Attacking Vikings hit race day with targets on their backs

By Published On: November 27th, 2015Comments Off on Attacking Vikings hit race day with targets on their backs

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta – Aside from sunshine and warm temperatures (warm by Lake Louise standards, at least) the only other constant in the three official downhill training runs at the Canadian resort has been the Attacking Viking duo of Kjetil Jansrud and Aksel Lund Svindal. After finishing second to Svindal on the opening day, Jansrud paced the field on the last two runs down the track ahead of Saturday’s race. Trading places from the first training run, Svindal finished just behind his teammate today, 0.35 seconds back.

Despite Jansrud’s evident speed on the course, which has built up steadily over three days, he knows a victory in the race is no guarantee.

“Today felt a little better, especially from the halfway point down to the finish. I think it was pretty good,” said Jansrud. “But I’m also lagging a bit behind the best ones all the way to the third split, so I’ll have to take a good look at video and try to change that for tomorrow. But I’m feeling confident. For sure in downhill there’s a lot of details going on, and if you miss out on a few of those you’re in the back of the pack.”

Jansrud’s closest rival might turn out to be his own teammate who missed last season with a torn Achilles tendon. Svindal returns to the Lake Louise track in a year with more terrain and snow than in the past.

“There are some sections that I would say are fairly challenging, so it’s getting harder and harder every day to have a perfectly clean run because it’s getting a little bumpy,” said Svindal. “I feel good, but you definitely need to keep it together because there’s not a lot of room for error. At those speeds if you have just a little mistake, the tenths are flying really fast. It’s not going to be an easy race to win.”

Frenchman Guillermo Fayed snagged the third spot in the final training run after making some adjustments over the three days.

“My way of skiing changed between the three runs we had here. First day was OK, then yesterday I took it a little too easy and the slope was much harder so I got bounced around. But I spoke a lot with our coaches and we analyzed the video, and today I felt much better,” said Fayed. “The race is going to be tough. There is a lot of terrain and the Norwegians are in a league on their own right now. But we’re going to try to tighten or even close the gap during the season.”

Americans Steven Nyman and Travis Ganong gave close chase in fourth and sixth, respectively, within 0.76 seconds of Jansrud. Ganong admitted he took the run more conservatively to save up energy for tomorrow’s race while Nyman spoke about changing his skis over the course of the week.

“Yesterday I tried some new skis and skied really well, actually, but the skis weren’t that fast. And then today I went back on a similar set-up to my race set-up, had two big mistakes and still was pretty fast. So I’m happy with the way I’m skiing. I need to clean those mistakes up, and I know I can push for the top.”

Aside from betting on himself, Nyman also offered a Fantasy Ski Racer bonus pick for the top 10.

“A really valuable pick would be Aleksander Kilde. He’s coming from the back, so there are a lot of extra points you can get with him,” Nyman noted of the young Norwegian who’s moved from start numbers 60 and 58 into the mix each day so far.

U.S. fans can watch the men’s downhill from Lake Louise streaming on NBC Live Extra starting at 1:30 p.m. ET Saturday or tune into Universal HD at 7 p.m. for the full broadcast. Canadian fans can watch CBC at 4 p.m. ET or access the live stream through ACA’s website here.


