ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. Kitzbühel, Austria - Saturday’s Hahnenkamm downhill can proceed as scheduled, as an official training run was completed Thursday morning on “The Streif.”

Didier Cuche of Switzerland, seen here during the first official practice at the famous Hahnenkamm race course, in January 2010, during the men's FIS ski World Cup. Cuche, who won both the downhill and super-G there last season, admitted on Wednesday that he always felt "a little nervous" each time he returned to Hahnenkamm. (AFP/File/Dimitar Dilkoff)

Despite steady snow falling throughout a majority of the session, race officials were aptly able to send all competitors down the mountain. 64 athletes were scheduled on the second training run startlist, with 61 leaving the gate.

Canada’s Erik Guay was the first racer to kick out of the starthouse at 10:45am, finding his way down the course and posting a time of 2:03.60. Last year’s World Cup super-G champion was clocked at 133.6 kph in the Zielschuss.

“In my head it was going to be a lot harder and a lot faster, I mean don’t get me wrong Kitzbühel is never easy,” said Guay after his run. “It’s been three weeks that I haven’t been on skis so as you could imagine I was a little nervous in the start, he said, referring to a recent back injury.

“It was a bit of a high speed inspection,” he said, insinuating that he didn’t ski at full throttle; however his run was still solid enough for eighth place. “I wasn’t that committed, but it is what it is and it’s good to be down bottom here in the finish.”

Thursday’s fastest time belonged to two-time Hahnenkamm champion, Didier Cuche. The Swiss veteran’s time of 2:01.12, was 0.37 better than Italy’s Christof Innerhofer, who finished second. Austria’s Georg Streitberger ended third, 1.18 slower than Cuche.

American Bode Miller was fourth, while last Saturday’s Lauberhorn winner from Wengen, Klaus Kroell, finished fifth.

Wearing bib No. 5, Hans Grugger of Austria lost his balance in mid-air coming off the Mausefalle jump, became somewhat twisted, and crashed hard, ultimately sliding down the track.

The 29-year-old Austrian was airlifted off the mountain by helicopter, resulting in an approximate 30-minute delay. According to initial information, Grugger has suffered a traumatic brain and chest injury.

2006 champion and the tour’s current downhill leader, Michael Walchhofer, took his turn as scheduled, despite hurting his throat and banging his left knee during training on Wednesday, the misfortune of having a gate come back and smack him following a straddle. The veteran Austrian – who has declared that Saturday’s race in Kitzbühel will be his last – took it relatively easy, but still completed his run in tenth place, 2.58 seconds off Cuche’s benchmark.

In general, racers were very satisfied with conditions on the legendary piste, despite warm temperatures yesterday and the cancellation of the originally scheduled training due to mixed precipitation, soft snow and organizers seeking to prevent further deterioration of the course.

“The snow is pretty hard, not so soft,” said France’s Adrien Theaux. “It’s very bumpy at the top and at the end. In the middle, I think it’s more difficult than last year.”

“The course is fine, it will be good with weather like this,” said Canada’s Manuel Osborne-Paradis, referring to the colder temperatures on Thursday.

American rookie Travis Ganong, 22, successfully made his first-ever trip down the legendary Streif course.

“I was a little nervous at the top, but once I started skiing and made it through that first section, I came out to the road and was like ‘wow, that is the most fun I’ve ever had in my life,’” said an enthusiastic Ganong in the finish area. “It was awesome. It worked out better than I expected.”

The young Californian acted like a kid in a candy store after completing his run on the occasionally treacherous piste. On the walk out through the stadium, Ganong asked training run leader Cuche to pose for a photo with him. The three-time World Cup downhill champ obliged, as Ganong’s mother snapped the picture.

Instances like these are a quick reminder that Kitzbühel is surely a special place.

Racing begins tomorrow with the super-G slated to begin at 11:30am local time, while the 71st edition of the Hahnenkamm downhill is on tap for the same time on Saturday.

By Brian Pinelli
FISalpine.com
Thursday 20 January 2011

Vonn sets high bar in second Cortina training

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – Even though she had a little brush with disaster in training on Wednesday, Lindsey Vonn was back to form on Thursday, setting a pace all her own on the Olympia della Tofane course in Cortina.

Amid gray skies, a light wind and much colder temperatures, Vonn posted a second run training time of 1 minute, 40.13 seconds and Julia Mancuso and Elisabeth Goergl were the only racers to come within 2 seconds of her.

