Chamonix: DH canceled due to fog, leaving Rahlves in contention for title

Chamonix: DH canceled due to fog, leaving Rahlves in contention for title{mosimage}CHAMONIX, France – The Chamonix downhill was canceled Saturday because of heavy fog on the lower part of the course. The race will not be rescheduled for Sunday, and there are only tech races scheduled for the remainder of the World Cup season before the Finals March 15-19.

“This is done,” said Guenter Hujara, the FIS race director for men’s World Cup. “There is no chance to reschedule it because we have no more dates open. There is no better answer. We tried our best today.”

That means Daron Rahlves stays in mathematical contention for the downhill discipline title, but just barely; the American, who has said this is probably his last season, would need to win the final downhill on March 15 in Sweden and hope that two strong Austrians would ski poorly there.

Rahlves would need to win the final downhill and hope that Michael Walchhofer finished 15th or worse and that Fritz Strobl finished fifth or worse. (Only the top 15 second points at finals.)

There were two training runs earlier this week – the winners were Marco Buechel on Wednesday and Walchhofer on Thursday.

This would have been the 30th of 39 competitions on the men’s calendar. All the rest of them will take place in March, following the Olympic Winter Games. There will be a pair of giant slaloms in Yong Pyong, South Korea (March 4-5), a pair of slaloms in Shiga Kogen, Japan (March 10-11), and then the World Cup Finals in Are, Sweden.

This also would have been the ninth of 10 downhills on the World Cup calendar, the next one being March 15 at the World Cup Finals in Are, Sweden. Skiracing.com’s coverage of the previous eight downhills can be found here:

Lake Louise, Alberta (Nov. 27);
Beaver Creek, Colorado (Dec. 2);
Val d’Isere, France (Dec. 10);
Val Gardena, Italy (Dec. 16);
Bormio, Italy (Dec. 29)
Wengen, Switzerland (Jan. 14)
Kitzbuehel, Austria (Jan. 21)
Garmisch, Germany (Jan. 28).