Canadian sets Barr at World Cup ski cross

DEER VALLEY — A bump here, a little slip there and a wide turn complicated by an inside passing lane, and in summary, that was of the final race in the men's World Cup ski cross on Saturday.

Two Americans were in the finals — Casey Puckett and Daron Rahlves. Puckett make it to the finals cleanly; Rahlves admitted, several times, he was lucky.

Davey Barr of Canada was the surprise winner. It was his first World Cup win. Puckett was second, and Michael Schmid of Switzerland was third. Of the four finalists, Rahlves, America's most decorated high-speed alpine skier, was fourth.

In the women's race, Ophelie David of France won, followed by Sasa Faric of Slovakia and Emilie Serain of Switzerland. America's only entry, Langely McNeal of Sun Valley, was taken out in the first round. The win moved David into the overall WC lead.

For Rahlves it all came down to starts. He described his starts as "pathetic." Others referred to them as "incredibly bad ... and he's been practicing."

For the other three finalists, it was, as Puckett said afterwards, "the breaks of ski cross."

The sport, newly elected to the 2010 Olympics, involves four skiers all trying to be first down a course of banked turns, rollers, traverses and jumps. Contact is inevitable, but only if it's unintentional. And, contact came into play in the finals.

Out of the start, Puckett and Schmid were almost side by side and pushing hard for each turn and jump. Barr was in third and Rahlves was, as he had been all day out of the start, in last place.

"My plan was to get out of the start in first, but it didn't work out that way," Barr said. "I decided to just be patient and see what happened and then make my move. There was contact and I took the lead, and after that I just tried not to look back and just keep the lead."

Puckett and Schmid did bump, and it slowed them enough to allow Barr to pass. Schmid moved into second, and Puckett was third. About three-fourths of the way down, coming off a jump, Puckett was able to take the shorter inside track, which forced Schmid to ski wide, and Puckett was able to move into second.

In this case it didn't come down to the start as happens in many races, said Puckett, but more about what makes ski cross exciting for both skiers and spectators — the maneuvering, the side-by-side racing, the contact and eventually the first skier across the finish.