World Cup preview: Aspen, Lake Louise

Aspen, Colorado has been hosting ski races since 1939 and major international events since the World Championships in 1950. In 1968, the second year of the World Cup circuit, Aspen hosted its first World Cup with American Billy Kidd winning the men’s slalom and Canadian Nancy Greene getting three wins, sweeping the downhill, slalom and GS.Aspen, Colorado has been hosting ski races since 1939 and major international events since the World Championships in 1950. In 1968, the second year of the World Cup circuit, Aspen hosted its first World Cup with American Billy Kidd winning the men’s slalom and Canadian Nancy Greene getting three wins, sweeping the downhill, slalom and GS.

In the seasons since, Aspen has hosted 60 World Cup races, 61 if you count the infamous 1995 DH won by AJ Kitt, that was thrown out. The site, interestingly enough, has not been particularly favorable to the “home team.” A scant eight percent of the victories have gone to Americans. Bill Johnson won a downhill in ’84, Kidd that early slalom, and three GS wins, two coming from Phil Mahre (’81 and ’84) and one from Tamara McKinney (’81).

This season Aspen hosts a women’s slalom (Nov. 30) and GS (Nov. 29). Since 2000 the site has primarily hosted the women, seven slaloms, three super G’s, three GS’s and last winter’s downhill. The list of slalom winners over this period is a who’s who of great skiers: Janica Kostelic in ’00, Anja Paerson in ’02, Tanja Poutiainen in ’04, Kostelic again in a second ’04 race, Paerson again in ’05, Marlies Schild in ’06 and Nicole Hosp last December.

Kostelic has retired and Schild was lost for the season to a leg injury, but Paerson looked strong in Levi as did Poutiainen and Hosp. The runner-up in the slalom standings last season Hosp was fourth in the first slalom of the season in Finland.

There will be plenty of anticipation surrounding the Aspen slalom as American Lindsey Vonn comes in wearing the red leader’s bib, something no American has done in years. Her best slalom result at Aspen, in three scoring efforts, is a 16th, but she obviously has done some work in slalom during the off-season. She’ll be sore from a training crash early this month, but that won’t slow the American faithful from cheering her on. Sarah Schleper de Gaxiola will also spark some spectator enthusiasm. She is coming off a two-year lay-off and showed strongly at Levi. Julia Mancuso could also get into the mix. Slalom has never been her mainstay, but she has had some GS success (four Cup podiums and the Olympic gold), and with the GS being held first she might be able to carry some momentum into the weekend closing slaloms. Still, the favored skiers for slalom should be Swedes Maria Pietila Holmner who was second at Levi, though Therese Borssen could challenge. German Maria Riesch (third at Levi), and Austrians Nicole Hosp and Kathrin Zettel. The Finn, Poutinianen , a Czech, Sarka Zahrobska and a Slovak Veronika Zuzulova also proved to be fast at Levi, for at least one run.

Zettel will wear the red bib for the GS and with the huge winning margin she put up in Soelden (.98 of a second) she’ll be the favorite. Poutiainen was second and in a surprise, third went to Austrian Andrea Fischbacher. The result was her fifth World Cup podium, but the other four had all come in super G, one of those at Aspen (Dec. ’05). Six of her top-nine results have come early in the season, so don’t discount the Soelden result. She could be a contender.

Vonn, again, will supply the best U.S. chances in the GS, but Mancuso could regain her form and Megan McJames was a pleasant surprise with a top 15 showing at Soelden.

Without a speed race completed yet this season the men’s stop at Lake Louise is a bit more challenging to predict. Canadian Jan Hudec won the DH last season with Aksel Lund Svindal taking the super G. Hudec added another podium just before the end of December, but then ravaged his knee during training at Wengen. The man has some skills, he was the silver medal winner in the 2007 World Champs, but this was one nasty injury and it was November before he was back on snow. He will not be competing, but the Canadians get a ton of work at Louise making it likely there will be a Maple Leaf near the top of the results. Even without Hudec in the line-up they’ll likely enter three who have gained podiums on the track: Eric Guay (second in 2003 DH), John Kucera (won SG in 2006), Manuel Osborne-Paradis (2nd DH in 2006).

Second in DH last season was Marco Sullivan and he added a win at Chamonix later in the season. He’s best on a course where he can grab a tuck and maintain a flat ski and Lake Louise has sections he’ll be able to do just that. The course also sports some high-speed turns, making this a great situation for the back-to-back DH and SG punch. In that case you can’t discount Svindal. He’s a spectacular ski racer and many have him pegged to win the overall tour this season. Bode Miller and Didier Cuche went head-to-head most of last season in the DH standings with Cuche winning when the final race was cancelled. That didn’t sit well with Miller, and we can anticipate he’ll come out firing at Lake Louise where he took one of those dual discipline weekend sweeps when he won both the DH and super G in 2004. Cuche has had better SG results at Lake Louise than downhill. Marco Buechel, a bit embarrassed about his skiing in the GS opener at Soelden last month, is set for redemption at Lake Louise. “I once scored a podium at Lake Louise with a broken rib,” he says, an indicator he’d not about to let much distract him this year. The Swiss have come out of the off-season on fire, so let’s throw Daniel Albrecht and maybe even Silvan Zurbriggen into the mix.

But, it’s the first speed races of the season, and that brings in the element of the unknown. We’ll keep you up to date right here at Skiracing.com, and you can catch video at Universalsports.com.