her first Cup podiums here in 2006 with back-to-back second places in DH and super G then going on to win the super G in 2007, the same year that she was second in both the downhill and the giant slalom. Then she took second again in the SG in 2008. "It's really challenging. This year it's a little different. It's more technical on top and you really have to gun it on the bottom. It's nice when there's lots of action. I like it when there's quick switches. Everything just comes really quick."

Mancuso (see her walk you through the whole course) says that a fast day of training is still training but it helps build her confidence knowing that her skills are primed.

"The skiing is there, it's just putting it together on race day," she said. "One of my strengths is being a real natural skier. When it's a training run, I ski real naturally. I seem to be skiing a lot of the training runs really fast. I just hope that can transfer over into race day. I just need to stay positive that I know the skiing's there and it's just working on the little things to make it 100 percent unbeatable."

Styger, who has had top 10 finishes in the Cortina downhill the last two seasons (her Swiss teammate, Dominique Gisin, sidelined once again with another knee injury, won the race last year), said the section with the compression going into the uphill jump will be key for finding or losing speed.

"It's really diffuicult, one turn - it's a little bit compression, you have to go up a little bit, she said. "This part where you have to go up a little bit, it's difficult to take the whole speed with you. There you can either lose a lot or win a lot."

Lindsey Vonn, who has been 100 percent unbeatable in downhill races so far this season, was feeling much better on Wednesday, glad to be focusing on speed events again. She was eighth in training (1:40.99).

"I feel good," she said "I was really, really tired in Maribor. I kind of ran out of gas. But I had two days off and I feel really good now."

Vonn, who landed her first World Cup podium in the Cortina downhill in 2004 then went on to podium in both downhill and SG in 2005, SG in 2006, won the downhill in 2008 and was second last year, says the course is among her favorites.
"It's so much fun," she said. "The snow is always perfect and - I don't want to jinx it - but it's usually sunny and a really nice race. I think it's exactly what I need right now to get my mind back on track and be more positive and give me the mental confidence that I need going into the Olympics."

Vonn now trails Maria Riesch in the World Cup overall standings with 894 points to Riesch's 922. Riesch surged ahead in Maribor with two podium finishes while Vonn didn't finish or qualify in the tech races there.

Canadian Marie-Pier Prefontaine, who teammates said hadn't trained on a downhill course in a few weeks, had a nasty crash coming over the finish line Wednesday, when she got too far back over the last jump then was thrust forward on the landing. She was motionless for a few moments and then taken to the hospital. Canadian team spokesman Kyle Marr says she is now back at the team hotel, is "doing OK," but he guess she will not train on Thursday. The team will have an update on her status and whether she will race this weekend later this week.

Shauna Farnell
FISalpine.com
Wednesday 20 January 2010