Theaux has momentum going into first downhill

France's Adrien Theaux is skiing with plenty of confidence heading into the first downhill of the World Cup season after posting a second-straight impressive training run on Friday. Theaux, 27, has momentum on his side after finishing first in Friday's second training run and finishing runner-up in the first training run on Thursday. He clocked one minute, 50.25 seconds on Friday, edging Erik Guay, of Canada, by just 0.07 seconds. "I am not the favourite," he said. "But this is good for my mind and for my head. "I did some good training today and yesterday. The race is tomorrow and it is different than the training. We will see what happens." Sweden's Hans Olsson was third in 1:50.67 and Joachim Puchner of Austria placed fourth in 1:50.87. Austria's Romed Baumann, who set the pace Thursday with the fastest training run time, finished fifth by clocking 1:50.92. This marked the final training run before Saturday's season-opening downhill race. The skiers will be back on the slopes Sunday for a super-G. Times were slower in Friday's training run than Thursday as skiers had to deal with high winds and a steady snowfall throughout the second training run. "I didn't do very well," said World Cup overall downhill champ Didier Cuche, who finished 32nd on Friday. "It was really windy and I lost over two seconds today. "I just hope the guys in front of me had no wind otherwise it would not be a good feeling for me going into the race tomorrow." Like Theaux, Guay has stamped his presence on Lake Louise in training this week. The 30-year-old Canadian says he is skiing with a bad back but it doesn't appear to be slowing him down. "My objective on Sunday is to walk away from here with my back still feeling pretty good," said Guay who was fifth in the first training run. "I had perfect sunshine on top of the course and I had some good tail winds so my success has a lot to do with the luck I am getting on the ski hill right now. "Until I see a good result on race day I am not setting my sights too high." Like Guay, Theaux doesn't put too much stock in training times. "Today it was just for inspection," said Theaux, who is looking for a breakthrough season this year after capturing his first career downhill victory last year in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. "It was really windy but not the same conditions for everybody. I don't know if it was more windy for me than the other guys, but it was OK." Two time Crystal Globe overall winner Aksel Lund Svindal place seventh (1:51.01) and American maverick Bode Miller (1:51.98) tied for 26th. Last year's overall World Cup champion Ivica Kostelic had the 45th best time, clocking 1:52.78. After finishing up in Lake Louise, the top men's skiers in the world head to Beaver Creek, Colorado for three races, downhill, super-G and giant slalom.