Maze breaks podium record, Shiffrin amazing first time!

Rebensburg ends Maze's winning streak

Slovenian Tina Maze, after another amazing win last weekend in Courchevel, was called for another record to break. Her start of this season made the Slovene to win more races in the same season and we are not even halfway! But most of all, she was able to win all the first four Giant Slaloms, equalizing Karbon's record of few seasons ago.
Had she made it to five, she would have done something extraordinary, but the quality of the field in the discipline is one of the highest this season and the rivals were angry for a victory: one out of them was the most motivated, Viktoria Rebensburg, the GS Cup winner of the last seasons had finished second behind Maze in Saint Moritz for a bunch of hundreds and after the debacle in the French race wanted to prove herself back.
In last night's race the German already did something uncommon for the season, because she was the first one to finish ahead of the Slovene after the first run, but most of all she had done that in style, by setting a great advantage over her. Right after Tina, placed herself Austrian Anna Fenninger; the two had a good advantage over all the others, so that it seemed unlike to have big surprises regarding the final podium and so it was indeed as those 3 placed themself on top at the end of the race too.
The rather easy hill of Aare and the even easier course set for the 2nd run didn't let much space open for making the difference and so not many come-backs took place.
When the top 10 was to run down, French specialist Tessa Worley surely wanted to forget her rather pale first run and attacked the course with a better attitude and menaged to be fluid in the gliding parts around the middle. Tessa hit what was and eventually would be the best time for the run and that was worth a great jump up from her 8th place, but it was enough to make it to the podium as she finished 4th.
Austrian Kathrin Zettel, for the first time in the season looked rather fatigued and menaged to stay in the top 10 just for a bunch of hundreds finishing 10th indeed.
Anemone Marmottan came to Aare with a poor row of falls in the latest races, but a great first run had placed her as high as 6th, but sadly her streak was to continue as she fell in the early gates of the second run.
Swedish slalom specialist Frida Hansdotter came to her home races strong of her best result ever in GS just scored in Courchevel and she wanted to improve it on home soil. 5th after the first run, the Swede -who was 5th in the French race- didn't menage to better Worley's time, but finishing right after her secured herself another 5th place, when immediatly later Maria Riesch failed to stay in front of Tessa and Frida too.
Anna Fenninger knew she had some margin over the French leader, but she didn't want just to finish her run still on the lead, she wanted to provide an assault to the first place and so she had to invent a great run, even better than her first one. Her run was very impressive indeed, but didn't better Worley's partial time, so despite her big lead over her by the finish it was hard to believe she could make up all the gap with Rebensburg.
But before that it was Tina Maze's turn, the queen of this year's GS, the Slovene looked a little tired though and seemed to have a not so great feeling with the Swedish snow, so despite a great show of technique and lines, she wasn't as fast as usual and in the end, she couldn't stay ahead of the Austrian breaking her hopes for keeping the winning streak alive even before the last skier had run down.

It was all on Viktoria's hands or better on her skis as she had a huge advantage to administrate, but she seemed not to be content with winning only, she wanted to give a sign that she is still the best one and so she attacked as if she had to make up a gap.
She looked unstoppable and even gained a bigger advantage after the first part, then suddenly a huge mistake slowed her down and her gap drastically reduced. Suddenly a safe victory seemed to be under question, even more when few gates from the end another big mistake happened to Rebensburg, but she reacted as the champion she is and despite it all she still finished with a big gap of 60 hundreds ahead of everybody else.

Shiffrin living a teenage dream

If the GS didn't give many emotions the slalom that followed the day after surely didn't lack of them. Even before its start a news shocked the whole world of skiing as Marlies Schild injured herself during a training in the morning and vague news give her out possibly for the whole season.
The race started with an unexpected fall from one of the favourites as Kathrin Zettel went out, then it was Maria Riesch's turn, but the German didn't shine in the Swedish night and in the end was just 7th at the end of the first run. Tina Maze then took the lead, with a very solid run and she kept for the whole time the first group was featured, but today it was the day of youngsters as many of them found their best results in the first run and eventually by the end.

First Mikaela Shiffrin started with a very aggressive attitude and by exploiting the lightheartedness of her 17 years, she skied as if it was effortless and in this way she could better Maze's time and jump on the leadership.
Her status didn't last much as hot-form Frida Hansdotter, after a terrific run, overtook the American in the leadership. Another Swede soon made her name big as Maria Pietilae-Holmner fought very hard and in the first intermediates stayed close to her team-mate, so much that she finished 3rd by the end of the run.
Another good news came, this time to the Canadian team, as last year's first time winner Erin Mielzynski, after many disappointing falls scored a very good run, placing herself on the 5th place, just behind Maze.
The great day of the Swedish team didn't end with the top names, and not even the fall of Wikstroem - who was on the way for a great time too- could make it go bad, as Nathalie Eklund was 9th.
In the second run Swiss Wendy Holdener scored the best run time, but it didn't give her much of a raise in the ranking since from 14th she finished 10th.
The young Swede Eklund didn't let the placement of the first run scare her and by showing another great display of technique she took the lead and climbed the ranking finishing as high as 6th, her best result so far in WC.

