Kjetil Jansrud cruises to a win in the downhill opener at Lake Louise. GEPA

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta — The clouds parted and the thermometer dropped for the World Cup downhill opener in Lake Louise, Canada, on Saturday. After three days of non-stop snow, the men got a chance to race under blue skies, but the course continued to show signs of the recent snowfall.

The day’s winner, Kjetil Jansrud of Norway, said he didn’t believe he was skiing very fast coming into the race week in Alberta. While training at Copper Mountain earlier in the month, members of the American team —Steven Nyman in particular — had a significant edge on the Viking in training runs.

“Copper was really cold conditions too, and I was getting beat by Nyman with seconds,” Jansrud said after the race. “You never know. There’s always a difference between training and racing.”

Jansrud finished with a time of 1 minute, 50.20 seconds, which put him 0.14 seconds ahead of Vancouver native Manny Osborne-Paradis and France’s Guillermo Fayed, who tied for second.

“(The course) was tough because it’s a bit aggressive,” Jansrud said. “Every little twist and turn on the ski makes it dig in, and you just feel the speed dying. I didn’t feel very good for the first 50 seconds, just trying to find my speed, but it was probably the same for everybody. Apart from that, all the technical parts felt solid.”

The Lake Louise fans couldn’t have been much happier with the second-place result of their countryman, Osborne-Paradis, who last reached the World Cup podium in 2010 with a second-place result in Wengen. He’s no stranger to the Alberta podium, having won the super G in 2009 and finishing second in the downhill in 2006, but it’s been a while.

“I’m just happy to be back on the podium because it’s been a long time,” said Osborne-Paradis. “It’s been a long time. I’ve had a lot of fourths and fifths, but nothing actually on the steps. It feels good.”

Perhaps Canadian knowledge of the hill had something to do with the 30-year-old’s strong performance. “I watched a couple guys on TV and I knew the line I wanted to take. I was looking at the lines prior to me, and I felt like I was on a better line — it was faster,” he said.

Marco Sullivan, who’s nailed the podium at Lake Louise on two prior occasions, appeared to be in the hunt for a third time. The American started second and hung out in the leader’s box until the 15th racer, Dominik Paris, bumped him out of the top position. Paris ultimately finished the day fourth and Sullivan not far off in fifth.

“I felt good having an early start number today,” said Sullivan. “The snow was a little bit softer than we’re used to with all the fresh coming the last few days. I knew I just had to take advantage of that early number even though it felt a little slow because the snow is cold and aggressive. It didn’t feel the fastest, but I knew I had to keep fighting the whole way. I knew no one was going to feel amazing today. I had good turns, and it was really clean the whole way.”

For Sullivan, a 15-year veteran of the U.S. Ski Team, it’s another good start at Lake Louise. It’s uncertain how many more he’ll get. The question is how to carry that momentum into the season.

“I love starting here at Lake Louise. It’s always a nice break-in race. It’s not the most difficult track we have, and you can just go full guns from start to finish,” said Sullivan. “I had good confidence and I’m one of the veteran guys. I don’t know, I’m just comfortable racing these days.

In an interview with Ski Racing the evening before the race, men’s Head Coach Sasha Rearick said Sullivan was one to watch this weekend.

“Marco has new sparkle in his eyes. He’s got some fire going,” said Rearick.

Sullivan dedicated his performance to his Uncle Sully, one of his long-time coaches, who is battling cancer.

“I was definitely thinking about him today,” said Sullivan.

Travis Ganong was the next best finisher for the American squad, squeaking into the top-10, tied with Johan Clarey of France in that position. Ganong was happy to simply be making a start. A few weeks ago, he sustained a small break in his tibial plateau, so he was, in his words “just stoked to be skiing.”

“The training run (on Wednesday) was really bally snow. There was no surface — nothing to push on — and then it snowed like 60 centimeters on top of that,” added Ganong. “So, we weren’t really expecting much today, but they did a great job. … I think I lost a bit on that Wiwaxy flat area, but I was able to make it up through the bottom. I’ve never really had much success here at Lake Louise, so for me to be in the top 10 is pretty good.”

Indeed, Ganong’s 10th-place finish is his best result at the venue. He’s previous best was 20th in the super G in 2010.

