Lasse Kjus

Norway's Lasse Kjus celebrated a great comeback today in Val d'Isere, France, winning the first World Cup downhill of the season which was marked by a drastic change of weather and racing conditions during the first hour of the race.

Kjus, the 1996 overall World Cup winner, took advantage of improved visibility and a faster course when the sun began to shine over the "O-K" course, beating the French Olympic champion Jean-Luc Cretier, who led the race for half an hour by one and a half seconds.

After Kjus, a dozen other late starters were able to seize the opportunity to finish ahead of the desperate Cretier in the improved weather conditions. In another competition, two Italians, Luca Cattaneo and Erik Seletto, began a battle that ended in their placing 2nd and 3rd. Other underdogs such as France's Antoine Deneriaz, the fastest in Thursday's last training run, and Ales Brezavsek from Slovenia also skied among the top-10.

Canada's Kevin Wert, starting in 44th position, leaped to 6th place while America's Chad Fleischer finished 11th.

This is Lasse's fourth victory in a downhill, almost two years after the last one at Kvitfjell, Norway, in March 1997. He hasn't won a race since, but he captured an impressive total of five silver medals at the 1997 World Championships and the 1998 Olympics in downhill, Super-G and giant slalom. He also won gold two times in combined in 1993 (Morioka) and 1994 (Olympics at Lillehammer).

Since he only finished 7th and 15th in both training runs, Kjus did not belong to the group of top favorites for this race. But his great experience and strong intuition brought him the idea to choose a high startnumber for that race while the other top-guns decided to start much earlier. He took bib #24— as it turned out it was a smart decision.

"I bet that the snow would get harder and the run faster " said Kjus. "I like to start from the back so I have a maximum of information on the conditions. It was the case this time."

"It's a great win after all the health problems I had to face in the past years," he continued. "I often suffered from sinusitis and I had to undergo surgery in April 1997 to cure it. But I was not able to work as hard as needed during the training camps. Now I feel much stronger and more confident. Last year I was afraid to ski fast and take risks. It's no longer the case. I look ahead with great momentum now."

Kjus also proved his smart mind when he decided not to compete last week in Canada's Whistler Mountain but to fly home instead to train in Norway. "The World Cup calendar is too tense when you race in all events and I needed to resource myself before the European events," he said. "I wanted to be well rested before this competition. It was a good decision even if I couldn't know that Whistler would be canceled. This result is a strong boost for my moral."

This was one of the worse days in the history of Austrian ski racing as the best member of the team only clocked the 15th best time. Norbert Holzknecht, who started 37th, beat one of Austria's top favorites, Stephan Eberharter, by half a second. Hermann Maier, who almost crashed in the final schuss, was 36th — at 22/100 from the first World Cup point.

"Well, I was quite lucky today, I could have injured myself at that point" Maier said with a smile. "In the first seconds, I was very upset but finally it's OK since all the favorites finish behind too."

Fritz Strobl, the fastest in the first training run, was only 31st. Frenchman David Pretot, who crashed at the same place where Maier had problems, suffered from torn ligaments in his left ankle and bruised both knees when his bindings didn't release. He will have further medical exams early next week.

Bill Egan was quite satisfied with the US team. "They saw the chance and they fought for a top result," said Egan. "Casey Puckett missed a big chance for a top-15 spot because of a serious mistake, but Fleischer had a solid run. He was pretty fast all the time and he did only a few mistakes. This result will reinforce his moral and his confidence since it's only the first downhill this season. It's good for his experience as well as for his standings in the starlist."

Canada's Kevin Wert achieved his best ever World Cup result with 5th place. "It's awesome. I like this course a lot —I came in 14th here two years ago. It's fun to beat all the other Canadians since they were faster than me in training. It's important for my confidence after my bad season last winter. I had some problems with a disc at my back and I didn't race so often. Now I long ahead for another great result in Val Gardena."

Cary Mullen finished his first speed race since injuring himself in a crash in Beaver Creek, Colorado, after suffering another bad fall in the Super-G at Aspen two weeks ago.

"Six months ago I didn't expect to be racing again," said Mullen, "and to score World Cup points so soon...I can't believe I'm here and skiing so well. I feel much better than expected." "I can built a good program on this result," Mullen continued. "I first want to improve my skiing to find back all my feeling and my confidence. My goal is to make the team for Vail [World Championships]." Mullen is the last Canadian to have won a World Cup race, back in 1994 in Aspen.

—Mountain Zone European Correspondent