Beaver Creek – More than a foot of new snow forced cancellation of the first downhill training run Tuesday on the Birds of Prey World Cup race course.
Officials said the outlook was good for today’s training run. A super combined race (downhill and slalom) is scheduled Thursday and a downhill Friday.
A fleet of 12 snow cats, six equipped with on-board winches to groom the course’s steepest sections, was poised to begin pushing snow off the course Tuesday evening. Because of wind, 2 feet of snow blanketed some sections of the course.
Light snow flurries were forecast for today but not enough accumulation to force another cancellation.
“We think we have a very, very good chance to have a good run (today),” chief of race Jim Roberts said.
To give crews enough time to prepare the course, officials decided to start today’s training run at noon instead of 11 a.m. Guenther Hujara, chief race director of the International Ski Federation, told coaches to be prepared for an even later start.
“It’s a lot, a lot, of work,” Hujara said.
Most of the U.S. Ski Team racers, including Bode Miller, Ted Ligety, Scott Macartney and Steve Nyman took the opportunity to get in some extra slalom training at Keystone.
