Lake Louise, women’s downhill 1

Another triumph for Carole Montillet

Olympic champion Carole Montillet feels at home in Lake Louise where she reached so often the podium in past years – some of her colleagues even call her “Miss Lake Louise”. In front of her boy friend and some members of her fan-club, the 30-year-old French won the first women's downhill of the season to add another Lake Louise Trophy to last year's collection when she finished three times among the top-3.
But she had to fight harder than expected to beat by only 16/100 of a second one of last year’s winners, Germany’s Hilde Gerg suffered a dramatic accident here twelve months ago. In the upper part, Montillet made a significant mistake and she had to take extra-risks to confirm her class and her status. In the lower part, she was almost half a second faster than Gerg after moving at her limits in the intermediate turns.
American Kirsten Clark placed once more third in this first race of an intense Canadian weekend with two more speed events left on the programme.
Ironically enough, all three racers stood on the podium in the same race for the second consecutive year but it was Montillet who wore the biggest grin to go with the red leader's bib she will wear in Saturday's downhill.
Other favorites struggled including the Austrian pair of former downhill World Champion, Renate Goetschl and Michaela Dorfmeister – only 13th and 18th . Canada’s Emily Brydon so strong and consistent in training, showed some nerves and lost much time on the veterans. She had to be content with a far 25th place, while Germany’s Maria Riesch, the fastest on Thursday was a promising 8th despite many errors.
Germany’s Martina Ertl, who was hoping to gain some terrain on Sweden’s Anja Paerson, absent in these races, was a far and slow 35th .
Montillet was beaming in the finish area while hugging her friends who wore French flags and large banners honoring her. “It was a tough battle against myself and the slope, I gave what I had in me to regain the time I lost at the beginning” she said. “I was really mad and it gave me great energy”.
“It’s very special for me to race here. For 12 or 13 years, this is the place I love the most” she added. It's peaceful. I feel like the queen of the world here”.

Hilde Gerg was pleased

Hilde Gerg felt ecstasy and agony at Lake Louise last year, winning the first downhill before badly injuring her knee a day later. “I didn’t have a special goal this morning, I just wanted to give my best and have a good time” said the Bavarian who will celebrate her ten years of successes next February. She won her first race, a Super-G, in February 1994 a few weeks before the Lillehammer Olympics.
“It's good when you smoothly go through the turn where you got hurt, then you can say OK, you can go for it, and it goes farther away in the head” she also said. “I took a break the other day and I was ready to go to the limit today. This was perfect”.
Kirsten Clark, 3rd in the World Cup downhill standings last year, skied a technically solid race and only lost out to Montillet on the bottom flats. Yet she achieved a much better race than expected after her slow training runs. “Apparently I need the pressure from the race” said the American who has accumulated a nice series of top-3 results since her last win in Lenzerheide back in March 2001. “The conditions favored the more experienced skiers. The flat light was difficult for the younger racers”
“Now I'm going to go back to the hotel and watch some video and find out where I can make up some time on Carole in the last section”.

A disappointing day for Emily

Hometown favorite Emily Brydon, who placed in the top five in all three training runs, carried Canada's hopes but could manage only a far 25th place. She was quite disappointed by this result. “I know I can do more and it's just a matter of time” she explained. “It’s the first time that I faced such a situation. It’s not easy to be a favorite when racing in fron of your friends and your family. I want my revenge and I know what I can do and I'm going to deliver” she added. “I had such good series of training runs that I needed to be brought back to reality. I'll take this as a learning step and go for it again tomorrow”.
Italian Isolde Kostner, the two-time overall World Cup downhill champion who won four races at Lake Louise before suffering a concussion here in a crash last season, was a distant 29th . “I was bad today” she said. “The sight was bad and I was bad”.
Among the good surprises of this competition, the top-15 places of two young French skiers, Magda Mattel and Anne Laure Givelet who scored their first World Cup points. Also remarkable, Chimène Alcott, excellent 22nd with her bib 50! It’s her best downhill result in the World Cup Tour.
The women will have a second chance at the downhill in Saturday's second race before Sunday's Super-G.

Patrick Lang