Jansrud tops second training run but Ganong close in second

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta – The World Cup men took a second crack at the downhill course in Lake Louise on Thursday under partly sunny skies and slightly warmer temperatures than the day before. Kjetil Jansrud improved on his earlier performance (second place on Wednesday) to lay down the fastest run ahead of the U.S. Ski Team’s Travis Ganong and Austrian Max Franz.

“I don’t have the best feelings actually up there in the training run. But then again the speeds are higher than the last one and also a little more rally under the foot – there are some ruts in there, so it doesn’t feel too good, but I’m glad I’m fast and we’ll see how it goes,” said a smiling Jansrud in the finish area.

Ganong was just 0.13 seconds off the Attacking Viking’s pace, and he is thrilled with the challenge of the slope including terrain that hasn’t been in play before.

“They had a lot more snow early season than normal, so they were able to build all this terrain and just make the track really fun to ski. Normally they barely get it off and just cover the grass but now there’s so much snow that they can build rollers and make the snow really firm and hard and it makes it really fun to ski. It’s a totally different Lake Louise than in the last years.”

After a lackluster performance by the Austrian squad in the opening training run, Franz led his team in third while Matthias Mayer was a half-second in touch of Jansrud in fourth.

“Yesterday, my inspection was not so good, and I misjudged some sections. We watched the video and I could adapt my line in those sections today, be more aggressive and more active,” said Franz. “I did a little mistake at the entrance of the fallaway, I was a little late, skied more meters than necessary, so I couldn’t carry as much speed as I wanted for the last section.”

The fastest skier from Wednesday, Aksel Lund Svindal, was a close fifth. Despite some trouble in the air, American Steven Nyman found speed in the middle of the course and was able to hold onto eighth, within a second of Jansrud.

The men will have their last day for practice on the track tomorrow ahead of Saturday’s opening downhill race of the season.

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