Arras France Tourism Guide

SKIING

• Luc Alphand (born on 6th August 1965) is a French former alpine skier, who is now a race car driver.

Born in Briançon, Alphand made his World Cup skiing debut in 1984. In 1997, he won the World Cup. He retired in 1997 and started a career in auto racing. First in the Nissan Micra Stars Cup (1997–1998), then in the European Le Mans Series (2001), the FIA GT Championship (2002), and the Lamborghini Supertrophy (2002). He won the 2006 Dakar Rally, in which he had finished runner-up a year earlier. With this victory, he was the first ex ski driver who won the Paris-Dakar. He recently purchased two Corvette race cars from Pratt & Miller for use in the Le Mans Series and 24 Hours of Le Mans.

World Cup victories:

Overall victories:

1995: Downhill
1996: Downhill
1997: Overall
1997: Downhill
1997: Super-G

Individual victories:

13 January 1995: Downhill
14 January 1995: Downhill
15 March 1995: Downhill
1 December 1995: Downhill
9 December 1995: Downhill
2 February 1996: Downhill
20 December 1996: Downhill
29 December 1996: Downhill
24 January 1997: Downhill
29 January 1997: Super-G
21 February 1997: Super-G
22 February 1997: Downhill

Other results:

– Junior World Champion of the downhill in 1983
– French Alpine Skiing Championship
– Champion of the downhill in 1985, 1987, 1989, 1990 and 1994
– Champion of the super-G in 1988
– Champion of combined in 1987
– 2006 Dakar Rally Winner Cars (Mitsubishi Pajero)

• Franck Piccard (born on 17th September 1965) is a French former alpine skier.

A native of Les Saisies, Piccard won a total of four Alpine skiing World Cup races. At the 1988 Olympics in Calgary he won a gold medal in the Super-G competition and a bronze medal in the downhill. At the 1992 Olympics in Albertville he won a silver medal in the downhill.

World Cup victories:

13 March 1988: Super-G
11 January 1990: Downhill
2 December 1990: Super-G
30 October 1993: Giant slalom

• Jean-Luc Crétier (born on 28th April 1966 in Albertville) is a former alpine skier.

Franck Piccard (left) with Crétier.

He won the gold medal in the downhill at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. He came in the long line of big surprises in the event, winning on a warm, sunny day. Crétier was third racer on the course and posted a respectable time. Next was Hermann Maier, who dramatically flew off the course at the first jump, causing a substantial delay in the race. Another injured racer, Luca Cattaneo of Italy, had to be airlifted causing another delay. The course conditions softened, especially on the lower half, and Crétier’s time became increasingly difficult to beat; a total of 15 racers in the 43-man field failed to finish.

It was the only victory of Crétier’s international career. His last World Cup race was ten months later, in December 1998. He stopped his career in 1999 because of an injury.

• Régine Cavagnoud (June 27th, 1970 – October 31st, 2001) was a French alpine skier. The 2001 Super-G World Champion was killed in a training accident.

She had nine World Cup victories, four of them Super-G, three downhill and two giant slalom.

Her career culminated in the 2001 World Alpine Ski Championships held in Sankt Anton, Austria, where on 29th January 2001, she clinched the Super-G title.

On 29th October 2001, Cavagnoud collided with German ski coach Markus Anwander during ski training in Pitztal, Austria and sustained severe brain injuries as a result of the collision. She was evacuated by helicopter to Innsbruck’s university hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries two days later. Her death was the first tragedy involving a World Cup skier since the death of Austria’s Ulrike Maier in 1994.

One of these mistakes is certainly the lack of co-ordination between the teams.

She was buried in her native village of La Clusaz in the French Alps.