GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany….Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley, CA) brushed aside a 15-minute course hold to win his second Audi FIS Ski World Cup downhill, leading five Americans into the top 30. “I was able to push and stick to my plan and not be too fazed by all the crashes and everything,” Ganong said. “It was a tough day for sure. But I’m super happy to win today.”

Travis Ganong won his second career World Cup downhill victory Friday in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. (Getty Images/Agence Zoom-Alain Grosclaude)

Starting bib 12, Ganong endured a lengthy course hold as his teammate Steven Nyman (Sundance, UT) was taken off course following a harrowing crash. Ganong nailed the bottom portion of the course, taking the victory by 0.38 seconds over Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud and Italy’s Peter Fill.

The numerous course holds made for a long day for Jared Goldberg (Holladay, UT), who stared bib 52 and just wanted to make it across the finish line before dinner.

“We were up there for so long, it was getting to the point where I was like, well ‘screw it!’ I wasn’t expecting a whole lot, but I was just going to ski the best I could before dinnertime,” said Goldberg, who attacked the course and finished 12th, matching a career-best downhill result from Wengen in 2014.

Tommy Biesemeyer (Keene, NY) also posted a career-best World Cup downhill result, finishing 15th from the 47th start position.

“I skied well,” Biesemeyer said. “It’s a long day, lot of crashes and a lot of (course) holds. A lot of time to think about it, and a lot of time to digest what you’ve seen. So today I kicked out of the start and my plan was to ski really hard, and then once I got off the flat, just stay balanced, stay over the outside ski, and try not to do anything special. Just be strong and be safe.”

Eleven of the 55 starters did not finish Friday’s race, which was a make-up event from the race canceled in Wengen, Switzerland two weeks ago, including Norway’s Aleksander Aamodt Kilde and Canada’s Erik Guay, who took a nasty spill – getting thrown backwards as he caught an edge going into a jump.

“I think it was so difficult because we only had one training run, and during the training, it was really slow,” Ganong said. “The speeds were really, really slow and everything skied really easy and everyone kind of relaxed … and today, the speeds were way faster.

“They injected a section for the giant slalom race on Sunday, but they didn’t inject the whole course,” he continued. “So you would hit that little patch of ice on every turn and accelerate. And I think that was a big issue with today. Also, people were pushing really hard and turning off of jumps. It’s never a good thing to have your ski bend when you go off a jump. Maybe they can adjust some things for tomorrow, but I think it’s going to be tough again. You’ll just have to ski smart – it’s downhill!”

Up next, the men race downhill again Saturday on the Kandahar track at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The race will stream live on NBCSports.com at 6:00 a.m. EST.

HIGHLIGHTS

Travis Ganong won his second career Audi FIS Ski World Cup downhill Friday, a make-up race from the cancelled event in Wengen, Switzerland.
Five Americans finished in the top 30, including Ganong, Jared Goldberg 12th; Tommy Biesemeyer 15th; Bryce Bennett 21st; Andrew Weibrecht 26th.
Road to Aspen: Austria’s Marcel Hirscher, who did not race Friday, continues to lead the overall World Cup standings with 1,160 points. Norway’s Kjetil Jansrud leads the overall World Cup downhill standings with 202 points over Italy’s Peter Fill with 199 points.

QUOTES
Travis Ganong
Today was perfect. I was able to push and stick to my plan and not be too phased by all the crashes and everything. It was a tough day for sure. But I’m super happy to win today.

I have no expectations for tomorrow. Just show up and try to ski my best. If I ski my best. I know I can win. I’ll try not to think about it too much, and hopefully I’ll have another good day tomorrow.

I think it was so difficult because we only had one training run, and during the training, it was really slow. The speeds were really, really slow and everything skied really easy and everyone kind of relaxed … and today, the speeds were way faster. They injected a section for the giant slalom race on Sunday, but they didn’t inject the whole course. So you would hit that little patch of ice on every turn and accelerate. And I think that was a big issue with today. Also, people were pushing really hard and turning off of jumps. It’s never a good thing to have your ski bend when you go off a jump. Maybe they can adjust some things for tomorrow, but I think it’s going to be tough again. You’ll just have to ski smart – it’s downhill!

Tommy Biesemeyer
I skied well. It’s a long day, lot of crashes and a lot of (course) holds. So a lot of time to think about it and a lot of time to digest what you’ve seen, so today I kicked out of the start and my plan was to ski really hard, and then once I got off the flat, just stay balanced, stay over the outside ski, and try not to do anything special. Just be strong and be safe.

That was scary today. I inspected (the course) this morning and I was thinking how I was going to charge from top to bottom. But then after watching the top guys go, it kind of changed my plan, and for me, that was hard.

Jared Goldberg
We were up there for so long, it was getting to the point where I was like ‘screw it!’ I wasn’t expecting a whole lot, but I was just going to ski the best I could.

It definitely made me a little nervous seeing so many people crash, but I used it as a lesson learned. It’s helped us formulate a good report for running later and like where to bring our line so that we could be straight over the jumps, instead of arcing off it like some guys did.

Source US Ski Team