Avon, CO – A record crowd packed the Audi Birds of Prey finish area at Colorado’s Beaver Creek ski resort on Friday as Italian Christof Innerhofer took the win in the men’s World Cup downhill.

It was the first downhill win for Innerhofer in four years as he upset favorite Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who won the downhill and super G in Lake Louise last weekend and was second on Friday ahead of teammate Kjetil Jansrud.

“I was so relaxed on the start today,” Innerhofer said following his winning run. “Somehow I made it feel like a training run today and all I told myself at the start was, ‘Go full gas!’”

A record crowd of around 8,000 packed the newly renovated finish area at Beaver Creek that will be used for the 2015 World Championships. Racers and coaches both praised the Birds of Prey race crew for preparing the best World Cup track in recent memory despite the fact that snow has been a scarce commodity in Colorado thus far this season.

Travis Ganong led the U.S. Ski Team in 16^th, and teammate Marco Sullivan, who was on the podium in Lake Louise a week ago, was 18^th. Defending champion Bode Miller was in Beaver Creek this year only as a spectator.

“I pushed the line, I really charged – I wanted to do something big today,” said Ganong, of Squaw Valley, Calif. “But I had some mistakes. I was pretty pumped up. But my skiing’s in a pretty good place and it will get better and better.

“Coming into the Brink I got a little tossed and was low into the Talon Turn,” Ganong elaborated. “Coming into the Pump House I got squashed on a bump in the traverse.”

“It was a really tight race today,” added Sullivan, also of Squaw Valley. “I had one bobble coming around the corner into Screech Owl and that kind of killed my speed. Innerhofer had an amazing run, so with the mistake I had I can’t be disappointed.”

Coming in just ahead of Ganong and Sullivan were Canadians Erik Guay and Ben Thomsen, who finished 15^th and 16^th, respectively, while fellow Canadian Manuel Osborne-Paradis continued his impressive comeback from injury by scoring points in his second straight race. In fact, Pete Bosinger, head coach of the Canadian men’s team, said the performance from Osborne-Paradis was the highlight of a challenging day for his athletes.

“Keep in mind that he’s coming back from essentially two seasons out. We are pretty happy with where he is,” Bosinger said of Osborne-Paradis.

Super G is on tap for Saturday in Beaver Creek with Utah’s Ted Ligety looking to contest.

W”e have some good momentum with this team,” said Sullivan. “We’re really excited with the good results in Lake Louise and we’re hoping to show that momentum tomorrow.”

OFFICIAL RESULTS
Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Beaver Creek, CO – Birds of Prey – Nov. 30, 2012
Men’s Downhill