Lake Louise (AB), Canada – American ski racer Julia Mancuso continues to look fast in training prior to Friday’s Lake Louise Winterstart women’s World Cup downhill, finishing with the top time in Wednesday’s training, one position better than Tuesday.nTop times were over a second faster than Tuesday as the clouds disappeared at Lake Louise Ski Area in Alberta, Canada, making way for sunshine and perfect conditions for ski racing. Mancuso finished in 1:30.19, beating out Slovenia’s Tina Maze (1:30.35) and Anna Fenninger (1:30.69) of Austria.

“The secret is trying to carry all your speed onto the flats,” said Mancuso, of Olympic Valley, Calif. “I think I skied well but you can never tell until you cross the finish line.”

Mancuso’s American teammate, Stacey Cook, was also exceptionally fast on Wednesday, finishing the training run in 1:30.84 to cross the finish line in 8th place. Leanne Smith, of Conway, N.H., finished 13th, and Mancuso’s perennial rival, Lindsey Vonn, in 19th. Chelsea Marshall’s 29th, Laurenne Ross’ 30th and Alice McKennis in 32nd rounded things out Wednesday for the U.S. women.

For the home Canadian team, Kelly McBroom (Canmore, Alberta) finished 43rd in 1:32.83 with Georgia Simmerling (West Vancouver, British Columbia) 48th. Britt Janyk (Whistler, British Columbia) made some costly errors in her run, finishing 49th. Twenty-year-olds Stefanie Irwin (Calgary, Alberta) and Victoria Stevens (Mont-Tremblant, Quebec) placed 56th and 57th, respectively.

The final training run is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. MT Thursday, with the opening downhill race taking place Friday at 12:30 MT. Saturday’s second downhill race is also scheduled for 12:30 p.m. with the super G on Sunday concluding the Bombardier Lake Louise Winterstart at 11 a.m.