Kvitfjell: Veterans control weather challenged training

Changing weather is always an interesting mix. At Kvitfjell, Norway, the last stop of the men’s World Cup tour before the World Cup finals in neighboring Sweden, the first downhill training run gave the racers fresh snow on top of the course and freezing rain at the bottom.

Not surprisingly it was veterans at the top of the training result, with Swiss Didier Cuche leading the way, Aksel Svindal in second, Werner Heel third, Hermann Maier fourth and the list went on. Didier Defago, Erik Guay, Klaus Kroell, Manny Osborne-Paradis, Marco Buechel. It was one of those days.

“It was a soft floor,” said U.S. coach Sasha Rearick, “but it held up pretty good.”

He said the Olympiabakken track had developed a “couple of rattles,” but all in all was running well thanks to Mother Nature. “With the amount of snow they’ve gotten here in the last little while it’s really in pretty good shape. It is set a bit turnier than in the past.”

Changing weather is always an interesting mix. At Kvitfjell, Norway, the last stop of the men’s World Cup tour before the World Cup finals in neighboring Sweden, the first downhill training run gave the racers fresh snow on top of the course and freezing rain at the bottom.

Not surprisingly it was veterans at the top of the training result, with Swiss Didier Cuche leading the way, Aksel Svindal in second, Werner Heel third, Hermann Maier fourth and the list went on. Didier Defago, Erik Guay, Klaus Kroell, Manny Osborne-Paradis, Marco Buechel. It was one of those days.

“It was a soft floor,” said U.S. coach Sasha Rearick, “but it held up pretty good.”

He said the Olympiabakken track had developed a “couple of rattles,” but all in all was running well thanks to Mother Nature. “With the amount of snow they’ve gotten here in the last little while it’s really in pretty good shape. It is set a bit turnier than in the past.”

Marco Sullivan, the top ranked Yank on the downhill list with Bode Miller elected to end his season, said the snow has been light enough to alter the course. “We’ve been having some light snowfall, but that hasn’t affected the surface. It’s nice and firm,” he said.

Sullivan and the rest of the U.S. guys were – for the most part – squarely in the middle of the pack. Marco Sullivan was 23rd, Erik Fisher 27th, Kevin Francis 28th and Steven Nyman 33rd. Andrew Weibrecht was 50th of 63 finishers, which still put him well of downhill standings leader Michael Walchhofer who got that 63rd finish.

“The training run today was actually pretty sweet,” said Sullivan. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been on a downhill course were we can let the skis go. I think the slope at Val d’Isere (for World Championships) was pretty tough on all the speed guys, so everyone was pretty happy to just let it rip today.”

The U.S. guys, Rearick said, ” … got here four days ago. We had a two-day training camp, but it was snowing most of those days so it wasn’t great. But at least we got over here and got the jet-lag out of the way.”

He said the changes to the track hadn’t taken the character out of it. “It still runs well with some good jumps and a lot of terrain. It’s much closer to a Wengen or a Val Gardena and that’s more what we like.”

