view counter

Recent Stories

Stay Connected

social networking buttons twitter Facebook youtube channel rss feeds digital magazine coverRead the Digital Magazine

Quick Poll

How many World Cup starts will Bode Miller take next season?
Zero
13%
Five
0%
Fifteen
50%
All of them
38%
Total votes: 8

User Tools

Beaver Creek training run to Swiss Hoffmann

Bookmark and Share
Printer-friendly versionSend to friend

Swiss Ambrosi Hoffmann and Ralf Kreuzer topped the finish list of the first training run for Beaver Creek while Andrew Weibrecht led a strong U.S. showing that included Erik Fisher in eighth and Marco Sullivan in tenth. But it would be hard to read much into these results.

It was an on-again, off-again situation as snow moved in overnight causing consternation among race officials and sore muscles among the members of the cracker-jack course crew. The race appeared destined for the scrap heap and most of the athletes were no where near the Birds of Prey course when the word came the training run would be started. Manny Osborne-Paradis said his roommate woke him up from a nap "I was laying there with drool all over the place," and most of the U.S. group was playing video games when they got a text-message from coach Sasha Rearick that it was game on.

The start was moved well down the hill to the GS start, giving the racers a 49 second run from the Pumphouse down, roughly half of the full course.

"You could get a good feel for some of the jumps," said Sullivan. "It was fun, so that was good."

While it remained cold (about 14F) the snow gave way to sun and the course crew provided a good surface on which to run. That it only slightly resembled the fabled Birds of Prey downhill course was insignificant to the fact they got to run at all.

Top finishers came from well down the finish order. Hoffmann started 20th, but Kreuzer started 54th, third finisher Yannick Bertrand of France started 43rd,, fourth finisher Mario Scheiber of Austria wore bib 39 and fifth place Rok Perko of Slovenia wore 54.

The Americans, actually, didn't wear any bibs as they never arrived at the relocated start, but Weibrecht in a tie for sixth kicked out 57th while Fisher and Sullivan both started in the twenties.

Bode Miller started 17th and wound up way down the finish order in 47th place. Even so he beat every Canadian as Robbie Dixon led the Maple Leaf group in 56th.

As meaningless as the results should pan out, it was still a good day for the Swiss. Didier Cuche, the winner of the only previous downhill this season last weekend in Lake Louise, said he had tried to help out the younger Swiss guys during inspection. "I try to tell the young Swiss guys who have never skied here about the timing… and how quick to react in the turn… and maybe that is some good words for them because they are kind of unsure of what they do and when they do that."

Image: Work crews spent the morning clearing the course. (Marcus Caston)

