2009 Alpine World Championships - Downhill and Super-G Races

This weekend, both the men's and women's World Championship Downhill and Super-G will be run at the Alpine World Championships in Val d'Isere, France. The men's Downhill and women's Super-G will be held on Saturday, February 7. On Sunday, the women run their Downhill and the men compete in the Super-G.

I skied both of these courses a few weeks ago when I was in Val d'Isere, of course, at a much slower pace then the race speed. I also stopped several times on each venue to rest, take in the view, and watch the race preparations that were going on.

At that time, workers were injecting water under the snow to freeze and bind the course. The metal superstructure that holds the safety netting was waiting to be strung with nets. Just off the side of the course, workers - actually many guides and instructors - were laying fiber optic and video cables straight up the Face - 65 kilometers of cable and counting at that time.

The men's course, on Bellevarde, is really imposing with the village sitting far below. It's like looking off the top of a super tall skyscraper. Traversing down I felt butterflies just thinking of barreling down this huge Face.

No doubt here - the men in top shape, who can carry through the thigh burning distance and can keep chattering skis on the snow, are the ones that will finish at the top. Here's a race map of the Bellevarde men's courses.

Across the valley, on the opposite mountain, Solaise is the women's run that is just as bone-chilling and challanging as the men's, yet in a slightly different way. While the Bellevarde is totally exposed the women's course does more twisting and turning.

The afternoon I skied the women's course was a little overcast and it was obvious the flat light would be more of a factor as the turns come flying at the racers. There is one really sharp turn that closes sharply to a chute and it's just before a long runout to the finish.

It drops a lot of vertical quickly in this spot and there was a bottleneck of wary skiers lined up at the top of the choke. I got the feeling that the women who could hit this section without bleeding off a lot of speed navigating the turn were going to be the top contenders. Here's a race map of the women's courses on Solaise.

Well, we'll to see how my assessment of the race courses plays out on NBC television. Here's the schedule for this weekend (all times ET):

Saturday, February 7
Men's Downhill & Women's Super-G: 2 - 3 pm

Sunday, February 8
Women's Downhill & Men's Super-G: 3 - 4:30 pm

If you are skiing during the races, you can catch an encore of the NBC broadcast on universalsports.com:
Men's Downhill Saturday 2/7 - 7 - 9 pm
Women's Downhill Sunday 2/8 - 7 - 9 pm

More: Alpine World Championships

_{top photo - Looking up La Face on Bellevarde© Mike Doyle
bottom photo - Solaise from on La Face of Bellevarde© Mike Doyle}