Erin Mielzynski had a lot of pressure on her shoulder because of the many falls, but this time she could stay strong and despite looking a little cautious at times she menaged to keep her position, 5th at the end and her second best result in world cup.
Tina Maze, only 4th in the first run knew she was just one podium away from the record of number of them before the new year, but most of all, she knew Maria Riesch had a pretty bad day and was almost sure to finish out of the top 10, so when she started she found back the fire she had in all the races she ruled so far and made a terrific display of her great weapons such as strneght and technic. An outstanding bottom part made her cross the finish line with a very big lead and in the mind of everyone the image of her first win in slalom for the year was already there.
If Maria Pietilae couldn't do much to stop the Slovene, Mikaela Shiffrin surely had something else on her mind, as when she started, she started to win. The American looked incredibly solid and despite the fighting attitude she barely ever fell backwards with a complete control of her skis. Before the last section she was very tight with Tina, who had the best bottom part up to that moment, but Mikaela topped that one too and finished with the best time in front of the world cup leader.
First run leader Frida Hansdotter then knew that if she wanted to achieve her first victory in world cup she had to outdo herself and she tried, she gave everything to stay in front of the young American, but a little too wary bottom part took that chance away, but as the big celebration while crossing the finish showed, she was very happy to be back on podium, even if again of the second place.

To double the joy of the moment, with this very first victory Mikaela jumps in front of Tina Maze in the slalom cup and snatched the leader bib from Maria Riesch.

Hirscher comes out winner from snowy Val D'Isere

The weather hasn't been very kind with Val D'Isere in the past years, as last year they were had been forced to call the event off because of the lack of snow, whilst this year they had to work very hard for the massive snowfall that hit the French resort in the past few days. Because of this they were forced to switch the normal order of the races, having the slalom done first and then the GS, with the former done almost by night in order to have more time to prepare the slope.
The result was better than expected, but both races obviously had been little signed by the odd conditions of the snow.

Pinturault first win on home soil.

Because of the snowfall and the delay of the start to early afternoon, together with the difficulty of the slope made the slalom very thrilling as the result of each run was uncertain and very spectacular.

In the first run a lot of emotions went on with Austrian young talent Marcel Hirscher leading the team-mate Manfred Pranger, who exploited his expereince and his talent to snatch that 2nd place despite the bad slope's conditions when he went down with bib 11. A group of three athlets from the top group were following with Neureuther, Gross and Deville one after the other. Another great surprise had been done by Pinturault, who was 6th despite the 16 on her bib and the few training under his belt - because of the injury occurred in the fall.
Despite the big bumps created by the passage of the athlets on the soft snow quite a few guys could qualify for the second run even with high numbers: Austrian Feller was even 16th with number 50.
In the second run American Chodounsky took advantage of being the first on track and kept gaining places for a long with Slovak suprise Adam Zampa following close (the two would eventually finish 15th and 16th).

But it was Austrian Wolfgang Hoerl who made the real comeback of the day, by scoring what will eventually be the 2nd best time of the run, he rose from 26th to 9th place.
Moelgg and Ligety did quite a nice job in the second run as well, but it was the Swedish duo of Myhrer and Byggmark that impressed the most as the two by risking a lot in their attacking run could first stop Hoerl raise and then start their own. Jens, who had done half a miracle in the first run already by skiing the whole run without a pole lost on start, had fire burining in his eyes, but a couple of mistakes cost him the lead over the team-mate. The two finished right at the feet of the podium 4th and 5th.
The one who stopped them was the eventual winner of the race, Alexis Pinturault, who skied out of his mind, as if there were no signs or bumps on the course. He scored the best time of the run and hardly anyone could get any close: one by one every racer start to fall behind him in the final standing with Neureuther being the only one able to stay relatively close to him, half a second away and eventually 2nd.
Manfred Pranger, who was second after the first half, completely lost the plot in the second section of the race and finished 6th, while Hirscher's big mistakes cost his leadership and for a little he hasn't lost the podium at all, but he could still finish 3rd.

Hirscher wins the first race for Austrian team

Of course Austria can't always win, but when it's middle December and the only win for the Wunderteam arrived from ladies the pressure on the guys start to be big. None could expect that Ligety would suddenly drop his terrific form and lose the first GS of the season, but the weird snow conditions, the shortened GS and the very tight gates surely mixed the cards on the table.
The first run had already been very unpredictable with the protagonists of last night's slalom again on top as Hirscher was leading after the first run with a very small gap over Pinturault and Neureuther was 5th. Of course the short distance between the gates would have advataged the young slalomists, but still a few veterans could find their way to stay close as Benjamin Raich was 4th, Ligety 6th and Blardone 8th.

