ALPINE:

Cuche sets pace in Lake Louise training, Dixon 4th

Nov. 25, 2009          ►Photos: Canadian Robbie Dixon, above; Swiss skier Didier Cuche, below — Paul Morrison photos

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta — Swiss skier Didier Cuche was the fastest skier in training Wednesday in the leadup to the men's downhill at the Lake Louise World Cup.

Cuche finished in a time of 1 minute, 49.98 seconds.

Michael Walchhofer of Austria finished second, in 1:50.60, followed by French skier Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin, who crossed the line in third with a time of 1:51.08

Robbie Dixon, left, was the top Canadian, finishing in 1:51.09. Dixon started 24th in training, crossing the line in fourth.

John Kucera finished in 14th, while Erik Guay and Jan Hudec finished 43rd and 44th, respectively. Manuel Osborne-Paradis finished 46th. Canadians Louis-Pierre Helie and Tyler Nella finished 49th and 53rd, with Nella tying Austrian Benjamin Raich.

Dixon has four career World Cup top-10 results, including two in downhill. He was the only Canadian in the top 10 during Wednesday's training at Lake Louise Ski Area, although racers from several countries slowed near the finish.

"I was a little bit nervous but I tried to push it as much as I could,” Dixon said. “This summer, everyone had a really good training, so just having that makes a big difference and it makes you more confident. Plus, during our training we were lucky enough to have good sunny conditions and good firm snow."

Kucera finished second in the super-G in Lake Louise last year. "There is a lot of terrain and you have to have movement up there,” Kucera said. “In the middle section I think I ran quite well and then I made a pretty big mistake coming into the pitch. We have time to clean up and I feel pretty good about how things are.

"For me usually my first run is more of an inspection than a full run, but the fact that I can still be competitive with some mistakes it makes me feel really good.”

The 2009 World Cup overall champion, Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal, tied Hudec to finish 44th.

Guay said his run went as expected because he's been battling back issues since the summer. "Obviously, the time's not that great, but I was kind of expecting that a little bit. I knew that I wasn't exactly ready coming in here,'' said Guay, who finished at 1:53.29. "That being said, I still have a couple more runs before the race day so I'm going to try and switch it around.''

The downhill race will be held Saturday with the opening super-G of the season scheduled for Sunday.

Guay has been on the World Cup podium 10 times in his career, including a third-place finish at Beaver Creek, Colo., last season. "I'm just going to use my experience hopefully and try not to panic, but at the same time work really hard, do a lot of video, and do everything I can to be there for the Olympics,'' Guay said.

Kucera said winning the World Cup championship would be a far bigger achievement than winning an Olympic medal. "Winning an Olympic medal is an amazing thing and feat and obviously it's one of my goals to win one, but when you think about what it takes to win a championship, much more goes into that,'' said Kucera, who won the downhill event at last season's World Championships.

"The Olympics, that's one day. If you have a great day, you can step up on the podium. But to win [the World Cup] you have to be consistent throughout the whole year. That's tough to do and that's what really showcases who the best skiers are.''

Dixon's opinion of the importance of the Games fell somewhere between his two teammates.

"I try to take the Olympics like any other race,'' he said. "We have a lot of races until now and then and also with the training we had, the way the team is skiing and the confidence I took from last year, I'm just building on that and this result helps that continuum. February is close but it's still a long way''

Four skiers from the men's alpine team will represent Canada at the 2010 Games.

Osborne-Paradis said he had trouble with visibility during his run.

"This is the light that I cannot see in to save my life,'' he said.

Osborne-Paradis said he's had trouble seeing the finish line in the past and he's ordered new contact lenses to hopefully correct the problem. "When there's no contrast whatsoever, I can't stop. I fall, I do whatever. I just noticed that nobody else was having problems,'' he said.

"I think it was the same thing with asthma. I was always out of breath and everybody just called me out of shape.''

Ninety-three skiers participated in the training run, the first of three sessions leading up to the race on Saturday. SRC

— The Canadian Press and Alpine Canada contributed to this report

Click here for the event schedule.

Click here for FIS results.

