Lake Louise: Cuche tops first training run

Swiss veteran Didier Cuche won the opening downhill training run of the season, edging Marco Buechel of Liechtenstein by eight hundredths of a second down the men's Olympic Downhill Run at Lake Louise, Alberta, Thursday. Austrian Andreas Buder finished third and Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis was fourth.

SWISS VETERAN Didier Cuche won the opening downhill training run of the season, edging Marco Buechel of Liechtenstein by eight hundredths of a second down the men's Olympic Downhill Run at Lake Louise, Alberta, Thursday. Austrian Andreas Buder finished third and Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis was fourth.
     Canadian Erik Guay was 14th, U.S. star Bode Miller finished 18th and Marco Sullivan was 20th.  All told the North Americans rammed ten skiers into the top 30 positions. It could have been much better. American Andrew Weibrecht was listed fifth, Byron Friedman in 18th and TJ Lanning 21st before being disqualified. All three U.S. competitors were axed at the same gate.
    Cuche lists three DH wins among his total of six and had a solid start this season with an eighth in GS at Sölden last month.