The second run was again marked by a few athlets exploiting the better slope give by an early start, this time, though, the surprise was even bigger as German Stefan Luitz, 25th after the first run, at his 3rd top 30 appearance in World Cup led the race as far as finishing just a step away from the victory. His run was something of rare quality, since he was even behind Roberto Nani -who was leading the race at the moment- by the middle, but then he found a great sequence of gates, a perfect one actually and finished ahead of the Italian. None in the craziest of his dreams might have thought of it, but the young German started to climb the ranking step by step and each position he won, you could see an amazed and thrilled smile growing on his face.
Nani gained a lot of positions too, finishing for the first time in the top 10, 10th actually.
The fight for the first places started with a brave run by Svindal who used his great power to tame the bumps of the course, but it wasn't enough to better Luitz's time but enough to go from 11th to 6th.
Italian Max Blardone, who hadn't finish out of the podium here for a three seasons, tried his best to make his streak longer, but he had to surrender to the German too, but the podium didn't finish that far as he was 5th at the end.
Ligety of course was rather daunted after his first disappointing run and wanted to make up in the second run, he tried everything and he was the first one to gain some advantage to Luitz in the first part, but then a couple of bad mistakes set him beck and prevented him from stopping Luitz's raise. Ted eventually was 3rd, which of course feels rather tight for his standards, so we'll see for sure him angry for victory in Badia next week.

A solid run from Neureuther gave him the first top 5 finish in GS in his carreer (previously a 13th placement had been his best result, that's the reason of his high bib -36-). Sadly for him, Raich couldn't find the same flawless run he had in the first run and even if he didn't make many mistakes, he seemed to never finish the turns and that made him accumulate hundreds on hundreds every gate; 25th his final placement.
When Pinturault started the crowd went crazy and his brave attitude wouldn't but grow the hopes the French public had for a back to back win from him. It seemed already done, only a few gates were missing before he could cross the finish line with a reassuring advantage, but he let his focus decrease and his boot touched the snow making him fall.
Hirscher knew his worst opponent had fallen and his advantage was big enough to be administrated and so he did, he didn't take many risks and so he could finally secure his first win of the season and end the seasonal drought for the Austrian team.

Saint Moritz goes drama

Rivalries in sport are among the things that add thrill to events and it's quite well known that in women sports rivalry can become way more intense than the ones between men; if you consider an individual sport like skiing and you think of one of the most successful athlet ever like Lindsey Vonn, and one of the most fiercy girl on the circuite like Tina Maze, it was to be expected that the two big personalities would sooner or later clash, mostly in the moment when the latter calls into question the predominance of the former.

The eppisode happened after the 2nd day's SuperG, when the Slovene was leading when Vonn took the lead and apparently said "f*ck off Maze", the Slovenian team made a formal report, but the FIS turned it down confirming Lindsey version, which was "it was f*cking amazing". The two still look far from cool about that, but in all honesty it couldn't but add a spicy taste to that more and more interesting world cup.

Maze wins the super-combi ahead of Austrian duo

The first speed race in the old Europe was the SuperG valid for the Combi in Saint Moritz and a lot of interest was on Lindsey Vonn, who completely owned the speed events in Lake Louise and of course on Tina Maze, the overall ranking leader, called for a better display of her talent after the murky Canadian week end.
Because of the cloudy sky, the setting, inspite of being rather easy, had its major difficulty on the flat visibility, which didn't let the girls see all the waves which the Swiss slope is famous for.
Among the first racers no-one made such a run that could seem to bother the big names that would later follow, only German slalom specialist Lena Duerr hit a good time, mostly because she knew she could better her ranking in the slalom which would follow.

Compatriot Maria Riesch, many numbers later, scored a great time thanks to a superb late part, where she eventually would be the faster. Nontheless, Maria didn't finish the first run on the lead as home favourite Lara Gut was faster and so Tina Maze.
An Austrian trio made by Fenninger, Hosp and Zettel finished right behind Riesch, but ahead of Duerr, but the biggest surprise came from Lindsey Vonn, who didn't score the best time in the speed race, for the first time after a very long while.
The slalom looked pretty easy, nontheless the slalom specialists showed their skills on the track, so Marie-Michelle Gagnon came from the bottom of the ranking with a terrific run and same did Michaela Kirchgasser as they finished respectively 8th and 9th.
Lena Duerr was the first one to end the climbing of the Canadian, but then Kathrin Zettel, winner of the last slalom, scored the 2nd best run and snatched the lead. Against all odds her leadership lasted but few moments as team-mate Nicole Hosp found probably her best slalom run in a year and took it.

The raise of the Austrians looked unstoppable as one by one many possible contenders started to fall behind them in the ranking, names the like of Goergl and Mancuso couldn't do anything and then after no longer than a few gates Lindsey Vonn unexpectedly went out.
Everyone was expecting Riesch to battle hard or at least administrate her lead, since she was the winner of the first slalom of the year, but the German looked a bit too cautious and she eventually finished behind the Austrian duo.
2nd after the first run, Lara Gut tried her best, but the lack of training in the fast gates of Slalom took its toll and so Lara couldn't stop the Austrians, but her run was still very solid, enough to eventually finish 5th.
Superg leader and overall WC leader Tina Maze knew her biggest rival was out, but that didn't prevent her from skiing the best she knows, attacking the course and crashing everyone's time in the slalom run too, winning the whole.

