Bode leads first training day at Beaver Creek

The first training run at the Birds of Prey seemed like a walk in the park. Under bright blue skies and warming temperatures, the world’s best alpine skiers tested themselves for what may be the only training run prior to downhill race day next Friday.

As he had in Lake Louise, Bode Miller set the pace for the run, posting a time of 1.42.82. He was virtually a full second ahead of Frances David Poisson who was .99 back. Italy’s Werner Heel was third with a time of 1.43.99.

The first training run at the Birds of Prey seemed like a walk in the park. Under bright blue skies and warming temperatures, the world’s best alpine skiers tested themselves for what may be the only training run prior to downhill race day next Friday.

As he had in Lake Louise, Bode Miller set the pace for the run, posting a time of 1.42.82. He was virtually a full second ahead of Frances David Poisson who was .99 back. Italy’s Werner Heel was third with a time of 1.43.99.

“I was all over the place,” Miller said, pointing out that he felt his turns were in need of improvement.

Austrian veterans Michael Walchhofer and Hermann Maier took the fourth and fifth spot. Maier, who electrified ski racing aficionados with his 54th win in Canada this past weekend was particularly pleased, but Walchhofer made in clear that Miller was the person to catch. “It was a hard piste, well prepared,” the tall downhiller said. “I felt not so bad, but I am too far behind Bode.”

For the most part the racers found the Birds of Prey course a bit friendlier, made so by the eight inches of snow which fell here Sunday night. “The jumps seemed bigger,” Marco Sullivan commented. He was still riding on the thrill of his fifth place in the Lake Louise super G, “but the speed did not seem quite so high.”

Steve Nyman, alluded to the same feeling. “The wind was blowing straight up the pitch,” Nyman said of the Brink, which is the steepest and iciest section near the top of the course “They didn’t tell me that in the course report.”

Askel Lund Svindal, who was skiing the course for the first time since his season ending crash here last year, said he had no hesitancy in facing the course. “That is not an option,” he said. “If I did I would have to quit the downhill tour.”

Scott McCartney echoed the same sentiment. The 30-year-old veteran, whose horrendous crash at the bottom of the infamous Hahnenkamm course is now the stuff of video legends, remarked that he was tired of  being questioned about the accident. “It is time to move on,” he said. “It is a new season.”

T J Lanning blew out in a turn and did a bit of a belly slide according to his coaches, but he came away with little hurt but his pride.

Unfortunately for the race, weather is expected to move in this evening with four to eight inches expected. Fearing a weather problem, race officials and course personnel worked over night to get the course prepared for today’s training run, moving the start back to one p.m. to accommodate the work.

 The training run resulted in what had to be a record number of disqualifications. The U.S. lost Lanning to a DNF. The U.S. DSQ list included Scott Macartney, Marco Sullivan, Steven Nyman, Ted Ligety, Andrew Weibrecht, Bryon Friedman and Max Hammer.