 Results

 1  16  421483 JANSRUD Kjetil 1985 NOR  1:47.72
 2  19  421328 SVINDAL Aksel Lund 1982 NOR  1:48.07  +0.35
 3  18  192932 FAYED Guillermo 1985 FRA  1:48.23  +0.51
 4  15  533866 NYMAN Steven 1982 USA  1:48.30  +0.58
 4  10  102263 GUAY Erik 1981 CAN  1:48.30  +0.58
 6  12  530874 GANONG Travis 1988 USA  1:48.48  +0.76
 7  13  192746 THEAUX Adrien 1984 FRA  1:48.55  +0.83
 8  22  291459 PARIS Dominik 1989 ITA  1:48.61  +0.89
 9  29  292455 FILL Peter 1982 ITA  1:48.71  +0.99
 9  20  50742 REICHELT Hannes 1980 AUT  1:48.71  +0.99
 11  5  191964 POISSON David 1982 FRA  1:48.83  +1.11
 12  25  202059 FERSTL Josef 1988 GER  1:48.88  +1.16
 13  36  194542 GIRAUD MOINE Valentin 1992 FRA  1:49.16  +1.44
 14  7  50753 KROELL Klaus 1980 AUT  1:49.20  +1.48
 15  14  53817 FRANZ Max 1989 AUT  1:49.26  +1.54
 16  26  293006 INNERHOFER Christof 1984 ITA  1:49.32  +1.60
 17  9  511313 JANKA Carlo 1986 SUI  1:49.37  +1.65
 18  28  191740 CLAREY Johan 1981 FRA  1:49.40  +1.68
 19  58  422139 KILDE Aleksander Aamodt 1992 NOR  1:49.51  +1.79
 20  8  50858 STREITBERGER Georg 1981 AUT  1:49.52  +1.80
 21  11  51215 BAUMANN Romed 1986 AUT  1:49.56  +1.84
 22  40  194298 GIEZENDANNER Blaise 1991 FRA  1:49.73  +2.01
 23  49  194190 ROGER Brice 1990 FRA  1:49.79  +2.07
 24  43  202535 DRESSEN Thomas 1993 GER  1:49.80  +2.08
 25  54  930024 MAPLE Wiley 1990 USA  1:49.93  +2.21
 26  67  192504 MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas 1984 FRA  1:50.03  +2.31
 27  21  511139 KUENG Patrick 1984 SUI  1:50.14  +2.42
 28  30  54005 STRIEDINGER Otmar 1991 AUT  1:50.16  +2.44
 28  2  533131 SULLIVAN Marco 1980 USA  1:50.16  +2.44
 28  1  102899 OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel 1984 CAN  1:50.16  +2.44
 31  52  202196 BRANDNER Klaus 1990 GER  1:50.21  +2.49
 32  3  53980 KRIECHMAYR Vincent 1991 AUT  1:50.22  +2.50
 33  34  53936 DUERAGER Markus 1990 AUT  1:50.25  +2.53
 33  4  292514 HEEL Werner 1982 ITA  1:50.25  +2.53
 35  53  194167 MUZATON Maxence 1990 FRA  1:50.42  +2.70
 35  42  511529 GISIN Marc 1988 SUI  1:50.42  +2.70
 37  35  530939 WEIBRECHT Andrew 1986 USA  1:50.47  +2.75
 38  33  53933 SCHWEIGER Patrick 1990 AUT  1:50.50  +2.78
 39  57  293550 MARSAGLIA Matteo 1985 ITA  1:50.71  +2.99
 40  39  200379 SANDER Andreas 1989 GER  1:50.76  +3.04
 41  32  103762 WERRY Tyler 1991 CAN  1:50.80  +3.08
 42  48  380292 ZRNCIC DIM Natko 1986 CRO  1:50.99  +3.27
 43  46  561255 CATER Martin 1992 SLO  1:51.03  +3.31
 44  50  512124 HINTERMANN Niels 1995 SUI  1:51.11  +3.39
 45  37  561217 KOSI Klemen 1991 SLO  1:51.12  +3.40
 46  44  103512 FRISCH Jeffrey 1984 CAN  1:51.25  +3.53
 47  41  54099 MAYRPETER Thomas 1992 AUT  1:51.28  +3.56
 47  27  103271 THOMSEN Benjamin 1987 CAN  1:51.28  +3.56
 49  24  150398 BANK Ondrej 1980 CZE  1:51.35  +3.63
 50  61  51332 SCHEIBER Florian 1987 AUT  1:51.38  +3.66
 51  47  180570 ROMAR Andreas 1989 FIN  1:51.43  +3.71
 52  59  561067 PERKO Rok 1985 SLO  1:51.44  +3.72
 53  63  511638 TUMLER Thomas 1989 SUI  1:51.48  +3.76
 54  62  6530104 BENNETT Bryce 1992 USA  1:51.52  +3.80
 54  56  481514 BORODAYKIN Artem 1994 RUS  1:51.52  +3.80
 56  38  561216 KLINE Bostjan 1991 SLO  1:51.62  +3.90
 57  51  990081 CASSE Mattia 1990 ITA  1:51.70  +3.98
 58  68  103612 PRIDY Morgan 1990 CAN  1:51.84  +4.12
 59  55  511847 MANI Nils 1992 SUI  1:51.91  +4.19
 60  64  110324 VON APPEN Henrik 1994 CHI  1:52.00  +4.28
 61  71  481327 TRIKHICHEV Pavel 1992 RUS  1:52.04  +4.32
 62  66  380260 KOSTELIC Ivica 1979 CRO  1:52.07  +4.35
 63  60  511808 SCHMED Fernando 1991 SUI  1:52.10  +4.38
 64  69  104096 THOMPSON Broderick 1994 CAN  1:52.21  +4.49
 65  65  6531127 DUFFY Drew 1995 USA  1:52.43  +4.71
 66  70  380341 ULLRICH Max 1994 CRO  1:52.67  +4.95
 67  31  560447 SPORN Andrej 1981 SLO  1:52.85  +5.13
 68  72  430429 BYDLINSKI Maciej 1988 POL  1:53.17  +5.45
 69  73  534959 JITLOFF Tim 1985 USA  1:53.30  +5.58
 70  45  294277 KLOTZ Siegmar 1987 ITA  1:54.05  +6.33
 71  6  293141 VARETTONI Silvano 1984 ITA  2:00.58  +12.86
Did not start 1st run
 23  511352 VILETTA Sandro 1986 SUI
 17  53902 MAYER Matthias 1990 AUT

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About the Author: C.J. Feehan

Christine J. Feehan is a USSA Level 300 coach who spent more than a decade training athletes at U.S. ski academies - Burke, Sugar Bowl, and Killington - before serving as Editor in Chief at Ski Racing Media through 2017. She worked for the FIS on the World Cup tour for three years and then settled into her current home in Oslo, Norway.