Vonn still unbeaten in speed.

The superg that followed only 24 hours later was menomated of its top part because of the huge wind that was blowing early in the morning, but the setting done by Maze's trainer didn't make it much of a loss, as he could draw a very entertaining course, where the girls had to ski at their best to prove their values.
On such a technical setting it didn't come as a surprise to see German GS specialist Viktoria Rebensburg taking the lead early in the race, followed by Italian Specialist Elena Curtoni. The two led the race until the very best girls of the top group came down the slope and finished eventually both in the top 10.
One of the huge favourite after the SuperCombi of the day before was surely Lara Gut, but sadly for her she couldn't back up the result as a fall took her chances off from the day.
Tina Maze, bib 17, was the first one to better the German's time and she actually crashed it by being almost flawless in each section of the slope finishing more than 1 second ahead of everybody.

Maria Riesch first and Julia Mancuso then tried their best, but little seemed to be possible done to prevent Maze to win her first Superg in her carreer and finally enter the exclusive club of the ones to have won a race in each discipline. The German closed the race on the 5th place, while Mancuso was eventually 3rd.
Lindsey Vonn knew there was little to be done indeed, but she knew how to do that little, she was extremly fast in the parts that most suited her, but didn't risk too much in the middle section where the GS-like turns might have demaged her. It was close, really closer than an eye-blink, but those 20 hundreds were enough to secure Vonn's win over Maze and that was the moment when all the drama descibed above happened.
The race wasn't over though, as Swiss Fabienne Suter showed her great attitude in the discipline, despite a slow start this season and scored a great time that secured her the 4th place and many other girls scored good time with higher number as Tessa Worley 7th with 31 or M.M. Gagnon 13th (bib 56) sharing the placement with Duerr (bib 45).

Maze stronger than Vonn's mental games

Slovenian Tina Maze has built her leadership on the overall WC by being more than solid in every discipline, but most of all by going undefeated in Giant Slalom up to date and on this status she still was able to leave St. Moritz, but her win came after a great quality run from all the top names in both runs.

After the first run little surprise found room as everything went almost as expected: Tina Maze was leading, though this time with not much of a gap, Tessa Worley of France. 3rd place for Rebensburg, while 4th place was snatched by a very inspired Lara Gut. The 5th place was taken quite surprisingly by Vonn and 6th was Italian Federica Brignone, still far from her best in this season, but willing to make a turn around.
The second run was marked by a few girls running great manches with early numbers as Italian Elena Curtoni rose from 30th to 16th, while Marie Michelle Gagnon did even better to confirm her great form finishing 12th from 26th. Right ahead of the Canadian finished another comebackers, Swedish slalom sensation Frida Hansdotter, who was 19th after the first half.
The raise of the latter was stopped by Italian Irene Curtoni, who took the lead and in a few moment secured herself another top 10 placement, sharing her placement with Austrian Michaela Kirchgasser - eventually 7th by the end.
Maria Riesch didn't ski the best, but a solid run for her standards in GS and still secured herself a top 10 finish. Austrian Zettel finished just ahead of the Italian-Austrian pair, but the real surprise came from Marlies Schield as she skied a very impressive run in Giant Slalom, showing how her hard work is paying even far from the rapid gates of her beloved Slalom.
Italian Federica Brignone, vexed by a little injury and by the fears of two bad races in the first 2 GS, started very bravely trying to prove herself and the world that she's still competitive even after the change of materials, but luck didn't assist her and a mistake caused her a fall, with no consequences but a great disappointment.

Almost the same destiny was written for Lindsey Vonn, who was leading up to the point when she committed a huge mistake and only her rough power let her stay inside the course. Nonetheless she was last at the finish line.
Despite the amazing run she had in the second leg, Lara Gut wasn't able to improve her final position as the three girls ahead of them menaged to do even better. German Viktoria Rebensburg was surely given on a great form and for sure, we don't discover her talent today, but she pulverized Gut's time by skiing such an errorless run fought from the very beginning to the last gate.
Tessa Worley seemed to know she needed her best run to stay ahead of Viktoria, but her tactic of attacking full-forces didn't pay at the end as the little mistakes she had cost her that loss of one placement, but she was still able to finish 3rd eventually.
Tina Maze had quite a good gap to start with, but she was concious it wouldn't have been enough if she had just tried to administrate it. She started very aggressive and could even enhance her lead, but the impressive run from Viktoria had been done from half to finish and slowly Tina started to lose her advantage, but by the end 8 hundreds saved her from losing the race.

