ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. Defending downhill World Cup champion Didier Cuche found the best way today to boost his moral and his confidence at Val Gardena clocking the fastest time in the first training run a few days after suffering a nasty back pain - a lumbago - at the end of his second giant slalom run at Val d’Isère.

The helmet of Didier Cuche of Switzerland is seen as he prepares before the start of the second training session for the men's downhill alpine skiing World Cup event on the Saslong slope in Val Gardena December 16, 2010. REUTERS/Max Rossi (ITALY - Tags: SPORT SKIING)

The 36-year-old veteran, who pulled one of his back muscles last Saturday at the bottom of the challenging ‘La Face’ course, steamed down the classical ‘Saslong’ course in two minutes and six one-hundredths of a second to beat Austria’s Klaus Kroell by 26/100 while Michael Walchhofer, the recent winner at Lake Louise came in 3rd at 64/100.

Taking the start : US Bode Miller takes the start of the first training of the men World Cup Downhill to clock the 14th best time in Val Gardena. Swiss Didier Cuche Clocked the best time, followed by Austria's Klaus Kroell and Austria's Michael Walchhofer. (AFP/Olivier Morin)

Most of the favorites finished not far behind that group except Mario Scheiber who suffered a rough crash in the last part of the tricky ‘Ciaslat’ turns situated prior the final long gliding section leading to the arrival. Scheiber managed to get down the slope afterwards but complained about pains in one of his knees.

Last year’s winner, Canada’s Manuel Osborne-Paradis took it easy as it’s often the case for him in practise and was a far 37th, nearly four seconds out. His teammate Erik Guay, 3rd here back in December 2005, was 6th behind Sweden’s veteran Patrik Jaerbyn and France’s David Poisson.

Overall World Cup leader Aksel Lund Svindal, who captured the Super-G here a year ago, was 16th way ahead of Switzerland’s Carlo Janka who came in 27th. It’s the first time that the 2010 Overall champion plans to enter the downhill here. A year ago, he was 2nd in the Super-G behind Svindal. Last season Janka managed to win three downhill races – as much as his colleague Didier Cuche.

All the racers were pleased with the demanding yet fair course conditions. “The snow is very hard but not as bumpy as it was often the case in past years, it’s really nice to ski here,” explained Didier Cuche afterwards. “Apparently it rained a lot here last week and then it got very cold. It’s perfect for the course which is now rock solid from top to bottom,” he added.

“There is much snow in the technically demanding parts as the Ciaslat which remains a key section. I’m a little surprised by my performance today. I didn’t expect to be so fast today but things went fine for me at the end,” Cuche also commented.

“I underwent a medical check at Bern for my back last Monday. The doctor made an injection nearby the painful zone in my back to speed up the healing process. It seems to work well so far and I’m looking forward for tomorrow’s training run.”

Another timed trial is planned for Thursday followed by the Super-g race on Friday and the downhill on Saturday.

Contributed by Patrick Lang
FISalpine.com
Wednesday 15 December 2010

Riesch by far the speediest in first Val D training

VAL D’ISERE, France – Sunny skies that graced the men’s races last weekend in Val d’Isere gave way to colder temperatures and a foggy haze for the first women’s downhill training run on Wednesday.

On the women’s traditional course at Val d’Isere – the Piste Oreiller-Killy – Maria Riesch led training by a landslide, finishing nearly a second ahead of Lindsey Vonn in 1 minute, 53.86 seconds and nearly a second and a half faster than third-place Marie Marchand-Arvier.

Most racers said they were using Wednesday’s training as only a warm-up to feel out the course and adjust to the conditions, which they said were bumpy with poor visibility.

“The light was definitely flat today,” said Vonn, who finished the training 0.93 seconds behind Riesch. “It’s coming in and out. It’s kind of sunny sometimes, but it’s really hard to see the definition in the snow and it’s pretty bumpy in the middle of the course. So with the light, it made it pretty challenging. But I feel good.”

Val d’Isere is a special place for Vonn. Besides her two world championship gold medals here on the Solaise piste in 2009, this venue is the home of one of Vonn’s most prized awards from her downhill victory in 2005: a cow which has since had several offspring from a local couple who make cheese. Also, besides a 26th-place in the super G during Vonn’s first season on the World Cup in 2001 and a DNF in a slalom in 2006, Vonn has never finished lower than fourth place in Val d’Isere. She has two downhill victories (one from last year), one super-combined victory (last year) and two thirds (in downhill and super G) on this hill. Riesch took second place to Vonn in last year’s downhill and SC races.

“I definitely like it here. I like both courses, this one and the world champs course,” Vonn said. “I won my cow here a few years ago and this course is just a good one. It’s a little flatter than [Solaise]. There’s no room for mistakes, you have to really take whatever speed you can get and carry it from the top all the way to the bottom. There’s quite a few big swinging turns and quite a bit of terrain – a lot of little rolls and ripples. It makes it really challenging because there’s not a lot of light on this course in general. And today, for some reason with the clouds and everything it’s even more dark than normal.”

Marchand-Arvier said she was trying to put down a fast run because it’s important to have speed in training in order to carry confidence into the race.

“Val d’Isere is a very important race for the French ski team,” she said. “It’s important to have good results for the first training and be confident for the race. I’m very happy to be here. I hope to ski with a lot of happiness the next days … and speed.” (Watch a video of Marchand-Arvier describing the course).

Training times were much tighter between Marchand-Arvier and the following eight racers: Daniela Merighetti (fourth), Anja Paerson (fifth), Ingrid Jacquemod (sixth), Marion Rolland (seventh), Regina Mader (eighth), Lara Gut (ninth), Johanna Schnarf (10th) and Julia Mancuso (11th) all finished within eight-tenths of a second from one another.

Otherwise, almost three and a half seconds separated a handful of racers who finished among the top 20 Wednesday.

“I wanted to make an easy first run,” said Dominique Gisin, who was 18th with a finish time of 1:57.15. “I think it was a little too easy. But it’s OK. It’s just a training and I feel safe on that course and now I know what I have to do. Even if we have no more training, I think I’m ready.”

The weather forecast is calling for similar weather Thursday, when the women have a second training scheduled. There is however, snow forecasted for Friday, when the women’s super G is rescheduled from last weekend’s weather cancelation in St. Moritz. The forecast for Saturday’s downhill and Sunday’s super-combined is partly cloudy and dry.

by Shauna Farnell
FISalpine.com
Wednesday 15 December 2010