Lindsey Kildow leads World Cup downhill standings

By Published On: January 6th, 2005Comments Off on Lindsey Kildow leads World Cup downhill standings

Lindsey Kildow leads World Cup downhill standings{mosimage}Austria’s Michaela Dorfmeister established herself as the odds-on favorite for a World Championship downhill title with an impressive win in the first of two downhills at Santa Caterina. Dorfmeister stormed down the Deborah Compagnoni track with a time of 1.41.66 to win the World Championship warm-up by .40-seconds over American, Lindsey Kildow. Third place finisher, Hilde Gerg from Germany was the World Cup leader in downhill going into the race, but relinquished that honor to Kildow.

Dorfmeister had not won a downhill since March of 2003, but a change of skis to Atomic and a challenging, technical course to her liking has given new life to the Austrian veteran with four World Championship medals already to her credit.

Racers only were able to get in one training run on the new course, familiar to just the Italians, who had trained there earlier in the season. Alex Hoedlmoser, U.S. women’s speed coach was impressed with the hill, which was pressed into use to make up for the cancelled races at Val d’Isere two weeks earlier. ‘The course is very technical on the top with high speed gliding sections in the middle, and then technical again at the bottom’ said Hoedlmoser. ‘It has all the elements technical, gliding, speed. Maybe they’ll add a jump of two for the World Championships.’ Racers reached speeds in the range of 140Ks (84mph) in the middle sections of the course, according to Hoedlmoser.

There were some complaints following the one training run that the course had too many turns, but the technically oriented racers such as Dorfmeister, Kildow, Gerg, or Goetschl, who finished fourth after dominating the training run, were perfectly pleased with the status quo.

Hoedlmoser feels the character of the course plays to the strength of his team. ‘Lindsey is very good technically and she skied it well, too’ said Hoedlmoser. ‘But in a critical turn at the end, she got high-sided. That’s where she lost the race. With that mistake a second place is pretty impressive.’

Four other U.S. racers found their way into the scoring with Caroline Lalive in 10th, Kirsten Clark 12th, Jonna Mendes 19th, and Julia Mancuso in 22nd. ‘These girls all skied well Caroline was the fastest on the bottom and Kirsten was second on one of the splits’ said Hoedlmoser. ‘And they’re not far off time wise.’

Hoedlmoser was not only pleased with the results of his team and to see Kildow rise to the top of the World Cup downhill standings, but there’s nothing like a good preview to prepare for the feature show. He said, ‘It was really good for everyone to have a race here racers and organizers. This is very positive.’

World Cup

Women’s Downhill
Santa Caterina, Italy
Jan. 6, 2005

1. Michaela Dorfmeister, AUT 1:41.66
2. Lindsey Kildow, USA 1:42.06
3. Hilde Gerg, GER 1:42.19
4. Renate Goetschl, AUT 1:42.32
5. Carole Montillet-Carles, FRA 1:42.42
6. Sylvaine Berthod, SUI 1:42.44
7. Janica Kostelic, CRO 1:42.53
8. Katja Wirth, AUT 1:42.84
9. Isolde Kostner, ITA 1:43.06
10. Caroline Lalive, USA 1:43.15
11. Maria Riesch, GER 1:43.20
12. Kirsten Clark, USA 1:43.36
12. Alexandra Meissnitzer, AUT 1:43.36
14. Ingrid Jacquemod, FRA 1:43.44
15. Elisabeth Goergl, AUT 1:43.47
16. Emily Brydon, CAN 1:43.69
17. Elena Fanchini, ITA 1:43.70
18. Daniela Ceccarelli, ITA 1:43.74
19. Jonna Mendes, USA 1:44.06
20. Nadia Styger, SUI 1:44.07
21. Brigitte Obermoser, AUT 1:44.41
22. Julia Mancuso, USA 1:44.49
23. Nadia Fanchini, ITA 1:44.50
24. Tina Maze, SLO 1:44.55
25. Monika Dumermuth, SUI 1:44.59
26. Carmen Casenova, SUI 1:44.71
27. Astrid Vierthaler, AUT 1:44.75
28. Martina Ertl, GER 1:44.77
29. Julie Duvillard, FRA 1:44.78
30. Anja Paerson, SWE 1:45.00
other North Americans:
45. Bryna McCarty, USA 1:45.81
48. Kelly Vanderbeek, CAN 1:46.10
54. Anne Marie LeFrancois, CAN 1:46.90
DNS: Melanie Turgeon, CAN.
DNF: Stacey Cook, Resi Stiegler, USA

THE SCOOP

By Hank McKee

equipment
Women’s Downhill, Santa Caterina, Jan. 6, 2005
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Dorfmeister, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
2 Kildow, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
3 Gerg, Volkl/Lange/Marker
4 Goetschl, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
5 Montillet-Carles, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
6 Berthod, Dynastar/Lange/Look
7 Kostelic, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
8 Wirth, Blizzard/Lange/Marker
9 Kostner, Fischer/Lange/Tyrolia
10 Lalive, Head/Lange/Tyrolia

Santa Caterina, Italy, 1/6/2005 – It is the 14th race of the women’s 32 race (plus 1 combined) World Cup schedule. … It is the third of eight scheduled Downhills. … It is a make-up race from Val d’Isere12/18 postponed by high wind. … Winning margin is 4/10th. … Top seven finishers within the same second. … Course is named after Deborah Compagnoni who retired after the ’99 season with 16 career World Cup wins. … Equipment did not seem to be a big factor as eight different skis made the top 10.

It is the 18th career win for Michaela Dorfmeister. … Her fifth in DH. … It is her first DH win since 3/1/03. … It is her second win of the season after the Lake Louise SG 12/5. … It is her second win at SantaCaterina, having won the 2/11/2000 SG. … She has four results at SantaCaterina – two wins and two fifths. … It is the first Austrian DH win at Santa Caterina since Elizabeth Kirchler 12/21/84.

It is the fifth career podium for Lindsey Kildow. … The third in DH. … It is her fourth podium of the season, split equally between SG and DH. … She has finished first, second and fifth in the three DH’s held this season. … No U.S. skier has done better than second at SantaCaterina. … Tamara McKinney was 2nd in GS 12/18/84 and Caroline Lalive 2nd in combined 2/2000.

It is the 56th career podium for Hilde Gerg. … Her 20th in DH. … It is her fourth podium of the season. … She has been on the podium in all three DH’s. …

It is the 28th career top 10 for Caroline Lalive. … Her fourth of the season. … Three of those in DH. … It is the 33rd time Kirsten Clark has been in the top 12. … It is her second best result of the season after an 11th at Lake Louise SG 12/5. … Emily Brydon matches her 17th best career score. … It is her third scoring result of the season and second best. … It is the 38th career top 20 for Jonna Mendes. … It matches her best result of the season. … It is the seventh best of nine career Dh scoring results for Julia Mancuso. … It is her seventh scoring result of the season. … It is the fifth time this season the American women have had at least five scoring finishers.

Tanja Poutiainen (did not race) maintains the lead in the overall World Cup standings with 626pts. … Janica Kostelic (finished 7th) moves into second place at 559. … Anja Paerson (30th) is third at 539. … Lindsey Kildow is the top American in sixth at 385. … Kildow leads the DH standings 225-220 over Hilde Gerg. … Caroline Lalive is the next U.S. skier in eighth with 153. … Austria leads the Nations Cup standings 5918-2990 for the U.S. … Austrian women lead 2297-1406 for the U.S.

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