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Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Total Time
1	13	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI	1:49.22
2	11	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	1:49.33
3	18	292514	HEEL Werner	1982	ITA	1:49.75
4	21	50423	MAIER Hermann	1972	AUT	1:49.79
4	20	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:49.79
6	9	102263	GUAY Erik	1981	CAN	1:49.85
7	10	50753	KROELL Klaus	1980	AUT	1:49.86
8	6	102899	OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel	1984	CAN	1:49.97
9	8	350032	BUECHEL Marco	1971	LIE	1:49.98
10	38	191591	BERTRAND Yannick	1980	FRA	1:50.09
11	3	510747	GRUENENFELDER Tobias	1977	SUI	1:50.26
12	17	510767	HOFFMANN Ambrosi	1977	SUI	1:50.34
12	4	50451	GRUBER Christoph	1976	AUT	1:50.34
14	5	560332	JERMAN Andrej	1978	SLO	1:50.72
15	28	500150	JAERBYN Patrik	1969	SWE	1:50.77
16	15	292455	FILL Peter	1982	ITA	1:50.87
17	24	192746	THEAUX Adrien	1984	FRA	1:50.88
18	23	102961	DIXON Robbie	1985	CAN	1:50.92
19	42	561067	PERKO Rok	1985	SLO	1:51.07
20	27	50858	STREITBERGER Georg	1981	AUT	1:51.08
21	1	191964	POISSON David	1982	FRA	1:51.14
22	14	293006	INNERHOFER Christof	1984	ITA	1:51.17
23	7	533131	SULLIVAN Marco	1980	USA	1:51.19
24	32	510890	ZURBRIGGEN Silvan	1981	SUI	1:51.22
25	22	51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT	1:51.37
26	40	50919	STRUGER Peter	1982	AUT	1:51.41
27	2	534939	FISHER Erik	1985	USA	1:51.51
28	57	533842	FRANCIS Kevin	1982	USA	1:51.55
29	34	201606	KEPPLER Stephan	1983	GER	1:51.56
30	19	102873	KUCERA John	1984	CAN	1:51.70
31	45	150421	ZAHROBSKY Petr	1980	CZE	1:51.77
32	16	511313	JANKA Carlo	1986	SUI	1:51.80
33	29	533866	NYMAN Steven	1982	USA	1:51.91
34	39	192932	FAYED Guillermo	1985	FRA	1:51.95
35	26	191116	DALCIN Pierre-Emmanuel	1977	FRA	1:52.12
36	30	292291	THANEI Stefan	1981	ITA	1:52.21
37	50	201542	STRODL Peter	1982	GER	1:52.24
38	25	501076	OLSSON Hans	1984	SWE	1:52.28
39	63	421483	JANSRUD Kjetil	1985	NOR	1:52.42
40	66	220695	CRAWFORD Douglas	1987	GBR	1:52.54
41	33	380260	KOSTELIC Ivica	1979	CRO	1:52.55
42	31	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	1:52.69
43	53	40171	BRANCH Craig	1977	AUS	1:52.71
44	56	380292	ZRNCIC-DIM Natko	1986	CRO	1:52.73
45	46	511142	LUEOEND Vitus	1984	SUI	1:52.84
46	60	291399	GIRARDI Walter	1976	ITA	1:52.85
46	35	50761	ALSTER Christoph	1980	AUT	1:52.85
48	70	50600	GOERGL Stephan	1978	AUT	1:52.86
49	59	561085	KRIZAJ Andrej	1986	SLO	1:52.96
50	52	530939	WEIBRECHT Andrew	1986	USA	1:53.16
51	37	511139	KUENG Patrick	1984	SUI	1:53.27
52	64	220656	DRAKE Edward	1986	GBR	1:53.35
53	44	51327	PUCHNER Joachim	1987	AUT	1:53.42
54	61	50742	REICHELT Hannes	1980	AUT	1:53.46
55	55	103090	HELIE Louis-Pierre	1986	CAN	1:53.52
56	58	103375	NELLA Tyler	1988	CAN	1:53.57
57	67	191746	DE TESSIERES Gauthier	1981	FRA	1:53.70
58	54	421400	MYHRE Lars Elton	1984	NOR	1:54.11
59	43	192122	PITTIN Alexandre	1983	FRA	1:54.23
60	68	292831	PIERUZ Aronne	1983	ITA	1:54.70
61	62	501230	ERICSSON Daniel	1987	SWE	1:54.71
62	69	191778	PICHOT Sebastien	1981	FRA	1:55.35
63	12	50041	WALCHHOFER Michael	1975	AUT	1:55.51
Disqualified 1st run
	51	561006	GLEBOV Alek	1983	SLO
	49	294911	PATSCHEIDER Hagen	1988	ITA
	48	561087	MARKIC Gasper	1986	SLO
	47	293550	MARSAGLIA Matteo	1985	ITA
	41	50831	GRAGGABER Thomas	1981	AUT
	36	290998	STAUDACHER Patrick	1980	ITA
Did not start 1st run
	65	560406	GORZA Ales	1980	SLO