25-27 Nov; Kuusamo, Lake Louise & Aspen

A busy weekend - Kuusamo in Finland hosting more Cross Country plus two Nordic Combined events, and Alpine skiing from Lake Louise and Aspen (hopefully) - ironically after last weekend saw XC moved because of a lack of snow, this week the first practice day at Lake Louise had to be abandoned due to too much! So, what's happened so far?

Friday - Nordic Combined: Not really my thing although having looked down the ramp at Oslo I have considerable admiration for the sheer bottle involved in ski jumping! After the HS142 part of the event Germany's Timo Edelman was in the lead, so took a slight advantage into the 10 Km cross country part of the event. As it turned out he was the only one of the top 3 after the jump competition to remain on the podium - after the 10 Km the winner was Norway's M Krog, from Akito Watabe (Japan) and Timo Edelman third.

Friday - Classic sprint: I managed to see the Women's Quarter finals (5 of them?) over a 1.2 Km course. In the first QF Charlotte Kalla (Swe) led home Vibeke Skofterud (Nor), so both of those qualified for the next round by right; some hope that Fessel (Ger) would be a fastest loser. QF2 was slightly slower, but QF3 looked like being a real battle with Björgen, Saarinen, Kowalczyk and Kikkan Randall all drawn in the same qualifier. Marit B streaked away from the start to win, with a massive struggle between Randall and Kowalczyk for the other place in the next round - to Randall by a whisker. QF4 saw Visnav (SLO) win with Therese Johaug recovering from an awful start (not sure why) to take second - the track seemed to be slowing a little though. QF5 saw Falla (Nor) and Matveeva (Rus) through, with the fastest loser slot going to Fessel plus 1. At that stage I was lured out by unexpectedly good weather so missed the rest of it! However, in the final Marit won by an astonishing 2.1 seconds from Charlotte Kalla, with Skofterud 3rd and Randall 4th. In the men's event, over 1.4 Km, Theodor Peterson (Swe) won a much closer event by 0.5 seconds from Kruikov (Rus) and Pettersen (Nor)

Saturday - Women's 5Km Freestyle: Missed this as my online viewer was too flakey for some unknown reason and wouldn't load - very annoying! However the ZDF Liveticker was working which let me see the results - virtually a repeat of the sprints yesterday, with Magic Marit 11.6 seconds clear of Charlotte Kalla who just pipped Skofterud. I think that might be Björgen's 50th FIS win? Apart from Kowalczyk in 5th, the rest of the top ten were all Norway/Sweden/Finland.

Continuing problems with Eurosport and a 3222 error, so a short update via ZDF ticker and ARD (doing some good for my very shaky grasp of German). In the Nordic Combined HS 142/10 Km, Timo Edelman followed up Friday's bronze with a gold, folllowed by Ryynänen (Fin) and Japan's Watabe.

Kuusamo Men's 10Km freestyle: With about 30 of a large field already finished, the time to beat was Italian Roland Clara's 22.12.9. Quite a lot of interest in the split times of Chris Jespersen (Nor) and Maurice Manificat (Fra - what a great name!) as they progressed; very close at times but in the end Jespersen came in 9.2 seconds behind Clara, with Manificat just a bit faster to slot into 2nd behind the Italian. On track interest then shifted to Angerer (Ger), Hellner (Swe) and Lucas Bauer (Cze), but one by one they all slowed a little and Clara remained in the chair - in the end Angerer was 14th, Hellner 6th and Bauer 10th. As the later starters got onto the tracks the next contenders were Olsson (Swe), the winner from last weekend, Dario Cologna (Swi) and Petter Northug (Nor). A real cliffhanger all the way, but Cologna and Olsson also faded slightly leaving only Northug to finally beat Clara's time. Result - P Northug (Nor) 1st; R Clara (Ita) 2nd; M Manificat (Fra) 3rd - followed by Cologna, Jespersen and Hellner. Exciting race!

Saturday - Women's Giant Slalom (Aspen) & Men's Downhill (Lake Louise): Women's GS first - the early pace on run 1 was set by Lizzie Görgl (Austria) on a course of 45 gates, dropping 375 metres - a course hard enough to garner a crop of DNFs. An early surprise was Lindsey Vonn being over 2 seconds behind Görgl, but the home crowd had something to cheer when Julia Mancuso took provisional third spot, behind Italy's Denise Karbon, until Lara Gut (Swi) put in a great run to take second at the end of run 1 - all very close but Görgl, Gut, Karbon & Mancuso well up. The second run took a few scalps too, notably Maria H-R who was a high profile DNF. Vonn pulled back a bit to finish 12th in the end. Anna Fenninger (Austria) absolutely flew down to take the lead for a while, but then Viktoria Rebensberg (Ger, and last year's Olympic champion) took over with just the top four left to run. Mancuso was good, but didn't dislodge VR, and neither did Lara Gut after an early mistake - just Lizzie Görgl to go, with an advantage from the first run of -0.95; at the first split it was down to 0.37, then 0.13 at the second split; nails chewed to the quick time! In the end Görgl faded fractionally to end up in second - final results Viktoria Rebensburg 1st; Görgl 2nd, Mancuso 3rd [a podium for the USA "at home"], Fenninger 4th, Gut 5th and Karbon 6th. More at
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/26112011/2/alpine-skiing-sweet-revenge-rebensburg-aspen.html & http://www.fisalpine.com/news/rebensburg-charges-second-run-for-aspen-victory,1550.html

