Surprises abound at Lake Louise Winterstart

The results from the Bombardier Winterstart downhill at Lake Louise, Alberta Saturday reflected the strange set of weather circumstances it took place in.

For the record the win went to Peter Fill of Italy, his first career win. Second went to Swiss Carlo Janka, his first Cup podium, and third went to Swede Hans Olsson, his first podium. The story was the weather. And the U.S. story was TJ Lanning, who ran in some of the worst conditions of the day from the 39th start.

  

The results from the Bombardier Winterstart downhill at Lake Louise, Alberta Saturday reflected the strange set of weather circumstances it took place in.

For the record the win went to Peter Fill of Italy, his first career win. Second went to Swiss Carlo Janka, his first Cup podium, and third went to Swede Hans Olsson, his first podium. The story was the weather. And the U.S. story was TJ Lanning, who ran in some of the worst conditions of the day from the 39th start.

The day started out like a postcard with plenty of sunshine, but the clouds rolled in after the first eight or 10 skiers. “It was a total whiteout,” says U.S. men’s coach Sasha Rearick. “You couldn’t see the bumps and the guys all got shook around pretty good. And then the wind picked up.” And the wind was pushing up the hill along the upper flat. All in all, it made for a bad day for the favored skiers. Bode Miller, who won the first two training runs in impressive fashion, finished 16th. Aksel Svindal had one of the better runs and finished seventh. Marco Buechel was 21st. Didier Cuche, the defending downhill champ finished 32nd. From the perspective of the favored it was pretty danged ugly.

From the perspective of the real late runners, it wasn’t bad at all, for just as suddenly as the visibility had socked in, it lifted. Janka, the second place finisher, started 65th out of 73.

Rearick suggested it was unfair to take anything away from Janka’s effort. “He’s a great young talent. He took advantage of a great opportunity. Unfortunately for our guys, it didn’t clear up until after our last guy had gone.”

The last U.S. starter was Bryon Friedman, and shortly after his run came a course hold. In the 10 minutes that hold lasted, the weather cleared and the winds died.

The best U.S. finish, ninth, came from TJ Lanning and he ran 39th, right in the thick of the worst of the conditions. Rearick called his run “perfect,” saying, “He had no advantage whatsoever. It was just a demonstration of the hard work he’s put ain all summer. It was very, very exciting.”

How exciting, well, TJ says it would be like driving a car in a heavy fog on a bumpy road.

“I would say so (that I ran in the worst of the conditions). I was just concentrating on having the best run I could have. It’s hard to ski like you would on a sunny day on a day like this, but that’s what I tried to do. I knew what I wanted to do and I just tried to do it.”

Lannings says he couldn’t really see the contours of the hill, and had to “stay loose and confident.”

It was the first career win for the 26 year old Fill. He is coming off one of his worst season’s in 2008 and spent the summer prep period with a new training approach (more rest) and a new equipment sponsor (Atomic). Both moves appear to have paid off.

For Olsson, a 24 year old Swede, the result was his first World Cup podium, and his first trip to a top 10 finish in a downhill.

But the big surprise, the most stunning result, came from Janka who started so far back in the pack folks in the finish area had long since lost interest in who was racing. From the 65th start he stormed his way down the track and moved ahead of Fill, lost some speed right at the end and wound up .08 behind. The 22 year old Swiss had just seven scoring results to his name, the best of those an eighth in combined at Val d’Isere a season ago.

And the surprises didn’t stop there. Georg Streitberger, the fourth place finisher, had collected a win last season in the Kvitfjell super G, a race marred by the severe injury to his teammate Matthias Lanzinger.

Canadian Erik Guay finished tenth. Miller, the winner of the first two training runs at Lake Louise, finished 16th, still better than he finished a season ago. Marco Sullivan was 23rd, Canadian Robbie Dixon got 24th.
 

