As the men completed their first training run ahead of Saturday’s scheduled World Championship downhill this morning (Feb. 10) it was agreed the course was more punishing than yesterday’s super G.

“Take Kitzbuehel and Bormio together,” suggested Travis Ganong, naming what are considered the two toughest downhills on the World Cup circuit. “Except here, it’s dark, too.”

For the record, newly crowned super G champ Christof Innerhofer won the race, Aksel Lund Svindal the 2007 World DH champ, and Dominik Paris went two-three respectively, but if it is considered unwise to read too much into any training result, trying to read the tea leaves of this one would be downright foolish.

Innerhofer has been fast in training all season, and he is definitely riding a high from his gold medal. Though he said he woke feeling more tired than when he went to bed, he was joking ribaldly with reporters in the finish.

Svindal said, “Actually I’m disqualified because I hit the gate.” But he was willing to say Innerhofer was going to be the man to beat. “He showed us yesterday in the super G and he showed us in training runs in Bormio. … I’m almost tempted to say I haven’t seen stuff like that since Hermann Maier. … That was unbelievable.”

Maybe, maybe not. Didier Cuche held a significant lead near the bottom of the course, but visibly eased up several gates before the finish. He said he was also fighting a loose piece of plastic fluttering in his vision from his goggles. He finished fourth.

What everyone given the opportunity said was that this will be one tough downhill. “It’s way more punishing than the super G,” said Erik Guay, the earliest skier to post a top time. “It’s faster so you hit the bumps harder.” Guay wound up seventh.

“It’s not that fun,” agreed Steven Nyman, now well rested after what has amounted to several weeks off. “I don’t mind the dark, and I don’t mind the ice, but when you’re just getting jarred. … it’s so strenuous on the body.”

“You’ve got to go out and charge and get over your skis or this thing is going to eat you up,” he said. And that will make for some mighty exciting spectating.

Bode Miller finished ninth, testing some possibilities and not putting too much on the line. Nyman was 14th fastest and Ganong, who said he went “sight seeing” during his run, registered the 44th fastest time, one in back of Ted Ligety.

Gepa image of Innerhofer