By USSA

SANTA CATERINA, Italy – Travis Ganong (Squaw Valley) and his U.S. teammates tackled one of the most challenging downhill tracks on the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup circuit Tuesday, where just making it to the finish line was a victory.

“There’s been lots of action, lots of crashes, lots of crazy stuff,” Ganong said after leading the U.S. Ski Team in 17 place. “I would say this is one of the toughest hills we ski. It’s really hard. It’s like Sochi on the top and Bormio on the bottom – super dark, bumpy, super fast speeds. It’s a real deal downhill. It’s a gnarly, gnarly hill – the after-Christmas wake-up call.”

Adrien Theaux of France won his third career World Cup downhill Dec. 29 on the dark, bumpy track. Hannes Reichelt of Austria was second, followed by David Poisson of France in third. World Cup downhill leader Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway finished seventh and moved into the overall World Cup leaded by 15 points over Marcel Hirscher of Austria, who did not race Tuesday’s downhill.

For the Americans, it was a challenging day. Steven Nyman (Sundance, Utah) was 26; Jared Goldberg (Holladay, Utah) was 33; Bryce Bennett (Squaw Valley) 37; Marco Sullivan (Squaw Valley) 42.