It appears the Austrian bib selection was spot on for the Lake Louise downhill, the first speed race of the 2010-2011 World Cup season. Michael Walchhofer claimed the win, his first since December of 2009, with Mario Scheiber tying Norway’s super star Aksel Lund Svindal in second. The three started consecutively with Svindal wearing bib 18, Scheiber 19 and Walchhofer 20.

Dazzling in fourth place was the first skier starting outside of the top 30, Switzerland’s Silvan Zurbriggen with the best downhill result of his career. Early leader Johan Clarey of France held on for fifth.

Bode Miller got eighth to lead the North American group while Canada’s Jan Hudec showed a return to form after successive injuries to post 11th from the 42nd start.

The early start numbers struggled as the course appeared to speed up slightly on a sunny mid-day and that was not generally good news for the Americans.Marco Sullivan in bib two wound up in 55th place and had changed to blue jeans before the leaders took to the course. Andrew Weibrecht – the third starter – finished 37th and was beaten on the day by teammates Steven Nyman in 35th and Travis Ganong in 36th, both of them starting in the mid-30’s.

With a less than ideal set of training runs – super cold Wednesday, canceled by high winds Thursday and snowing Friday, race day dawned clear and bright with temperatures listed on the start sheet as -7c, about 19 degrees in American.

There definitely was a sense of relief from the Austrian squad. “Our last (DH) victory was nearly two years ago,” said Walchhofer racing in what he expects will be his final season, “so a good run today takes a lot of pressure from the whole team. It is not just that I was fast, but Mario was second and the other teammates showed yesterday (in training) that maybe the whole team was in great shape.”

He said conditions played to his advantage. Wind that had hampered training runs subsided to nearly zero. “It was very hard and the piste was in good conditions. It was a little bumpy and difficult.”

Svindal agreed the conditions probably helped Walchhofer more than most. “No one is probably faster at high speed, glading turns and there are a lot of them at Lake Louise.”

The Austrians, he said, “had some bad luck last year. I never counted that they were gone.”

For the U.S. a lack of time on the downhill boards may have played a role. According to U.S. Head Men’s Coach Sasha Rearick, “Bode skied very solid in the middle on the more technical parts of the course,” said Rearick. “I was really stoked with Weibrecht’s effort, he threw down an impressive run in the middle section of the hill, but unfortunately had a pretty big bobble going onto the flats that cost him a lot of time.”

“We’ve trained more super G in the past month in Vail,” admitted Rearick. “We feel more comfortable on those skis and we are going to go out there and execute our plan, aggressive solid skiing.”

Two notable things brought up by FIS Director Gunther Hujara included the first racer on the day, Patrik Jaerbyn skiing off course into the fences, then gathering himself up and continuing down course. Although according to the letter of the rules he did nothing wrong, as he had not missed a gate, Hujara said the event could have raised a significant injury possibility. “We immediately called for a ‘stop’ and people started moving toward his to offer assistance. Further down course workers could have moved onto the course.” He indicated he was hopeful the rules would be clarified to prevent the situation from reoccuring.

The second thing Hujara mentioned was the success of new rip-away gate panels. “We had a skier go right through a panel at 100km (per hour) at about the same location where we had a serious injury last season and he was not injured at all. I never like to see these things, but I liked that outcome.”

 -Hank McKee

Photo by Gepa

The SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Men’s World Cup downhill, Lake Louise, Alberta, Nov. 27, 2010. … It is the first of nine downhills and second of 37 races on the men’s 2010-11 World Cup schedule. … It is the 75th World Cup race held at Lake Louise and the 46th downhill.

It is the 16th career World Cup win for Michael Walchhofer, his 12th in DH. … It is his second at Lake Louise, the other his first career Cup Nov. 29. 2003. … and his first DH win since Dec. 20, 2008 at Val Gardena.

It is the ninth career second place finish for Mario Scheiber, who has never recorded a World Cup win. … It is his second finish in the runner up spot at Lake Louise, the previous recorded Nov. 26, 2006
in a race won by Canadian John Kucera.

It is the 30th career World Cup podium for Aksel Lund Svindal. … his third at Lake Louise, but his first at Lake Louise in DH, the others both SG wins.

It is the 137th time in his career Bode Miller has placed in the top 10 of a World Cup race. … the fourth time at Lake Louise. … It is the ninth best career World Cup result for Jan Hudec. … his fourth best result at Lake Louise. … Manny Osborne-Paradis matches his 23rd best career World Cup result. … and it is his third best career result at Lake Louise. … It is the 94th career Cup scoring result for Erik Guay.

Austria gains control of the men’s Nations Cup standings 322-237 over Switzerland with France third at 232. … Canada is fifth and the U.S. ninth.

Levi winner Jean-Baptiste Grange (did not race) and Walchhofer lead the men’s World Cup standings with 100pts each. … Silvan Zurbriggen is third with 90pts. … Canada’s Julien Cousineau and Bode Miller lead the North Americans on the overall standing slist tied in 14th with 32pts a piece.