The men’s World Cup speed season officially kicked off today (Nov. 25) in Lake Louise, Canada with downhill training under overcast skies and warmer than normal temperatures (25 degrees F).

After two men’s tech races in Soelden, Austria and Levi, Finland, the men have made their way to the North American leg of the young World Cup season. Racers are looking to make their mark in the standings quickly as they have only a precious few (six) downhill races to stake their claim on coveted spots on their respective Olympic teams for the Vancouver Games, only 460 miles from here.

Switzerland’s Didier Cuche had the day’s fastest time (1:49.98) ahead of Austrian Michael Walchhofer (1:50.60) and Frenchman Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin (1:51.08). Canadian Robbie Dixon pulled in the forth-fastest time (1:51.09) to lead the home team.

“It felt really good, by the inspection I was really happy to see that they worked a lot with the weather to get a harder course,” said Cuche. “I felt pretty nice on the track, hopefully it won’t be rougher and rougher every day because even though it’s hard there are some marks now, we’ll see what happens in the next few days.”

Following a summer full of retirement rumors, Bode Miller rejoined the U.S. Ski Team. A season ago he won the first two days of downhill training in Lake Louise last year. Today had the sixth-fastest time (1:51.25) to lead the American group of 11 starters.

Miller wanted more speed however, finding the course too technical for high speed. “I didn’t go very fast. They keep making the courses turnier and turnier and the speeds are just way down everywhere,” said Miller. “Now everything is so technical it’s like a Super G … the last 25 second and the first 15 seconds are the only parts that feel like a downhill the rest is pretty much hard turning the whole way, solid edge to edge the whole way down.”

Fellow American Steven Nyman was more than happy with the 22nd-fastest time after injuries kept him sidelined for the end of last season. “It was nice, I was a little freaked out in the beginning, …  very freaked out,” said Nyman of his return to full-speed skiing. “It’s turnier than normal up top but they have injected the course pretty much from the top down the gun barrel, all the technical areas, so the snow is good.”

One of the bight spots for the U.S. was World Cup first-timer Travis Ganong performance, as he grabbed the day’s 32nd-fastest result from the 80th starting position.

Last season’s World Cup overall champion, Norwegian Aksel Lund Svindal, knocked out of the Levi slalom with a leg bruise, was back the his skis today to test the leg. “It’s not great but it was better than I thought it was going to be so I’m optimistic I would say,” said Svindal. “I haven’t skied for a while, just real easy free-skiing, so I tried to take it a little easy today too, but it doesn’t seem to be any more sore than it was this morning, maybe a little sore but nothing bad.” He finished with the 44th-fastest time.

There will be two more days of downhill training before competition on Saturday, Nov. 28. A World Cup super G will be held the following day. – Eric Williams

Images: Didier Cuche talks to the media after capturing today’s fastest time.
Bode Miller and Didier Cuche discus the course in Lake Louise. (Amy Doxey)

OFFICIAL RESULTS – FIRST TRAINING