Ligety and Vonn once again on another planet

Lake Louise's undisputable Queen

Third race and third success in row, this time in superg, which sets her winning streak on that slope one step forward, this was indeed Lindsey Vonn's 7th success in the last 7 races on the Canadian track. But if yesterday's result was nothing but pure and amazing talent, today she had been much wiser in her skiing, avoiding any big risk, mostly in the steep part, but that didn't change the eventual result as no girl could finish closer than half a second.
2nd in the end was Julia Mancuso, her team-mate and long time rival. Julia was on the lead until Lindsey finished her run and she probably caressed the idea of beating her on her beloved slope, conscious of having done a terrific flat final, the best one before Vonn's run. So when Lindsey looked rather prudent on the steep part and the partial time before the flat showed a very close gap between the two, none could expect Vonn to easily gain a greater advantage of Mancuso, but so she did and grabbed another victory.
Julia had to be very proud of her race though, because, despite the gap that separates her from Vonn, she was able to ski a very convincing run mostly, as it has been already pointed out, on the last part of the slope. She knew she had done something great the moment she could overtake Anna Fenninger on the temporary lead of the race: the Austrian had herself skied an extremely good run, built on some great gliding and line choices on the flat parts, but most of all on an outstanding interpretation of the big turns set on the middle steep.

4th and 5th finished respectively Tina Maze and Maria Riesch. The two of them had to content themself of staying at podium's feet, but still scoring good points for the overall ranking, in which the former is still leading, despite the not-too-positive weekend.
Maze's run was, anyway, a great step ahead of what she had shown in downhill, where she didn't find the right way to fully express her abilities. Today she skied much better, mostly on the steep, where her GS talents helped her to score on of the best partial timing, unless losing quite a lot by the end on the last few gates on the flat.

Ligety still too good, Hirscher and Simoncelli the best among humans

It's been more than a month since the last Giant Slalom men had raced at, but the winner is still the same: Ted Ligety, the American the passport says, but from outer space his time said today on Beaver Creek's snow.

Ted was the one to open the race in the first run and then to finish it since he was leading already after the first half and didn't fail to confirm his placement, actually he did even improve his lead over the second by finishing more than 1'7 seconds ahead of all the others. What struk the most of Ligety's runs is the apparent effortless way he faces even the most difficult passages and trapts set on the courses, despite the longer and less carved skis, where the others need to invent tricks or somehow use their whole power, he just flexes his Heads and makes the turn.
The first among the others on the finish line was Marcel Hirscher, 2nd after both the runs, the only one to be closer than one second to Ligety after the first run, but a couple of mistakes in the second partial couldn't but let this delay to grow bigger, at one point in the second run he looked on trouble defending his placement too, but in the end he could save it from the assault of Italian Davide Simoncelli.

Davide had a very good first run already as he finished it on the 3rd place, but could secure his comeback on the podium only through a solid second run, lightened by an outstanding bottom part, where he could inflame the local crowd with his amazing style. Davide looked on cloud nine when he jumped on the podium, since this summer he got injured and needed a very long and painful recovery and that podium looked like a great prize for his hard work.
Right away from the top 3 finished Manfred Moelgg, who gained one position at the expenses of French Pinturault, who still was able to finish 5th. The two had to be happy in any case, the former for setting another proof of his comeback to the top of both the technical races, the latter for the coinfidence he could draw from such a good result coming from the injury he suffered.
But if the best placements didn't see many changes in the 2nd run, what happened right behind them was strongly affected by three huge comebacks: Aksel Lund Svindal, to once again prove his love for the Birds of Prey rose from 17th to the eventual 6th; Max Blardone, after a huge mistake in the first run barely made it to the 2nd, but there he gave proof of his talent and finished 9th from 18th, whilst Austrian youngster Noesig did even better finishing 10th from the 28th place of the first half.

Vonn back to top in Lake Louise

A lot of talking has been going around the health conditions of Lindsey Vonn since the very misterious hospitalization she underwent a few weeks ago; she looked very tired in Aspen and everyone was wondering whether or not she would have done well in the speed events, mostly because she has always shown a great feeling with the Canadian slope.
All the doubts were cleared, or at least the questions about her chances here in Lake Louise. In less then 48 hours the American won both the downhills making it extremely clear, that on such slopes there's no chance she gets defeated by anyone - it's not a case that with those two wins she's on a 6 races winning streak here-.
In the first Downhill on Friday Stefanie Moser from Austria, with the low bib number of 2 led the race for quite a while thanks to a very impressive first part and an overall solid steep before scoring good sesctions in the final flat again.
The real surprise came few numbers on when American Stacey Cook surprised anyone by exploiting her gliding abilities in the upper and bottom parts, but most of all by hazarding a very brave line to begin the steep in the middle, which eventually paid well as she bettered Moser's time and one after the other saw a lot of big names finishing way behind her.
First to go down in the top group was Lindsey Vonn and she immediatly started to score the best timings in each session and her advantage over the team mate wouldn't but get bigger: one the steep she seemed not once troubled by the speed or the big turns set, like a missile she crossed the finish line with an actualy gap of almost two seconds on everybody else.
Nothing could Maria Riesch do, but see her sectors being one after the other sign the growing distance between her and the American, whilst Tina Weirather from Liechtenstein gave the illusion to be able to stay close to Vonn, before eventually lose distance on the last long flat section at the end. The two finished tie on third place, while Stacey Cook, with the 2nd place, scored her best result ever in World Cup.