LAKE LOUISE MEN'S WORLD CUP — OFFICIAL RESULTS — FIRST DOWNHILL TRAINING

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Total Time
1	13	510030	CUCHE Didier	1974	SUI	1:49.98
2	12	50041	WALCHHOFER Michael	1975	AUT	1:50.60
3	25	191116	DALCIN Pierre-Emmanuel	1977	FRA	1:51.08
4	24	102961	DIXON Robbie	1985	CAN	1:51.09
5	4	501076	OLSSON Hans	1984	SWE	1:51.20
6	17	532431	MILLER Bode	1977	USA	1:51.25
7	58	500150	JAERBYN Patrik	1969	SWE	1:51.33
8	44	511139	KUENG Patrick	1984	SUI	1:51.47
9	43	191591	BERTRAND Yannick	1980	FRA	1:51.50
10	3	560332	JERMAN Andrej	1978	SLO	1:51.57
11	10	50753	KROELL Klaus	1980	AUT	1:51.62
12	5	102873	KUCERA John	1984	CAN	1:51.79
13	1	192746	THEAUX Adrien	1984	FRA	1:51.84
14	18	510767	HOFFMANN Ambrosi	1977	SUI	1:51.87
15	14	510727	DEFAGO Didier	1977	SUI	1:51.88
16	49	201811	STECHERT Tobias	1985	GER	1:52.01
17	38	51005	SCHEIBER Mario	1983	AUT	1:52.13
18	30	533866	NYMAN Steven	1982	USA	1:52.34
19	8	293006	INNERHOFER Christof	1984	ITA	1:52.35
20	42	510747	GRUENENFELDER Tobias	1977	SUI	1:52.38
21	35	560447	SPORN Andrej	1981	SLO	1:52.42
22	50	561067	PERKO Rok	1985	SLO	1:52.44
22	33	380260	KOSTELIC Ivica	1979	CRO	1:52.44
24	20	191740	CLAREY Johan	1981	FRA	1:52.45
25	29	534567	LANNING T J	1984	USA	1:52.55
26	32	510890	ZURBRIGGEN Silvan	1981	SUI	1:52.56
27	2	50451	GRUBER Christoph	1976	AUT	1:52.67
28	80	530874	GANONG Travis	1988	USA	1:52.71
29	48	510498	ZUEGER Cornel	1981	SUI	1:52.76
30	27	50858	STREITBERGER Georg	1981	AUT	1:52.78
31	56	511039	KREUZER Ralf	1983	SUI	1:52.80
32	66	380292	ZRNCIC-DIM Natko	1986	CRO	1:52.95
33	22	191964	POISSON David	1982	FRA	1:53.07
34	60	51332	SCHEIBER Florian	1987	AUT	1:53.08
35	28	292291	THANEI Stefan	1981	ITA	1:53.11
36	59	51327	PUCHNER Joachim	1987	AUT	1:53.23
37	72	421483	JANSRUD Kjetil	1985	NOR	1:53.26
38	9	102263	GUAY Erik	1981	CAN	1:53.29
39	39	102271	HUDEC Jan	1981	CAN	1:53.32
39	11	421328	SVINDAL Aksel Lund	1982	NOR	1:53.32
41	15	102899	OSBORNE-PARADIS Manuel	1984	CAN	1:53.34
42	37	50833	GRUGGER Hans	1981	AUT	1:53.36
43	65	103090	HELIE Louis-Pierre	1986	CAN	1:53.42
44	53	192932	FAYED Guillermo	1985	FRA	1:53.51
45	64	150398	BANK Ondrej	1980	CZE	1:53.52
46	23	534939	FISHER Erik	1985	USA	1:53.57
47	71	103375	NELLA Tyler	1988	CAN	1:53.60
47	19	50625	RAICH Benjamin	1978	AUT	1:53.60
49	52	201542	STRODL Peter	1982	GER	1:53.65
50	74	511383	FEUZ Beat	1987	SUI	1:53.70
51	47	201702	NEUREUTHER Felix	1984	GER	1:53.81
52	41	53817	FRANZ Max	1989	AUT	1:53.83
53	26	533131	SULLIVAN Marco	1980	USA	1:53.91
54	51	50547	SCHOENFELDER Rainer	1977	AUT	1:53.97
55	61	533762	TRANSUE Jeremy	1983	USA	1:54.03
56	54	291459	PARIS Dominik	1989	ITA	1:54.09
57	73	421400	MYHRE Lars Elton	1984	NOR	1:54.12
58	63	201987	STRODL Andreas	1987	GER	1:54.28
59	68	530939	WEIBRECHT Andrew	1986	USA	1:54.31
60	31	50695	BUDER Andreas	1979	AUT	1:54.39
61	46	561087	MARKIC Gasper	1986	SLO	1:54.50
62	70	511352	VILETTA Sandro	1986	SUI	1:54.53
62	67	561085	KRIZAJ Andrej	1986	SLO	1:54.53
62	55	150421	ZAHROBSKY Petr	1980	CZE	1:54.53
65	69	40171	BRANCH Craig	1977	AUS	1:54.62
66	62	201900	WAGNER Hannes	1986	GER	1:54.65
66	57	193212	DURAND Jeremie	1986	FRA	1:54.65
68	34	534562	LIGETY Ted	1984	USA	1:54.85
69	40	201606	KEPPLER Stephan	1983	GER	1:54.95
70	89	292491	MOELGG Manfred	1982	ITA	1:55.21
71	94	480997	TARANENKO Mikhail	1988	RUS	1:55.49
72	77	53837	KRAMER Manuel	1989	AUT	1:55.74
73	90	531799	FORD Tommy	1989	USA	1:55.85
74	87	480736	HOROSHILOV Alexandr	1984	RUS	1:55.88
75	75	220695	CRAWFORD Douglas	1987	GBR	1:56.04
76	84	491151	DE LA CUESTA Paul	1988	SPA	1:56.27
77	76	501230	ERICSSON Daniel	1987	SWE	1:56.32
78	82	151099	SYROVATKA Mark	1989	CZE	1:57.21
79	93	430429	BYDLINSKI Maciej	1988	POL	1:57.36
80	86	700724	BABUSIAK Jaroslav	1984	SVK	1:58.43
81	91	430472	KLUSAK Michal	1990	POL	1:59.58
82	95	481185	VASILIEV Alexandr	1989	RUS	2:01.81
83	79	491129	TERRA Ferran	1987	SPA	2:02.71
Disqualified 1st run
		350032	BUECHEL Marco	1971	LIE
		90047	GEORGIEV Stefan	1977	BUL
		292514	HEEL Werner	1982	ITA
		191778	PICHOT Sebastien	1981	FRA
		290998	STAUDACHER Patrick	1980	ITA
		532490	MACARTNEY Scott	1978	USA
		550022	RODE Roberts	1987	LAT
		51215	BAUMANN Romed	1986	AUT
		380291	RATKIC Ivan	1986	CRO
		511313	JANKA Carlo	1986	SUI
Did not start 1st run
		560406	GORZA Ales	1980	SLO
		40255	BRAUER Jono	1981	AUS