Austria's Strobl leads the way in Sestriere downhill training at World Cup Finals

Austria’s Strobl leads the way in Sestriere downhill training at World Cup Finals{mosimage}Fritz Strobl of Austria won the first and only training run for the men’s downhill at World Cup Finals on Tuesday, as the women took a day off in preparation for Wednesday’s races.

Bright sunshine lit up the Sestriere track, the top half of which is above treeline. The snow is chalky and aggressive, with injected sections throughout.

Most of the men’s field arrived at the venue the afternoon before the run, having travelled directly from Kvitfjell, Norway, where Stephan Eberharter of Austria and Daron Rahlves of the United States won the weekend’s speed events.

“I’m a little tired,” said Rahlves, shaking lactic acid out of his limbs at the bottom of Sestriere’s course, which is nearly two minutes long. “We never really got a chance to celebrate in Norway. Got on the van and went straight to the airport.” Rahlves, who won Kvitfjell’s super G on Sunday, finished 10th in the training run, 1.80 seconds behind Strobl.

Strobl’s time was 1:53.38. Stephan Eberharter of Austria and Kristian Ghedina of Italy were 0.34 and 0.39 behind, respectively.

“Sure, I remember racing here in 1997,” said Eberharter, referring, apparently, not to the world championships that February, but the Europa Cup the week before. In that race, Eberharter was second behind teammate Michael Walchhoffer. “It helps a little to have seen it before,” said Eberharter this year.

Many athletes had never seen the Sestriere downhill track, which hasn’t been used since the world championships. Bruno Kernen of Switzerland won that race. FIS records show that Rahlves was 31st, but he says he has no recollection of kicking out the starting gate, let alone the course itself.

One of the Sestriere downhill rookies was Bode Miller, who needs to nail the downhill and super G if he wants to win the overall World Cup title. He was 4.97 seconds out. Like many of his peers, Miller had never seen the Sestriere course. He spent the training run trying to figure out the most tactical line. “I was trying to find the entry points for all the turns,” he said after his run.

World Cup Finals consists of one downhill, one super G, one giant slalom and one slalom. The top 25 men and women in each discipline, plus gold medalists from World Junior Championships, are invited to race. This year, alpine, nordic, snowboard and freestyle are holding their respective Finals concurrently within a few miles of each other, so that organizers can test their logistical systems in preparation for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy.

Men’s downhill training run

Sestriere, Italy

March 9, 2004

1. Fritz Strobl (Austria) 1:53.38

2. Stephan Eberharter (Austria) 1:53.72

3. Kristian Ghedina (Italy) 1:53.77

4= Michael Walchhofer (Austria) 1:54.25

4= Antoine Deneriaz (France) 1:54.25

6. Christoph Gruber (Austria) 1:54.29

7. Andreas Schifferer (Austria) 1:54.51

8. Didier Cuche (Switzerland) 1:54.71

9. Alessandro Fattori (Italy) 1:54.73

10. Daron Rahlves (U.S.) 1:54.76

Also:

16. Hermann Maier (Austria) 1:56.12

26. Bode Miller (U.S.) 1:58.35