The second day the conditions where tougher and the first 15 girls had much of an advantage as after the fog-break a big wind started to blow and none could do much against it, none but Vonn. But let's start from the beginning.
After a couple of rather colourless performances by the first numbers, Swiss Kaufmann-Abderhalden took the lead by using her gliding abilities to the very best of her chances and despite a pretty poor couple of turns in the steep, she could create an impressive speed on the flat session by the end that secured her the lead for many runs after.

Called to the remake of yesterday's unexpected result Stacey Cook didn't fail: she made again a terrific entry to the steep and could accumulate a terrific advantage over the Swiss, but the latter had an unbelievable flat section, so the gap in advantage of the American started to grow thinner and thinner, but by the end it was enough to take the lead.
As it has already been said above, after the longer break caused by the fog, a big wind started to blow on the upper part and almost none could deal with it and lots of them suffered major gaps from Cook already after less than 40 seconds of race.
That didn't happen to Italian Mereghetti, one of the best in the trainings but only 7th yesterday. Dada started with an avarage upper part, unless starting to recover by the middle, when suddenly she almost fell at the beginning of the steep. The huge mistake cost her quite a bunch of hundreds, but in the end she would still finish 5th.
Of course Lindsey Vonn had to leave her trademark on the race and after killing the race just one day back, she did something even great today, by first staying ahead of Cook in spite of the wind blowing, but then by almost stopping on the big turn before the steep because of a bad mistake. The American didn't let this bring her down and despite the error, she gained an unbelievable speed to launch the flat and there she simply blew everyone else's assault to her victory away, by finishing ahead of her team-mate of more than half a second.
In the wind none of the other expected prtagonists could do much but trying not to lose too much, but Lindsey not only made up for that, but with a mistake that would kill anyone's chances for a good placement, she won the race and with margin...just unbelievable!

Italians tame the Birds of Prey

Christof on the top of a very Norse podium.

The Birds of Prey is known as one of the most difficult slopes for speed races in the WC because of its unique mix of flat parts and the famous steep and its waves. Because of the lack of snow and therefore, the bigger jumps, the course setter decided to try and slow down the course.
Sadly, despite its success in making the jumps relatively easier, one guy still got injured: Tobias Stechert from Germany was one of the first runners on course and he was skiing a very convincing run until he finished long in one of the trasverses set on the steep and in the attempt of recovering from that mistake he got his knee's ligaments torn.

After the long break it needed to take the German safely away from the course, Austrian Georg Streitberger with bib number 6 and immediatly after Peter Fill scored two very solid runs and started to lead the race.
Italian Innerhofer, despite the low number, was reported to be on a very good condition and he didn't fail to prove the rumors right. He found a very good feeling with his skis in the gliding part on top and then painted amazing lines down the steep middle part of the Beaver Creek's course.
None seemed to be able to ski anywhere close to the Italian until Kjetil Jansrud with bib 14 showed a great feeling with the snow and the course and he was making up the gap he had from Christof and seemed set to better the Italian time, but a sudden and unexpected mistake on one of the last waves and that cost him the chance of taking the lead - he would finish 3rd eventually.
The big favourite for the race was surely Svindal, the Norse came here with the impressive wins in Lake Louise last weekend and he indeed started to ski a great run by exploiting his great power even on the more technical passages. He kept staying very close to Innerhofer throughtout the course, but by the end as like as his team-mate a mistake cost him the chance of winning the race, finishing incredibly close, but still 2nd.
The top 5 finishers were completed by Austrian surprise Florian Scheiber, that could finish 4th with a big as high as 42! 5th placement for another Italian, Dominik Paris.

Marsaglia makes a win out his first podium

Matteo Marsaglia had shown bright sparkles of talent in the past few years, but so far he had never menaged to score a run errorless or worth of his abilities. In a race that again was sadly signed by another crash and the injury of a racer in the early runs (Austrian hope Max Franz lost consciousness on the crash, but apparently he's already well), out of the first names, only Italian Werner Hell had done an errorless run -he would finish 5th-, as the tricks set by the course-setter were many and it was very hard to find the right lines and the right attitude towards such a difficult slope.
Then it was Austrian Reichelt's turn and he didn't let the thought of his friend's injury get into his mind and found the right motivation and corague to attack this slope, probably angry for a good result after the bad ones of the last speed races. Reichelt took the lead over the Italian and kept his place on top for a few more runners, as long as another Italian, Matteo Marsaglia, took the lead over him. Matteo was coming from a couple of very convincing results in GS and he showed his great form by looking effortlessly painting lines, rahter than skiing down an iced hill.
If being ahead of such an inspired Reichelt wasn't enough of a proof of the greatness of his run, one by one all the specialists of the discipline started to fall behind his back whenever they crossed the finishline.
Once again the Norwegian team mated looked ready to trouble the Italian leadership, but in some sort of re-happening of yesterday's plot both Jansrud and Svindal couldn't but make a mistake that would cost them too much for the win: Kjetil this time not even making it to the podium, only 6th, whilst Aksel-Lund didn't change his placement of the day before, ending up 2nd.
Italian Peter Fill wanted to leave his sign on the race too and made a promising start by scoring the best time in the upper part, but due to a bad line-choice he went out right away.
4th in the end was Ted Ligety, who seemed to have worked hard on the discipline, by proving his Lake Louise's great placement wasn't a fluke and this run can't but put him the heavy favourite target for tomorrow's GS.