Front page image by Gepa

Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Total Time
 1  20  510767 HOFFMANN Ambrosi  1977  SUI   49.07
 2  54  511039 KREUZER Ralf  1983  SUI   49.08
 3  43  191591 BERTRAND Yannick  1980  FRA   49.09
 4  39  51005 SCHEIBER Mario  1983  AUT   49.10
 5  48  561067 PERKO Rok  1985  SLO   49.13
 6  57  530939 WEIBRECHT Andrew  1986  USA   49.29
 6  29  500150 JAERBYN Patrik  1969  SWE   49.29
 8  27  534939 FISHER Erik  1985  USA   49.32
 9  38  50833 GRUGGER Hans  1981  AUT   49.33
 10  65  380292 ZRNCIC-DIM Natko  1986  CRO   49.39
 10  25  533131 SULLIVAN Marco  1980  USA   49.39
 10  24  191116 DALCIN Pierre-Emmanuel  1977  FRA   49.39
 10  7  501076 OLSSON Hans  1984  SWE   49.39
 14  50  50547 SCHOENFELDER Rainer  1977  AUT   49.45
 15  51  192932 FAYED Guillermo  1985  FRA   49.47
 16  28  51215 BAUMANN Romed  1986  AUT   49.48
 17  3  510747 GRUENENFELDER Tobias  1977  SUI   49.49
 18  23  50858 STREITBERGER Georg  1981  AUT   49.53
 19  71  421400 MYHRE Lars Elton  1984  NOR   49.54
 20  70  421483 JANSRUD Kjetil  1985  NOR   49.58
 20  36  560447 SPORN Andrej  1981  SLO   49.58
 22  12  50041 WALCHHOFER Michael  1975  AUT   49.60
 23  42  292291 THANEI Stefan  1981  ITA   49.61
 24  37  532490 MACARTNEY Scott  1978  USA   49.62
 25  45  290998 STAUDACHER Patrick  1980  ITA   49.64
 25  44  511139 KUENG Patrick  1984  SUI   49.64
 27  32  380260 KOSTELIC Ivica  1979  CRO   49.65
 28  15  510727 DEFAGO Didier  1977  SUI   49.67
 29  11  510030 CUCHE Didier  1974  SUI   49.69
 30  26  191740 CLAREY Johan  1981  FRA   49.74
 31  33  191459 LIZEROUX Julien  1979  FRA   49.76
 32  13  511313 JANKA Carlo  1986  SUI   49.84
 33  59  533762 TRANSUE Jeremy  1983  USA   49.87
 34  31  50625 RAICH Benjamin  1978  AUT   49.88
 35  22  510890 ZURBRIGGEN Silvan  1981  SUI   49.90
 36  67  561085 KRIZAJ Andrej  1986  SLO   49.91
 37  9  292514 HEEL Werner  1982  ITA   49.92
 38  64  150398 BANK Ondrej  1980  CZE   49.99
 39  55  193212 DURAND Jeremie  1986  FRA   50.03
 40  5  50695 BUDER Andreas  1979  AUT   50.07
 41  62  201987 STRODL Andreas  1987  GER   50.08
 42  46  561087 MARKIC Gasper  1986  SLO   50.10
 43  66  40171 BRANCH Craig  1977  AUS   50.14
 44  49  201542 STRODL Peter  1982  GER   50.15
 45  75  501026 RAINER Niklas  1983  SWE   50.17
 46  14  50753 KROELL Klaus  1980  AUT   50.18
 47  47  201811 STECHERT Tobias  1985  GER   50.19
 47  17  532431 MILLER Bode  1977  USA   50.19
 49  56  51327 PUCHNER Joachim  1987  AUT   50.21
 49  21  192746 THEAUX Adrien  1984  FRA   50.21
 51  8  350032 BUECHEL Marco  1971  LIE   50.22
 52  63  511383 FEUZ Beat  1987  SUI   50.24
 52  40  201606 KEPPLER Stephan  1983  GER   50.24
 54  88  430429 BYDLINSKI Maciej  1988  POL   50.28
 55  58  51332 SCHEIBER Florian  1987  AUT   50.33
 56  30  102961 DIXON Robbie  1985  CAN   50.35
 57  10  421328 SVINDAL Aksel Lund  1982  NOR   50.36
 58  35  192665 GRANGE Jean-Baptiste  1984  FRA   50.40
 58  18  102263 GUAY Erik  1981  CAN   50.40
 60  76  192504 MERMILLOD BLONDIN Thomas  1984  FRA   50.41
 61  74  53837 KRAMER Manuel  1989  AUT   50.44
 62  53  201702 NEUREUTHER Felix  1984  GER   50.46
 63  6  533866 NYMAN Steven  1982  USA   50.49
 64  69  511352 VILETTA Sandro  1986  SUI   50.50
 65  19  293006 INNERHOFER Christof  1984  ITA   50.57
 66  60  103090 HELIE Louis-Pierre  1986  CAN   50.60
 67  2  50451 GRUBER Christoph  1976  AUT   50.64
 67  1  191964 POISSON David  1982  FRA   50.64
 69  52  291459 PARIS Dominik  1989  ITA   50.72
 69  34  534562 LIGETY Ted  1984  USA   50.72
 71  82  480736 HOROSHILOV Alexandr  1984  RUS   50.75
 72  77  191778 PICHOT Sebastien  1981  FRA   50.81
 73  16  102899 OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel  1984  CAN   50.87
 74  4  560332 JERMAN Andrej  1978  SLO   50.91
 75  80  500656 LARSSON Markus  1979  SWE   50.92
 76  84  292491 MOELGG Manfred  1982  ITA   51.19
 77  83  501017 MYHRER Andre  1983  SWE   51.36
 78  73  501230 ERICSSON Daniel  1987  SWE   51.45
 79  89  480997 TARANENKO Mikhail  1988  RUS   51.55
 80  72  220695 CRAWFORD Douglas  1987  GBR   51.63
 81  86  430472 KLUSAK Michal  1990  POL   51.75
 81  79  380291 RATKIC Ivan  1986  CRO   51.75
 83  61  201900 WAGNER Hannes  1986  GER   51.78
 84  81  700724 BABUSIAK Jaroslav  1984  SVK   51.92
 85  87  90047 GEORGIEV Stefan  1977  BUL   54.52
Did not start 1st run
   91  292000 BLARDONE Massimiliano  1979  ITA   
   90  292120 SIMONCELLI Davide  1979  ITA   
   85  292250 SCHIEPPATI Alberto  1981  ITA   
   78  560406 GORZA Ales  1980  SLO   
   68  292056 GUFLER Michael  1979  ITA   
Did not finish 1st run
   41  53817 FRANZ Max  1989  AUT   

»

view counter