Defago, Vonn lead final training runs before downhill races

MERIBEL, France – In the one and only training run for the men on the Roc de Fer course in Meribel, France, Didier Defago, who has announced he is retiring at the end of the week, led the way finishing in 1:43.04. Frenchman Guillermo Fayed finished with the second fastest run, 0.29 seconds behind and current World Cup downhill standings lead, Kjetil Jansrud, finished with the third fastest time, 0.76 seconds back.

The men are racing downhill on the Meribel track for the first time in World Cup history, though the French team spent time training here in advance of the race. With only one training run it should set up an exciting finish to the World Cup downhill season. Jansrud currently leads the downhill standings over Hannes Reichelt by 20 points, 505 to 485. Reichelt finished with the fifth fastest time on his one and only run, 1.01 seconds behind Defago.

Steven Nyman led the way for the Americans with the fourth fastest run, 0.81 seconds back. Marco Sullivan was 14th, 1.68 seconds behind, Travis Ganong finished 18th, and Ted Ligety rounded out the field in 25th.

“It’s a great slope and it’s in perfect condition but it’s a bit challenging as you couldn’t really see every detail. Especially at the section that cuts through the trees, it was really flat light. Apart from that it’s a great slope to ski on,” said Frenchman Adrien Theaux who finished with the seventh fastest training run.

Although the downhill course was slightly softer today for the ladies, Lindsey Vonn once again put down the fastest time, finishing in 1:29.93. She improved on her time from Monday by than 1.40 seconds, despite standing up and cruising down to the finish.

Her closest competition on the day came from Slovenia’s Tina Maze, who appeared to recharge her batteries to be ready for the home stretch of the season in an attempt to overtake Anna Fenninger for the overall World Cup lead. Maze was 0.74 seconds off the pace in second. Austria’s Nicole Hosp trailed Maze by 0.20 seconds. Fenninger chose not to start in the final training run to rest up for the long week ahead.

Lindsey Vonn leads the downhill standings over Fenninger by 35 points and by 96 over Maze. Vonn won the downhill World Cup title six seasons in a row from 2008 to 2013 and looks poised and ready to take her seventh crystal globe on a track perfectly suited for her style.

“I had a nice week off and did a little bit of training. But I mostly got my energy up for this week. I feel good, it’s a great track for me. It’s more of a high speed downhill,” said Vonn following the second training run. “There are some technical parts but mostly you have to have a light touch on the snow and be very smooth with your pressure. I think that is something I have always been pretty good at so I am really looking forward to tomorrow.”

Alice McKennis had another strong day finishing 1.22 seconds off the pace in fifth. Laurenne Ross followed McKennis in sixth, 1.31 back and Stacey Cook made it four in the top 10 for the Americans, finishing ninth, 1.40 seconds behind Vonn.

Racing is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday with the men’s downhill and the ladies to follow at 11:00 CET due to anticipated warm weather in the afternoon.

Results

Men’s training run

Women’s training run