One of the big topics of conversation in the run-up to the races in Lake Louise this week was the course set by new FIS Speed Race Director Hannes Trinkl. A former speed skier for Austria, Trinkl earned a victory and second-place finish in Lake Louise in 1999 and 2002, respectively, and depending on who you ask, is taking a very different approach to setting the hill.

“It’s a lot easier. It’s a lot more forgiving. It’s a lot more wide open, so you can really stick your nose in it,” said Ganong. “You can really go straight and get away with a lot. In some respects, it feels easier, but I’m sure if the snow were faster, it would be really tough.”

“It’s different all the way,” said Jansrud. “Bigger turns, faster speed. It’s not good or bad, right or wrong — it’s just different. He wants to control the speed a bit more with the terrain, instead of the turns, and I think that’s fair.”

“The biggest difference is instead of having single gates, you have a lot of double gates,” said Steven Nyman, who finished the day in 16th from Bib 46 and, in doing so, made one of the biggest jumps of the day. “You have to take a bigger, longer line, but it’s really not that different. You have to ski with the hill, but you’re skiing essentially the same line.”

“Now, I think it’s more like downhill,” said the day’s runner-up Fayed. “We have more fast, more jumps. I hope the whole season is like this.”

Other notable American finishes included independent racer Wiley Maple crushing his run from a start position of 56 to finish 22nd on the day. Jared Goldberg finished 35th, and Bryce Bennett finished 56th.

The men will get a crack at the super G tomorrow in Lake Louise with racing set to kick off at 11 a.m. local time (1 p.m. Eastern).

THE SCOOP

By Hank McKee

1 Jansrud, Head/Head/Head

2 Osborne-Paradis, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol

2 Fayed, Head/Head/Head

4 Paris, Nordica/Nordica/Marker

5 Sullivan, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

6 Feuz, Head/Head/Head

7 Heel, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

8 Kueng, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

9 Reichelt, Salomon/Salomon/Salomon

10 Clarey, Head/Head/Head

10 Ganong, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic

Men’s World Cup downhill, Lake Louise, Canada, Nov. 29, 2014:

• It is the third of 36 races on the men’s World Cup schedule. … The first of ten downhills. … It is the 96^th World Cup race to take place at Lake Louise, the first of five scheduled this season, first of two men’s races this season.
• Dominik Paris is the defending Lake Louise downhill champion. Due to heavy snowfall just one training run was held with Kjetil Jansrud recording the fastest time. Canadian Manny Osborne-Pardis was second fastest and Matthias Mayer third.
• It is the fifth career World Cup victory for Kjetil Jansrud, his second in downhill. … Four of his five wins have come in the 2014 calendar year. … It is the fourth straight season a Norwegian has recorded a men’s win at Lake Louise. … Jansrud joins Aksel Lund Svindal and Atle Skaardal as Norwegians to have won at the site.
• It is the 10th career World Cup podium result for Manuel Osborne-Paradis … his third at Lake Louise (first SG 2009; second DH 2006 and today).
• It is the first career World Cup podium result for Guillermo Fayed … his previous best had been sixth scored three times, twice at Kvitfjell and once at Val Gardena, all in DH. … Although French women can count 15 Lake Louise podiums, Fayed is just the third French male to gain a podium at Lake Louise (French men have six).
• It is the ninth World Cup top-five result for Marco Sullivan, the fourth at Lake Louise. … It is the 11^th World Cup top 10 for Travis Ganong, his first at Lake Louise where is previous best had been 20^th. … It is the fourth best of seven scoring results at Lake Louise for Steven Nyman. … It is the 12^th best of 15 Lake Louise scoring results for Jan Hudec. … It is a career-best result for Wiley Maple and his second World Cup scoring result. … It is the 21^st career scoring finish for Benjamin Thomsen. … his second at Lake Louise.
• The top 13 skiers were within the same second. … and the top five all within a half second. Solid attacks from the back with significant North American advances: Steven Nyman from 46^th to 16^th; Wiley Maple from 56^th to 22^nd and Ben Thomsen from 52^nd to 29^th all represent excellent efforts.
• Marcel Hirscher (did not race) maintains the lead of the World Cup overall standings 180-120 over Fritz Dopfer (did not race). … Jansrud moves to third with 116pts. … Osborne-Paradis leads all North Americans in fifth place with 80pts. … Sullivan is top U.S. skier overall in 13th with 45pts.
• The U.S. is seventh in the Nations Cup with 144pts and Canada ninth at 119pts.

RESULTS