Svindal goes back-to-back, Zettel stronger than ever

Svindal rules the superg too

That he was the favourite to win, it was rather clear to everybody, but it takes a champion to back-up the expectations of the eve; Aksel Lund Svindal has proven several times in his carreer to be an undoubtfully great champion, but the way he skied today added another proof to his status.

Starting with a low number Ted Ligety surprised the viewrs by skiing effortlessy not only in the very technical passages on the steep part of the slope, but also being better than usual in the very last long flat of the Lake Louise course. Still, he was the 2nd to race down the setting, so none really believed he had a chance for a great placement on the final ranking, but one by one a lot of specialists of the Superg started to finish behind the American "Giantist" and so his run started to look more and more convincing.
Italian Werner Heel, bib number 7, looked very close to oust the American from the temporary leadership as he finished the steep very close to him and started to recover distance by the middle of the final flat, but a little mistake cost him the couple of hundreds that set him right after him. The Italian had to be happy at the end of the race as he eventually finished 5th, his very best result in a long while - Ligety finished 4th!-.
It needed a truly inspired Joaquim Puchner, from Austria, to better the time from Ted and he really had to ski an incredible flat section in order to do so. Another Austrian, Max Franz few runs later had a solid run too, yesterday's 2nd finisher didn't ski as well as in downhill, but still made a very good display of calm after the amazing result from 24 hours earlier finishing 8th.

Right after the colourless run from Innerhofer, French skier Adrien Theaux skied an incredibly solid run throughout all the legs, making a terrific final intermediate to size the lead, just in time to check what Svindal would have done.
All the pressure was on his wide shoulder, but as a Champion he is, the Norge didn't let all this prevent him from skiing his own race: he started good and by exploiting his gliding attitude took a great advantage in the early section already. He then made a terrific line to enter the steep and despite looking rather mechanic on the making went through the big turns in the steep with such a big speed that couldn't but increase his advantage over and over until the very finish when he lost a few decimals because of a little flaw in the flat, but still almost a second faster than everybody else.

Top 4 slalomists from another planet

First run in Aspen, CO, was a little pale, some sort of lazy start for the actual party which took place a few hours after for the 2nd one. After the first half the top 5 skiers came all from the top 8 at start with Zettel leading, but all them were in the space of 80 hundreds. Right after that little group the gaps were fasting growing bigger as the bib's number rose -the only exception being Irene Curtoni, but she sadly fell before the finish-.
In the second run the plot shifted to a more interesting one: first it was Italian Manuela Moelgg trying to add some spices to the race as she scored a very interesting time and started to climb the ranking from the bottom (she eventually finished 18th from 27th). But then it was Zuzulova's turn to show how the 1st run had only been a mistake in the making and she was a much better skier than her first run's placement suggested: from 20th she rose as much as 11th, but her partial time was eventually the 3rd at the end.
When the top 10 were to get down, the local crowd went comlpetely crazy for the run of the local star Mikaela Shiffrin, as the young amarican stopped the Slovakian leadership and started to climb the ranking too as high as 7th by the end.

German Lena Duerr edged the lead, but she didn't last longer on the top of the ranking as her team mate Maria Riesch knew she had to ski a terrific run to make up the gap from the 1st run leader and most of all recover from the GS fail. Riesch started very agressive and immediatly scored a great intermediate, but nonetheless kept pushing hard on the throttle until the very end. It was hard to believe someone could better such a run and a proof to that seemed to be given by Pietilae-Holmner solid, but not good enough run.
Marlies Schild was of another idea though, fire was burning in her eyes as she had her amazing winning streak interrupted in Levi because of a fall and she's been just one win away from all time record of slalom victories in WC. She wanted to show she was still the best and the 3rd place of the first run was too little for her. She started like a fury and in a blink of an eye she was crashing Maria's hopes for the win.
Yesterday's winner and Levi 4th placed Tina Maze knew she could do less to bother such an inspired Schild, but she also knew that every point is precious for the overall cup, so she skied smartly and without mistakes she could secure herself another podium, by finishing between the Austrian and Maria Riesch.