Men's Downhill (Lake Louise): Great venue - 38 gates on a 3051 metre long course, dropping 800 metres en route. With about half the field finished, the lead was held by Didier Cuche (Swi), a tiny 0.06 seconds ahead of countryman Beat Feuz with, at that stage, Austrian Romed Baumann third. That was the position until Hannes Reichelt produced a superb run, only 0.08 seconds off the lead, to go third, dropping countryman Baumann into 4th - very close racing! Brilliant win by the "old man of the circuit" who almost retired at the end of last season! Again more at http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/26112011/58/cuche-wins-lake-louise.html & http://www.fisalpine.com/news/didier-cuche-unbeatable-once-again,1551.html

Sunday - Cross country at Kuusamo: Two classic pursuits - not my favourite! No prizes for guessing who won the women's 10 Km event - another masterful performance from Marit Björgen who took the win from Therese Johaug who in turn just pipped Vibeke Skofterud after a close struggle over the final 2,500m - an all Norwegian podium. I am slightly confused as to whether Marit has won her 50th FIS race or not this weekend, some commentators say yes, but the FIS website seems to suggest 48 (maybe they are counting this "Ruka triple" as just 1 event??). In the men's 15km pursuit, Petter Northug kept up the Norwegian domination by taking first place, which also won him the Ruka Triple title. Second was Dario Cologna (Swi) with Eldar Rönning (Nor) making a very impressive final run to take third - 5 places from 6 possible on the podium for Norway! More Alpine later.

Aspen - Women's Slalom: Good weather, 200m drop and 60 gates. The first run, set by Germany on a notoriously tough slope, was arguably a bit boring as a spectator, although the 19 skiers eliminated by it certainly wouldn't agree ; I came in with 15 racers down at which stage Marlies Schild was leading from Tanja Poutiainen and Maria Pietilä-Holmner (henceforth just M P-H) with Maria H-R in 4th. Despite some good names in the followers, it stayed that way until the end - Lindsey Vonn didn't start (not sure why; sore back?), and both Tessa Worely and Julia Mancuso were unusually slow.

On to the second run, with a Finnish course setter and more shadow. With about 4 seconds between 1st and 30th place you would expect a fair turnover of places as the race unfolded; Barthet was one of the early leaders, building up a slight lead into a fair margin. She was succeeded by Michalea Kirchgasser, then Manuela Möllg, Veronika Zuzulova (no, not one of the noisy things at the World Cup!) and Kathrin Zettel. Höfl-Riesch briefly took the lead with 3 more racers to come; M P-H went even faster to take over the lead, but Tanja P was slower - podium certain for Maria, but could Marlies Schild (Aut) match her first run ? In the event she started with a 0.89 second lead, built it to 1.18 by the split time and then throttled back to win by 1.19 seconds from M P-H (Swe) and Maria H-R (Ger). Tanja P (Fin) was 4th, Zettel (Aut) 5th and Zuzulova (Svk) 6th. More details at http://www.fisalpine.com/news/marlies-schild-owns-world-cup-slalom-opener-aspen,1552.html

Men's Super G - Lake Louise: Much more difficult weather here; strong winds forced the course to be shortened but it still had a 520m drop in just under 2 Km, and snow showers made the contours difficult to see; the first two skiers out were both DNFs! Jansrud did set a time, quickly bettered, but the early "best effort" arguably came from Eric Guay (Can). Eventually Adrien Theaux (Fra), who had been very fast in downhill training last week, took the lead, with Klaus Kröll (Aut) slotting in behind him. Then came Didier Cuche, the winner of Saturday's downhill - his lead at the first split was -0.30, then -0.09, and -0.13; he kept his speed to the end and took the lead by a fraction over four tenths. As a fan of his, I hoped he might just pull off the double, but Aksel Lund Svindal had other ideas and a storming run gave him first place. A lot of the commentators were just about wrapping up when Jan Hudec (Can), who I think started no 44, put in a cracking run to slot into 4th place. Final results Svindal (Nor); Cuche (Swi); Thieuz (Fra); Hudec (Can), Kröll (Aut) and Guay (Can). Beaver Creek next week for the men, by which stage I hope to have my video coverage back! More at http://www.fisalpine.com/news/the-top-step-for-svindal-lake-louise,1553.html