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The SCOOP

By Hank McKee

Equipment

Men’s Downhill, Lake Louise, Nov. 29, 2008

1 Fill, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

2 Janka, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

3 Olsson, Head/Head/Tyrolia

4 Streitberger, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer

5 Kroell, Salomon/Nordica/Salomon

6 Innerhofer, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

7 Svindal, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

8 Defago, Rossignol/Lange/Rossignol

9 Lanning, Nordica/Nordica/Marker

10 Guay, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

 

Men’s Downhill, Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada, Nov. 29. 2008. … It is the third race of the men’s 38 race 2008-09 World Cup schedule. … It is the first of nine scheduled downhills. … It is the 66th World Cup race at Lake Louise. … The 41st downhill. … The 13th men’s downhill.

 

It is the first career win for Peter Fill and his first podium since he finished third at Lake Louise Nov. 25, 2006. … He had previously been second three times, twice in super G (Kitzbuehel and Hinterstoder) and once in downhill at Bormio during the 2007 season.

 

It is the first career World Cup podium for Carlo Janka. … His previous best result had been eighth scored in combined at Val d’Isere, France, last season. … His best previous downhill result had been 18th scored last March 1 at Kvitfjell, Norway. … He had never scored a point at Lake Louise previously.

 

It was the first career World Cup podium for Hans Olsson. … He had finished fourth and seventh in combined previously (Reiteralm Dec. 10, 2006 and Kvitfjell March 9, 2007 respectively) but had never placed better than 11th in a World Cup downhill (at Val Gardena Dec. 15, 2007). … It is the first World Cup downhill podium for a Swedish male.

 

Ninth was a career best placing for Thomas (TJ) Lanning. … It is just his fifth career scoring result his next best a 10th in combined at Beaver Creek in November of 2007. … His previous best downhill result was 23rd at Chamonix last Jan. 26. … It is the 30th top 10 World Cup result for Erik Guay, his 17th in downhill. … It is the 14th World Cup scoring result at Lake Louise for Bode Miller and his third best DH result having won in 2004 and placed seventh in 2002. … It is the third best result, of four, at Lake Louise for Marco Sullivan, his best a second in last season’s downhill. … It is four best of six total scoring results for Robbie Dixon, his best a fourth in Kvitfjell’s super G last March. … It is the 30th career scoring result for Manuel Osborne-Paradis.

 

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Men’s Downhill, Lake Louise, Alberta, Nov. 29, 2008

