Beaver Creek: U.S. training times a mixed bag

BEAVER CREEK, Colorado — The young guns on the U.S. men’s downhill team stole the show in training Wednesday on the Birds of Prey course, but a few of the more experienced guys said they’re feeling confident of their chances to shine on their home hill this week.
BEAVER CREEK, Colorado — The young guns on the U.S. men’s downhill team stole the show in training Wednesday on the Birds of Prey course, but a few of the more experienced guys said they’re feeling confident of their chances to shine on their home hill this week.
    T.J. Lanning started 83rd and finished an astounding ninth in the final results to lead the Americans, followed by Steven Nyman in 15th and Kevin Francis 21st. Veterans Bode Miller (26th) and Marco Sullivan (28th) also finished among the top 30.
    “A year ago I was coming off some big injuries. I’m finally strong again,” Sullivan said. “I’m on new equipment, I’ve switched to Nordica. I just feel like I’m strong, my equipment’s fast. It should be a good year. We’ll see in the next couple days whether I’m talking out of my ass or not.”
    Sullivan finished 26th in last week’s season-opening downhill in Lake Louise, Canada, a much flatter course than Birds of Prey. Also, extreme cold made choosing wax extremely difficult for the gliding sections.
    “I actually skied really well in Lake Louise. I was really fast in some of the timing splits but the skis just didn’t run,” Sullivan said. “It was extreme cold up there and it was kind of a crapshoot as to who was fast and who wasn’t. I was pretty psyched with the way I skied, and this course has less flats than Lake Louise. Staying aggressive and turning well is going to pay off here, I think.”
    Veteran JJ Johnson, 41st and out of the points in Lake Louise and 44th in training Wednesday, said he got a little defensive in some of the turns due to tricky snow conditions.
    “The surface is a little different than I expected. I wouldn’t say it was rough but it was definitely rattling. I got down to the really hard snow and there was a difference between the slick and the grippy snow,” he said.
    Johnson added that Wednesday’s frigid weather and new snowfall in Colorado was still warmer than what he raced in last week in Canada.
    “I had to tape my fingers together because I had so much frostbite from Lake Louise and I don’t know how much more my face can take,” he said. “I mean, [the course crew] did a great job getting things going today. I don’t know how we got [the training run] in today.
    Scott Macartney finished near the back of the training pack Wednesday and partially blamed bad visibility on the course. In fact, many racers’ goggles fogged up on course during the training run. Macartney said he’ll have his run dialed in for Friday’s downhill despite getting just one crack at the course in training after Tuesday’s scheduled run was canceled.
    “I think by race day I’ll be fired up and ready to go,” he said. “I’ve spent a lot of time on the course. I think almost all the guys [on the start list] have run this race either as a forerunner or a racer the last many years. It’s kind of advantage for us, not having as many training runs, I’d say."
    The Visa races will include four days of top-level competition, starting Thursday with a super combined event followed by Friday's DH. Saturday it's giant slalom with slalom completing the weekend on Sunday.
    A snowstorm, which began Monday, wiped out the first official training run Tuesday and course workers cleared about two feet of snow so racers could get a training run Wednesday. The U.S. Ski Team used the run to determine the last two starting slots for Friday's scheduled DH.
    "T.J. rockets out of eighty-something start [No. 83 start spot] and rockets into ninth place … ninth! Just a stellar run, and that earns him a start spot," said men's head coach Phil McNichol. "And Erik, who has an automatic start in super G as the reigning NorAm champion — but we don't have super G this year at Birds of Prey, qualified for the last open slot. That gives us eight men running Friday … and we'll have eight going [Thursday] in the super combi."     Thursday's U.S. starters: Lanning, Olympic combined champion Ted Ligety: former combined world champion Bode Miller; Steve Nyman; Marco Sullivan; Scott Macartney; Andrew Weibrecht; and Jimmy Cochran. The super combined is a one-day event mixing one shortened downhill run and one shortened slalom run.
    Friday's downhill, after the last spots were filled, includes: Miller, Nyman, Macartney, Sullivan, Lanning, Fisher, 2006 NorAm DH runnerup Chris Beckmann and JJ Johnson.
    Y'know, almost everywhere we go, we talk about about how well the organizers prepare the course, but [Chief of Race] Jimmy Roberts and his crews really went above and beyond after that storm to get things ready for today's training run," McNichol said. "We had two feet or more, I don't think it was quite a meter on the course, but they cleared all of it away and didn't just push it into the nets. This was an epic effort that they pulled off."