“It was tough conditions today, snowing a little on top, flat light all around. The most difficult thing today was the snow was different. Since it snowed a little yesterday, they groomed the whole hill form top to bottom and some of the turns are pretty bally – there are some big chunks of snow – and it’s hard to really bend the ski because there’s really no platform. So it’s hard to get the feeling of the snow, but it was a good pretty training run and I’m happy with it so I hope I can do the same on Saturday,” said Vonn, who won both the downhill and the super G in Cortina last year as well as the downhill in 2008 and landed her first World Cup career podium here in the 2004 downhill.

“In the past couple years, it seemed like the course was getting easier, but this year it’s awesome. There’s air on Tofana this year … I love it. It’s such a cool effect. It’s one of the coolest parts of downhill of all the courses I’ve run,” Vonn said. “With the turns a little bit father apart, it makes it a little more technical. It’s just all around a really great downhill. Cortina is definitely one of my favorite stops on the tour. It’s one of those courses you know like the back of your hand. You don’t have to really think twice about the course. I know what to do. I trust myself. So it’s kind of fun to push the limits and see what you’re capable of doing.”

Though Vonn is capable of beating most of the field by 2 seconds, she is also capable of making incredible recoveries at high speeds. She was 29th in Wednesday’s training after coming very close to a horrible crash.

“I think I’m going to post a video of it on Facebook,” she said. “I was skiing well on the top, then on the bottom I got late, my outside ski caught, then my inside ski caught, I did the splits, then they hit together and I almost went over the tips of my skis, going like 75 or 80 [miles per hour],” she said. “I was literally like a millimeter from hooking my tip in downhill, so that was definitely scary. I’m trying not to do that again … ever. Today was a better run. I was clean from top to bottom.”

Mancuso, who was second to Maria Riesch in the first training run and followed Vonn by 1.37 seconds Thursday, said she was pleasantly surprised to see the margin she set between herself and the other racers when she crossed the finish line (she ran 10th and was more than a second faster than the lead pace when she finished) because she felt the snow was much slower on Thursday.

“I don’t think the cold weather came until today and it’s getting colder so it didn’t quite set up. It’s a little rough. But it’s not that bad, considering,” she said of the course. “It’s windy on top but you don’t really feel it. The snow is softer so it doesn’t feel quite as fast. It’s bumpy on the bottom so now you can’t just put your head down and go to the finish, you have to ski the last part well, too.”

Mancuso, who won the Cortina super G in 2007, was second in 2008 and 2006 and second in DH in 2006 and 2007, said she was aware of the areas where she lost the time to Vonn on Thursday.

“I felt yesterday I skied better in the turns,” Mancuso said. “Today I felt I had to give a little because you couldn’t let your skis go from under you. There was nothing to get the skis to bite. I went a little straighter into sections and threw them a little. It could be the difference between Lindsey being that much faster … you can ski cleaner.”

Goergl, who was 1.68 seconds off the lead pace Thursday and who has twice been on the speed podium in Cortina (super G in 2008 and downhill in 2006), said she felt conditions were much improved from the first training but wondered about the absence of the famous Cortina sunshine (forecasted to possibly make an appearance – along with still colder temperatures – for Friday’s super G).

“I don’t know where she’s hiding,” Goergl said of the sun. “But all in all, it was definitely way better than yesterday. The snow wasn’t that bumpy anymore. It was easier to ski today for me. It differs a little, like one gate at Coaches corner is really soft and then there are some icy parts, too. It’s definitely turny. You have to ski the turns good and carry the speed out of the turny parts as good as you can. It’s the same challenge as always, but maybe a little more technical.”

Following Goergl, local Italian Johanna Schnarf was fourth fastest Thursday, 2.06 seconds off of Vonn’s pace, followed by Marie Marchand-Arvier, 2.44 seconds back and Andrea Fischbacher, 2.50 seconds back.

Maria Riesch, who dominated training on Wednesday, finished seventh in Thursday’s training, 2.58 seconds off of Vonn’s pace.

The 2011 World Cup at Cortina begins on Friday with super G at 10 a.m. (replacing the canceled race in St. Moritz and Val d’Isere), followed by downhill Saturday and another SG Sunday.

by Shauna Farnell
FISalpine.com
Thursday 20 January 2011