Bibs three and two wound up one and two in the final training run for Friday’s World Cup downhill at Beaver Creek. But it was not necessarily true that the course slowed up.

Hans Grugger was fastest with Christoph Innerhofer close behind him and Mario Scheiber, Bode Miller and Didier Cuche all within .31 of a second. And behind them the rest of the big dogs of downhill were packed in like sardines with a dozen skiers – including Klaus Kroell, Michael Walchhofer, Aksel Svindal, Robbie Dixon, Peter Fill and Carlo Janka – all were within the same second on a spectacularly gorgeous Colorado day. Few, if any, were going all out. Some, Miller included, stood up well before the finish instead of closing in the more aerodynamic tuck.

“This is where we hope to be at this time of week,” said Miller, a two time winner on the Birds of Prey Track. “We’re competitive on the top flat and if I can stay on the course I’ll be okay the rest of the way.”

In Bodesque fashion he was working a variety of aspects of a course substantially changed from previous seasons. He was trying different skis to see if they might run quicker on the “flat” sections of a decidedly non-flat course. “It’s not critical, but you can’t afford to give away much time up there and still expect to win this thing. … There’s just no information like that you on a calm race prep day.”

While speculation among many not racing was that the expert work of the BC work crews to make the surface smooth and hard, coupled with the safety conscious course setting of FIS’s designated setter Helmuth Schmalzl had “taken the talons” out of the Birds of Prey.  Miller said that wasn’t exactly true.

“Right now this course is not skiing very easy – it doesn’t have the same rhythm as it’s had the past years, the gates are kind of off where they should be. You turn and then you hit a gate later and that makes it a little more difficult because your making judgement calls the whole way down as opposed to just skiing around the gate.”

Still, skiers are not getting the customary air time off the multitude of bird jumps something Cuche said he was disappointed with. In the past, he said, “We could have a little more speed in the Golden Eagle,” one of the major flyways of the course. Still, the Swiss veteran said,  “That’s the life and I have to manage that.”

The speed numbers approaching the Golden Eagle did show a wide range. Cuche hit it faster than any of the racers who wound up ahead of him in the final standings, but he was considerably slower than Svindal – the ninth fastest to complete the whole course – or Romed Baumnn, who finished 27th fastest.

OFFICIAL RESULTS – THIRD TRAINING