A cooler day in Lake Louise Friday was good news for downhill racers at the World Cup.
It meant they could finally do some training runs in advance of their weekend events.
Mild conditions this week forced the cancellation of training runs for the men’s downhill on Wednesday and again on Thursday.
While there’s lots of snow on the hill, race chairman Brian Lynam said the mild conditions were making it too soft.
WATCH BELOW: Lake Louise ready for world’s top skiers 1 year after rare race cancellation
“At these high speeds on a downhill, the track has to be quite hard, almost ice-like for them – that’s our preference.”
“We’ve got in the forecast cold weather coming [Thursday] If the forecast holds the track will harden significantly and we’ll be having our first training run [Friday].”
Lynam said even at 2 C, which was the temperature Thursday morning, it’s was too warm to race.
He said it’s not an option to skip the training runs.
“To be able to run a downhill, all the racers have to participate in a training run. It’s part of the event. So it creates some challenges over the weekend.”
The men’s downhill race goes Saturday, while the men’s super-G is Sunday.
Last year’s men’s World Cup at Lake Louise was cancelled altogether because it wasn’t cold enough to make snow in the days leading up to the races.
“We didn’t have the temperatures to make enough snow to cover the track and then it did rebound and we were able to have a successful women’s week the following week,” Lynam said.
“But, different concerns this year. There’s lots of snow and certainly, on the public side of the fence, Lake Louise resort is in great shape.”
Ladies World Cup events are next weekend at Lake Louise.
Comments