Val d'Isere: Cuche leads DQ laden training run

It has become customary of late for Swiss Didier Cuche, the World Cup downhill leader, to win the first training run. He did so at Kitzbuehel and Chamonix and appeared to have it won at Val d'Isere Wednesday when racers returned to the 1992 Olympic course, Face Olympique Bellevarde, for the first time since the Games.
    But it was pretty hard to tell as so many racers missed gates on the cranky course officials had difficulty sorting them all out. American TJ Lanning came down from the 57th start and had the winning time on the board, but told people at the bottom he thought he missed four gates, not just one.

It has become customary of late for Swiss Didier Cuche, the World Cup downhill leader, to win the first training run. He did so at Kitzbuehel and Chamonix and appeared to have it won at Val d'Isere Wednesday when racers returned to the 1992 Olympic course, Face Olympique Bellevarde, for the first time since the Games.
    But it was pretty hard to tell as so many racers missed gates on the cranky course officials had difficulty sorting them all out. American TJ Lanning came down from the 57th start and had the winning time on the board, but told people at the bottom he thought he missed four gates, not just one.
    The preliminary results showed Lanning in first, Cuche, Mario Scheiber and Frenchman David Poisson, but Scheiber and Poisson  joined the ranks of the disqualified as well. In the end there were 39 finishers from a startlist that started with 91 skiers.
    Before the disqualifications, Bode Miller finished 21st, Ted Ligety was 24th as he looks toward a combined scheduled Sunday. Erik Guay placed 27th, John Kucera 32nd, Steve Nyman was 45th and the winner at Chamonix, Marco Sullivan finished 46th. After the DQ's it was Miller 14, Guay 16 and Kucera 17.
This training run will only fuel concerns about the course. Constructed on a mountain too steep for conventional downhill sets, the Face threads its way through narrow boulder strewn passages and features numerous hard turns in an effort to control speed. It was controversial at the '92 Olympics and if the first training run this season is any indication, it will remain so.