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Total Time	FIS Points
1	10	292455	FILL Peter	1982	ITA	1:47.40	0.00
2	65	511313	JANKA Carlo	1986	SUI	1:47.48	0.98
3	5	501076	OLSSON Hans	1984	SWE	1:47.56	1.97
4	3	50858	STREITBERGER Georg	1981	AUT	1:47.61	2.58
5	13	50753	KROELL Klaus	1980	AUT	1:47.69	3.56
6	7	293006	INNERHOFER Christof	1984	ITA	1:47.70	3.69
7	14	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	1:47.79	4.79
8	11	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:47.83	5.28
9	39	534567	LANNING T.J.	1984	USA	1:47.84	5.41
10	12	102263	GUAY Erik	1981	CAN	1:47.95	6.76
11	33	510993	ALBRECHT Daniel	1983	SUI	1:47.97	7.01
12	6	191740	CLAREY Johan	1981	FRA	1:47.99	7.25
13	18	50041	WALCHHOFER Michael	1975	AUT	1:48.01	7.50
14	2	191964	POISSON David	1982	FRA	1:48.05	7.99
15	16	292514	HEEL Werner	1982	ITA	1:48.07	8.23
16	19	532431	MILLER Bode	1977	USA	1:48.08	8.36
17	15	50423	MAIER Hermann	1972	AUT	1:48.11	8.73
18	9	510767	HOFFMANN Ambrosi	1977	SUI	1:48.16	9.34
19	23	51005	SCHEIBER Mario	1983	AUT	1:48.19	9.71
20	1	192746	THEAUX Adrien	1984	FRA	1:48.22	10.08
21	8	350032	BUECHEL Marco	1971	LIE	1:48.26	10.57
22	68	201542	STRODL Peter	1982	GER	1:48.43	12.66
23	21	533131	SULLIVAN Marco	1980	USA	1:48.45	12.91
24	60	102961	DIXON Robbie	1985	CAN	1:48.62	14.99
25	24	510747	GRUENENFELDER Tobias	1977	SUI	1:48.74	16.47
26	67	201987	STRODL Andreas	1987	GER	1:48.85	17.82
27	62	201606	KEPPLER Stephan	1983	GER	1:48.87	18.07
28	27	50451	GRUBER Christoph	1976	AUT	1:48.88	18.19
29	4	51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT	1:48.91	18.56
30	17	102899	OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel	1984	CAN	1:49.00	19.66
31	22	560332	JERMAN Andrej	1978	SLO	1:49.04	20.16
32	20	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI	1:49.06	20.40
33	28	533866	NYMAN Steven	1982	USA	1:49.16	21.63
34	47	510498	ZUEGER Cornel	1981	SUI	1:49.25	22.74
35	53	421400	MYHRE Lars Elton	1984	NOR	1:49.33	23.72
35	25	102873	KUCERA John	1984	CAN	1:49.33	23.72
37	34	50742	REICHELT Hannes	1980	AUT	1:49.42	24.83
38	64	380298	SIROKI Tin	1987	CRO	1:49.50	25.81
39	56	292967	EISATH Florian	1984	ITA	1:49.53	26.18
40	32	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	1:49.58	26.79
41	45	530939	WEIBRECHT Andrew	1986	USA	1:49.59	26.92
42	42	292291	THANEI Stefan	1981	ITA	1:49.64	27.53
43	66	220228	MICKEL Finlay	1977	GBR	1:49.69	28.15
44	30	191591	BERTRAND Yannick	1980	FRA	1:49.79	29.37
45	49	560447	SPORN Andrej	1981	SLO	1:49.83	29.87
45	40	50919	STRUGER Peter	1982	AUT	1:49.83	29.87
47	38	50761	ALSTER Christoph	1980	AUT	1:49.84	29.99
48	31	380260	KOSTELIC Ivica	1979	CRO	1:49.88	30.48
49	69	40255	BRAUER Jono	1981	AUS	1:49.93	31.09
50	48	533762	TRANSUE Jeremy	1983	USA	1:50.09	33.06
51	54	103090	HELIE Louis-Pierre	1986	CAN	1:50.13	33.55
52	51	150421	ZAHROBSKY Petr	1980	CZE	1:50.15	33.80
53	52	293550	MARSAGLIA Matteo	1985	ITA	1:50.17	34.04
54	70	501230	ERICSSON Daniel	1987	SWE	1:50.18	34.17
55	36	500150	JAERBYN Patrik	1969	SWE	1:50.26	35.15
56	43	191116	DALCIN Pierre-Emmanuel	1977	FRA	1:50.45	37.49
57	44	380292	ZRNCIC-DIM Natko	1986	CRO	1:50.54	38.59
57	41	192932	FAYED Guillermo	1985	FRA	1:50.54	38.59
59	26	532490	MACARTNEY Scott	1978	USA	1:50.55	38.72
60	63	191415	BOTTOLLIER-LASQUIN Marc	1979	FRA	1:50.59	39.21
61	29	291641	SULZENBACHER Kurt	1976	ITA	1:50.73	40.93
62	58	533098	FRIEDMAN Bryon	1980	USA	1:50.90	43.02
63	35	292491	MOELGG Manfred	1982	ITA	1:51.01	44.37
64	37	510890	ZURBRIGGEN Silvan	1981	SUI	1:51.12	45.72
65	57	103512	FRISCH Jeffrey	1984	CAN	1:51.48	50.15
66	61	201811	STECHERT Tobias	1985	GER	1:51.64	52.11
67	50	191911	NOCENTI Cyril	1982	FRA	1:51.79	53.96
68	73	700724	BABUSIAK Jaroslav	1984	SVK	1:52.28	59.98
69	72	430429	BYDLINSKI Maciej	1988	POL	1:53.22	71.53

Did not finish 1st run: GLEBOV Alek (SLO), TARANENKO Mikhail (RUS), KREUZER Ralf (SUI)
Disqualified 1st run: PERKO Rok (SLO)