VAL D’ISERE, France – The men’s downhill contenders want sunshine and bright light for their world championship race on Saturday. They almost certainly won’t get it.

The signature race of the two-week championships was already a tough assignment on a steep and icy Bellevarde slope that is largely unknown to the elite speed racers like Bode Miller and Didier Cuche.

Now they’re looking for help from the weather to light up the twisting terrain and guide them down the fastest – and safest – racing line.

“It will be a good race if it’s sunshine on Saturday,” said Didier Defago, the Swiss skier who won the last two World Cup downhills on equally demanding courses.

Yet the forecast calls for light snow and more of the heavy cloud cover that made Thursday’s first training session a cautious affair, keeping the skiers well out of their comfort zone.

It was like “skiing on eggs,” said Austria’s Michael Walchhofer, the 2003 world champion who leads this season’s World Cup downhill standings.

The men got a competitive look at the course in Wednesday’s super-G – which started 1,013 feet down the mountain – and many didn’t like what they saw.

To few people’s surprise, Miller had an opinion after finishing 12th. He described his old rival Cuche’s victory as a reward for “conservative” skiing on a treacherous surface that does not invite his favored form of all-out attack.

Miller was fastest along most on the 1.86-mile course in training Friday before easing on the heavily watered final section.

“You’ve got to be fast on the top and the last 25 seconds is full-on, glazed, bulletproof ice,” said the 31-year-old American, who won the downhill world title in 2005.

Skiing’s governing body, the International Ski Federation (FIS), made no apologies for the course preparation.

“It will be a challenging downhill,” said men’s race director Guenther Hujara. “The mountain will not change, the gradient will not change, the surface will not change.”

Cuche, the two-time defending World Cup downhill champion, posted the fastest practice time Friday and clearly loves the ice.

He is also skiing with a freedom that comes from winning his first career gold medal at the age of 34.

“You need a lot of courage, you need a good technique, and a good tactic also,” Cuche said. “At a few gates you have to slide in, and if you don’t do that you will go out from the line.”

Cuche’s display in the super-G was enough to impress Marco Sullivan of the United States.

“Cuche just killed it,” Sullivan said. “That is what you have to do – take it by the horns and tackle it. If you can win this thing you’ve got to be skiing real well.”

Miller is one of few men to win on the Bellevarde, in a World Cup super-combined that served as a test event exactly a year ago and included a shortened downhill leg.

But the scheduled downhill over the full distance that weekend was wiped out by the weather, leaving the field short of true experience. The last full downhill on the Bellevarde was at the 1992 Winter Olympics hosted by nearby Albertville. It was won by Austria’s Patrick Ortlieb.

Some racers have cited Bormio, Italy, as the regular stop which most resembles the challenging course.

Miller won his world title at Bormio four years ago and added a World Cup win last season, while Christof Innerhofer won there on home snow six weeks ago.

No Italian has been world downhill champion for 57 years.

“This is different to the downhills we know,” said Defago, who completed the classic double of Wengen, Switzerland, and Kitzbuehel, Austria, inside eight days last month. “It has a lot of turns. Maybe in some parts, like at Kitzbuehel, you need courage.”

It was at Kitzbuehel where Switzerland’s Daniel Albrecht crashed last month after losing control in mid air within sight of the finish line. He remains in an induced coma to treat lung and brain injuries after his Jan. 22 fall.

To help avoid similar accidents, organizers on Friday remodeled the final jump to stop racers from flying too far through the air.

With snow expected to fall until the early hours of Saturday, and again soon after the scheduled start time, the governing body is sending 350 workers out on the hill before dawn to help prepare the surface.

“We’re going to do everything we can to get this race,” Hujara said. “With only 38 racers I think we can do it.”

Vonn DQ’d from super-combi won by Zettel

VAL D’ISERE, France – Lindsey Vonn began her day with Austrian TV cameras trained on her as she left the team hotel in early light. She then headed to the course as the overwhelming favorite in the super-combi at the world championships.

All was going according to plan Friday when Vonn led the downhill portion of the race. Hours later, she was disqualified from the slalom for splitting a gate.

“I’ve been feeling so great this week that to come down hard like that today is hard to take,” Vonn said. “I was really confused for a while and really frustrated. That’s the thing with slalom. Anything can happen.”

Austria’s Kathrin Zettel was the surprise winner, posting the fifth-fastest downhill and third-fastest slalom.

Zettel had a combined time of 2 minutes, 20.13 seconds. Lara Gut, a 17-year-old Swiss, finished second, 0.56 seconds behind, and Elisabeth Goergl of Austria was third, 0.88 back. The top U.S. finisher was Stacey Cook in 16th place.

“It wasn’t realistic for me to win gold in the combined,” Zettel said. “There were so many other favorites – Lindsey and (Maria) Riesch and (Anja) Paerson. For sure, not me.”

Riesch finished fourth while defending champion Paerson missed a gate in the downhill.

Zettel was ahead when Vonn came down as the final skier in the slalom leg. The American started with a 1.48-second advantage but made two big errors on the upper section of the course. She appeared to split the gate in an effort to regain time.

“She was just a little bit out of position and the pitch quickly shot her out,” U.S women’s head coach Jim Tracy said. “She was just confused.”

Zettel saw Vonn struggling and later recounted what she said to herself: “Oops, that could be good for me.”

It wasn’t immediately clear Vonn had split a gate, and the leader board initially flashed her time as second. Vonn posed for pictures as if she had won the silver medal.

“It’s mixed emotions and a pretty disappointing day all in all,” Vonn said. “I did all the photos for second place and was pretty happy even though I thought I could have won. Then I went inside and my husband told me I didn’t make the gate.”

Vonn’s coaching staff went into the race jury room to check the tape and decided not to appeal after confirming Vonn did indeed split.

“Today’s result was just one of those things that happen to all ski racers, especially in slalom,” Vonn’s husband, Thomas, a former U.S. ski racer, wrote in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

“Ski racing is a tough sport, you can win 59 out of 60 gates, straddle the last gate, and it is considered a terrible day. Lindsey knows that you have to be able to roll with the punches in this sport and is prepared to do that.”

Vonn opened the championships by winning the super-G Tuesday and was aiming for her fourth consecutive victory in a week, having also posted World Cup wins in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, last weekend. She will still be the favorite for Sunday’s downhill.

“I’m going to work hard and do everything I can to be on the podium in that race,” Vonn said.

Zettel finished fourth in the traditional combined at the 2006 Turin Olympics and was fifth in super-combi at the last worlds in Are, Sweden, two years ago. She has won five World Cup races, all in giant slalom.

Gut nearly matched Vonn in the downhill, finishing 0.14 behind, and attacked in the slalom leg, even though she has never entered a World Cup slalom.

Gut said her thoughts at the start turned to teammate Daniel Albrecht, who is in an induced coma following a crash in downhill training last month. Albrecht won the super-combi at the last worlds.

“I thought now I can do what he did in Are. I wanted to give everything,” Gut said. “I had nothing to lose. I thought I’ll give everything. If I drop out, never mind. And if I’m good it’s even better. I didn’t think much and just tried to let the skis go.”

This was the first medal at a worlds or Olympics for Goergl, who has won two World Cup giant slaloms. She is the daughter of 1960 and 1964 Olympic downhill bronze medalist Traudl Hecher. Her brother Stephan Goergl also is a racer.

Vonn planned to train for the downhill Saturday, then go for gold again a day later.

“I’m just going to try to get past today and look forward to the future,” she said.