Svindal and Cuche
keep the HEAD Victory roll going with 1 – 2 in the Lake Louise Super
G.
After the victory
in the Giant Slalom for Ted Ligety in Soelden and in the Lake Louise
Downhill for Didier Cuche, Aksel Lund Svindal made it three from
three for the HEAD World Cup Rebels by winning the Super G in Lake
Louise. It was so
nearly a double win for Cuche but Svindal, who had been a little
disappointed with his Downhill result on the Saturday, “definitely
got one today” in referring to needing to put in a good fast run to
beat his HEAD teammate, Cuche. Despite the adverse weather
conditions, Svindal was just under a quarter of a second ahead of
Cuche with Adrien Theaux in third almost three quarters of a second
back.
The topic of the
course setting was generating a lot of discussion as there were nine
gates more than last year before the start had to be lowered due to
the high winds at the top.
“I really liked it; he (Ante Kostelic, the course setter) can set
every Super G like that. It was a technical Super G, it was turny
and the speed was not so fast. It was really nice because he had
some change between going a little bit faster and than again, turny.
It was a course where you had to think more than in the past races
in Lake Louise,” Cuche commented on the course setting.
Cuche came down into the finish and took the lead in superlative
form. While he was one of the first of the top seeds, other racers,
including Svindal still had to try and improve on their performances
from the day before in the Downhill.
“I was a bit disappointed
about yesterday; I was not able to carry the speed all the way down.
So today it was a whole lot better,” Svindal said. This was
Svindal’s sixth World Cup Super G win and third in Lake Louise.
Just when a number of racers were feeling comfortable with their
results the weather played its final card. Many of the service men
had been up most of the night preparing skis due to the warmer
weather and this helped the racers get results. Yet when the course
started speeding up for the later runners, those that would not
normally expect to be challenging for the top spots, the race
suddenly started getting very interesting again. First off was
Canadian Jan Hudec who powered into 4th spot from a start
of 44. Then Manual Kramer starting 60 went 12th, Johan
Clarey from France, more recognised in Downhill, starting 61 flew
into 10th, Siegmar Klotz then went 13 from 65. Everyone
had a chance of making a top result and many racers scored their
best results and / or first World Cup points in their careers.
Benjamin Thomsen from Canada, gave the home crowd more cheer with
his first Super G points from a start of 64.
Sadly TJ Baldwin failed to finish.
Next up it is off to Beaver Creek….and then Europe!
Results
1.
Aksel Lund Svindal (NOR)
2.
Didier Cuche (SUI)
3.
Adrien Theaux (FRA)
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