On the first day of Lake Louise, the day before Thanksgiving, it will be very cold. Seasonably cold in Lake Louise. It sounds like -26 Celsius, which is actually a break from what they have been enduring up there and it will be -15 for a high temperature today. Expect those boys to be taped up on the faces and covered as much as possible. The good news is that it is expected to be a little more reasonable as the weekend races approach. But that chill will stick around every night they are there.
On Wednesday, Christof Innerhofer, the gifted Italian downhiller will open the DH racing season with bib number one at 12:30 PM Mountain Time. The Americans will have Marco Sullivan on his new Rossignol set-up starting third, Bode 19th, Weibrecht 25th, Ligety 34th, Ganong 38th, Nyman 39th , Brandenburg 61, Fisher 63, Chris Frank 81, Biesemeyer 85 and Tommy Ford 88. The Canadians will have a bunch of guys in the training runs as well: starting Guay, Manny O-P, Dixon, Hudec, Bourque, Helie, Thomsen, Nella and Dustin Cook. The USA has eight spots plus two spots owned by Nyman and Ganong out of NorAms. Do the math, which means that one of today’s starters will not get to go. All of the guys on that list who are not proven World Cuppers are there to improve their chances at the NorAms in a couple of weeks. The Canadians have nine guys on the start list tomorrow with Dustin Cook owning his own spot from NorAms last year. They have only seven spots for the eight guys outside of Dustin. They are in the same situation as the USA.
The Swiss have a lot of problems right now with their team and injuries. The highly popular and very talented Dani Albrecht is still recovering from his horrific, Macartney-esque crash in Kitzbuhel two seasons ago and had threatened to pull out of the event at one point earlier in the week. There was some noise about the snow guns on the rest of the ski area causing problems on the race hill. Dani pulled-out of Soelden due to a knee injury of undisclosed origin and severity. Believe me, I am not putting any guilt or blame on Dani. I have known him a long time, since he wanted to quit in Jackson Hole several years ago when the Swiss boys joined us for a slalom camp at Snow King prior to the Nor Am races that were held there that year. Dani is as good as they get and he was very frustrated. He had a new coach, he felt like he was struggling, he was getting beaten by our guys in timed runs and he was just moments from stepping on a plane and heading home. His coach, Sepp Brunner, convinced him to see it through the trip in the USA and Dani bounced back in the second slalom in Jackson finishing second behind Kentaro Minagawa (JPN) and then went on to have an excellent season as a World Cup skier and the rest is history. But Dani is showing signs of wavering on his comeback now and it will be interesting to watch him. He is on the start list for Wednesday. I hope he starts and I hope he does well. I cannot think of a more deserving candidate for a full recovery from a horrible experience. The Swiss are also missing Didier Defago, one of the best downhillers in the world, to a knee injury. He is lost for the season. But the Swiss start list still has its stars in Cuche, Janka and Hoffmann. Conspicuously still missing from their start list is Marc Berthod. Until the rash of injuries hit both Marc and Dani, they were the future of the Swiss Men’s team. Now they are two question marks with Janka stepping into the forefront.
Those are just a few story lines to have a look at when the speed season opens today in Lake Louise. Live timing should be up on the FIS site at 12:30 Mountain time.
ASPEN HILL UPDATE
With the new snow that is currently falling in Colorado and ten inches of new in Aspen overnight, it does not sound like the Aspen crew will be able to inject the surface. According to one of the Swiss coaches, if the snow can be as good under the new stuff in Aspen as it has been in Vail, there is no need to inject, especially for GS. From the looks of training yesterday, the race could run 60 or 70 girls on the excellent man-made base with little damage. The snow is very hard, compact and grippy. Hero-snow is what most of us call it. He was of the opinion that they should not inject and just get down to the man-made layer underneath.
According to Jeff Kai, Program Director of the Aspen Valley Ski Club, Aspen watered the race hill yesterday by opening the surface with groomers and hand watering with hoses. Then they re-sealed it immediately hoping for a grippier surface than last year. Their storm total today now sounds like a foot or so on the race hill. So, after putting up 300 rolls of B-net yesterday, the Ski Club and USSA staff are out there pulling 70 or so rolls on Strawpile so they can blow the snow off the hill and expose the watered surface to the cold air. They are expecting -20 Celsius tonight so it should get pretty solid if they can get the snow off the surface. By all reports, the snow has stopped at this time to the west in Grand Junction so we are all anticipating the snow to slow down to a stop in the next few hours.
Also, one of the girls who was over in Aspen last week to train reported that there is a big whale of man-made left in the middle of the lower half of the hill. It is in the narrows where the hill jogs from Strawpile to the finish pitch. In her estimation, it would be impossible to set over the mound and the setters will need to set around it.
It sounds like everything is under control and if the weather will cooperate, the girls will have an excellent piste to race on and the schedule will be able to stay intact.
www.fantasyskiracer.com picks for both Lake Louise races and both Aspen races will post later today or tomorrow. Thanks for checking in!
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Greg “Grande” Needell grew up ski racing at Stratton Mountain,
Vermont. After graduating from SMS he skied for NCAA Division 1 St.
Lawrence University in Canton, NY where he was co-captain in 1986. Greg
returned to SMS to coach there for five years serving as the Head
Women’s Coach as well as the Head J2 Men’s Coach. He then moved to
Mission Ridge in Wenatchee, Washington in 1992 to become the Program
Director and Head Coach of the Mission Ridge Ski Club. In 1997, Greg
became the Head Coach at Mammoth Mountain, California.
In 2002 Needell was asked to join the U.S. Ski Team staff as a World
Cup SL and GS coach. From 2002 to 2008 Needell helped lead the U.S. Ski
Team Men to 43 wins, 105 podiums and 264 top ten finishes. Now at the
helm of Alpine Race Consulting, Needell offers his knowledge and
experience to clubs nationwide.
About the Author: Pete Rugh
