Miller back on course, says fitness problematic in Wengen training

WENGEN, Switzerland — The classic Lauberhorn is the longest and arguably the most physically demanding downhill course on the World Cup circuit. It’s a heck of a place to try to return from back surgery.

Bode Miller came into Tuesday’s first of two training runs in Wengen prepared to evaluate his own physical condition and determine if he’s race-ready or not. Miller hasn’t competed this season as he continues to recover from microdiscectomy surgery in November to alleviate back pain.

After his run, in which he led the Americans in 27th place, Miller said he’s optimistic about making a start this weekend.

“It felt bad, but that’s what I was expecting,” Miller said. “This is a tough race to come into for your first race of the season. Physically, this is probably the most demanding course of the year. Being in good physical shape is one part of it, but being in efficient skiing shape is also part of it. I was taking it pretty easy today to feel my back out.

“Overall, I’m really happy where it’s at. My back felt OK. The movements were OK. The fitness is a problem,” added Miller. “That’s to be expected. In my best shape, I suffered pretty bad on this hill to try and be fast. I’ll keep running it this week and hopefully we can race.”

Miller, who’s won the Lauberhorn downhill on two occasions (2007, 2008) and raced it 11 times, said there are quite a few changes to the set this year under the leadership of new FIS speed director Hannes Trinkl.

“Most notably at the end of the Long and Dry — the big three super G turns they call them — they straightened out the beginning of it, which I like, and then they made the last two turns big turns. So the entry speed into the top of the Hanneggschuss is super low this year, really low. The snow is marginal in there, kind of bally.”

Miller said he doesn’t have any specific goals or expectations for the week ahead, except to “be competitive and ski an aggressive run, but I think the fitness is what I’m most concerned with, and I can’t really take risk there. The last turns coming into the finish, that’s critical to win here. You can give the race away. I mean, my legs were tired. I had no chance of winning today.”

Meanwhile, the Olympic gold medalist in this event Matthias Mayer, of Austria, was brimming with confidence after laying down the fastest run of the day with a time of 2 minutes, 36.52 seconds. He was followed by Carlo Janka (+0.65) and Kjetil Jansrud (+0.89).

“It was a perfect day today,” said Mayer. “The weather couldn’t be better. The snow is icy and sometimes soft. … We have a lot of changes (to the set) this year, especially the part before Langentrejen. It’s a lot straighter than the last years, so I think it will be a little bit faster in that section.”

Fresh off career-first win in Santa Caterina last month, Travis Ganong has never had much success on the Lauberhorn — his best result is 21st in 2013 — but that’s something he’s hoping to change this week.

 “It was super windy today. It was just howling at the top, headwind and tailwind and swirling around,” said Ganong. “The set is not that much different. There are a couple different gates but the hill runs the same. The snow is kind of funky. It’s not that great.

“I haven’t really had that much success in Wengen,” he added. “There are a lot of flat sections and a lot of really technical turns before flat sections, so if you make a mistake, you’re going to lose so much time. So it’s a really challenging hill to be fast on because you have to have perfect execution in these tricky sections.”

The second of three originally scheduled training runs, set for Wednesday, was canceled on Tuesday afternoon.

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