Val d'Isere: DH canceled by snowfall

By Published On: February 2nd, 2008Comments Off on Val d'Isere: DH canceled by snowfall

The men's World Cup downhill was canceled Saturday due to heavy snowfall.
    Officials called the race off after course workers were unable to prepare the Face de Bellevarde piste for the event.
    The super-combined is still scheduled to be held Sunday.
    Bode Miller of the United States leads the super-combined standings with 310 points, followed by Jean-Baptiste Grange of France with 220 points.
    FIS officials indicated the downhill might be held at Kvitfjell, Norway, later in the month.
    Organizers were prepared for lots of snow today. They removed four kilometers of B net Friday to bring in machines to help remove the projected snow. The snow did come, nearly 20 inches at the top accompanied by wind, according to U.S. coach Phil McNichol.
    "A course worker sent me a text this morning reporting around 20 inches of snow at the top, which is a lot of snow for them to clear off a course like this," he said. "But, the wind is ripping pretty hard out there too. Hopefully the boys get in some good powder skiing today."
    The Val d'Isere resort will host the 2009 alpine skiing world championships.

The men's World Cup downhill was canceled Saturday due to heavy snowfall.
    Officials called the race off after course workers were unable to prepare the Face de Bellevarde piste for the event.
    The super-combined is still scheduled to be held Sunday.
   Bode Miller of the United States leads the super-combined standings with 310 points, followed by Jean-Baptiste Grange of France with 220 points.
    FIS officials indicated the downhill might be held at Kvitfjell, Norway, later in the month.
    Organizers were prepared for lots of snow today. They removed four kilometers of B net Friday to bring in machines to help remove the projected snow. The snow did come, nearly 20 inches at the top accompanied by wind, according to U.S. coach Phil McNichol.
    "A course worker sent me a text this morning reporting around 20 inches of snow at the top, which is a lot of snow for them to clear off a course like this," he said. "But, the wind is ripping pretty hard out there too. Hopefully the boys get in some good powder skiing today."
Steven Nyman, just returned from a break to rest his weary back said the cancellation was the right call.
    "It was great to get on the hill this week and learn the course, which should really help us out for next year. This is such a steep course that even a little bit of snow is a lot of snow. For me, it just gives me one more week to rest my back. I am feeling great and would have been ready to go today, but one more week of rest won't hurt.  
    "Hopefully they'll be able to reschedule it for Kvitfjell because that hill suits our style much more. It's technical and glidy, but much faster. It will be better for us, especially Marco (Sullivan). I'd like to see him keep moving up the downhill standings and he can do that in Kvitfjell."
    Marco Sullivan  said he was a touch disappointed the race here didn't come off.
    "It was good to get a couple of training runs on the World Champs course," he said. "Unfortunately we can't race it. I'm skiing well and would have preferred to race. This is the first time we've had a race canceled in a while, so we've been pretty lucky. I'm looking forward to getting some good rest at home and getting ready for the next races in Vancouver, and then fire it up for next downhill in Norway."
    Offically Emmanuel Couder, president of the Val d'Isere Club Des Sports reported: "It started to snow hard at the end of the night, between 4 and 5AM and our volunteers immediately went on the course to start to prepare it. We got around 20cm of fresh snow at the top and a little less at the bottom," he said.
    "Nearly 250 course workers, mostly ski instructors, patrolers, firemen and soldiers started to clean the course at 5 am. Our goal was to postpone. … Unfortunately this plan eventually proved unrealizable since it was not possible to bring snowcats on the slope which would have been basly damaged. … There was just not enough time so we decided to concentrate on saving the combined event instead."
    Couder said the slalom course was in good shape and the workers would remain throughout the day and night if necessary to clear the downhill. Weather forecasts are favorable.

  – USSA, Patrick Lang and The Associated Press contributed to this story

Share This Article

About the Author: Pete Rugh