The first run leader, Kathrin Zettel had a lot of pressure to deal with as she hadn't been winning in slalom for a very long time in World Cup and she surely knew it wouldn't need just a solid run to edge the team mate, she needed something exception and so she did: in the first half of the race she had a little mistake,nothing very serious, but it cost her almost all the advantage and on the intermediate she had nothing but few hundreds left. One could think it was over, but she didn't, she knew she could do it and by putting together a stellar final section she gained a gap big enough to stop Schild's assault and win her first race of the season.

Maze over the moon, Svindal faster than the rest

Svindal 4th time on top in Lake Louise

Aksel's great ability in gliding always made a great contender out of him for all the speed events in the very fast slope of Lake Louise, but up to yesterday he had never won a downhill there despite the 3 wins in SuperG.
The Norge had ruled the trainings though and clearly seemed intentioned to start well the season of the speed racers, but the field was very determinated to make the absence of the Suiss champions a non-factor - with Cuche retired and Feuz out for physical problems part of the media questioned the level of the field-.

Austrian Max Franz was one of them, having scored the best time in the first training and being one of the many hopes for the future of his team. And he didn't fail to prove his great abilities as with bib number 3 he crossed the finish line with a terrific time that none for long could better. The sole Fayed and Paris of the first 15 skiers on slope could do something close and that let them finish 7th and 8th respectively.
A great delusion once again came for Carla Janka, the former overall winner, who's still fighting with a severe back injury and seems to be unable to ski as he used to as he finished so much as 51st eventually.
Local star Erik Guay was the first to bother the time of the Austrian sensation, but by the end it wasn't enough as he finished just behind (6th at the end of the race). His 2nd place didn't last loger than a minute as right after him, Austrian Kroell showed all his sensibility to draw amazing trajectories and produce speed on the long last flat: but for a blink of an eye, or even less, 2 hundreds of seconds only, he couldn't better his team mate's time and so he finished right behind Fraz.
It was then Svindal's turn and it was just a ride to success as he did better than everybody else in all the sections of the slope but the very first leg. None seemed surprised then when he crossed the finish line with 60 hundreds of advantage to Franz who finished 2nd even by the end of the race. 3rd place for Kroell, who had to share the podium with a surprisingly relieved Marco Sullivan, who had a bib above 40!
Another surprise came for the 4th placed guy, as German Tobias Stechert went against the odds for his best placement ever in World Cup.

Another slope, the same outstanding Maze

Almost a month ago Tina Maze won the opening race of the season to size the first win in world cup after more than a year, but she didn't want to wait for so long again to grab another success and after a very positive slalom in Levi, she came to Aspen, here in the USA to consolidate her lead on the overall ranking, mostly in her beloved GS.
Differently from what happened in Soelden Tina Maze was still leading after the first run, but she had a very dangerous opponent really close to her as Austrian Fenninger was just 6 hundreds away from the lead. All the other girls, though, were pretty far from those two since Zettel, 3rd after the first leg, was over a second away.
Italian silver medallist in the latest ski World Championships, Federica Brignone, looked very in troubles as she was the only one of the top group not to make it to the second run, whilst Lindsey Vonn, despite her misterious illness, not only showed at the start, but could somehow stay close to top 10 after the first run.
Levi slalom's winner Maria Riesch, on the other hand, looked still far from the best days in that discipline and couldn't finish the run, giving the Slovene Maze a good shot to widen her lead on her.

The second run started with a poor run by Norwegian Hope Lotte Sejersted, but that was immediatly made up by a terrific run by French skier Taina Barioz who led the race for a very long time after as she finished as much as 7th at the end!

Another great recovery built on a solid second run has been made by the local rising star Mikaela Shiffrin, who scored her only 2nd top 30 finish in Giant Slalom, but could actually finish among the very best girls as she eventually finished 9th. The one who occupied the same placement after the first run, Lara Gut, was surely hungry for a come back to the places on top, where she belonged not many seasons ago. The Swiss showed as usual a great fighting spirit, but this time she hit a great run, very solid technically and almost errorless that gave her the lead when she finished it and most of all let her stay there for many more runs after as she finished 4th at the end.
Viktoria Rebensburg, last years' best Giant Slalom racer, wanted of course to recover from the 2nd run exit of Soelden and so she attacked the slope with no fear and it paid off as she could snatch the lead from Lara Gut and eventually made it again to the podium.
Sadly for the Italian Team, first run's surprise Irene Curtoni, 4th at the start, wasted a very convincing run with a huge mistake after the last intermediate when she was ahead of the German for more than half a second. Irene could still finish 5th, second best result in her carreer.
Austrian Kathrin Zettel broke Rebensurg hopes for a greater comeback, when she bettered her time at the finish line taking the lead and a secure place on the podium. All the pressure was then on the last two girls to come down Aspen's course and that seemed to take its toll on Anna Fenninger, whose race ended before-time, after very few gates because of a fall.
Tina Maze was then to start with over a second to administare during her second run and once again, like in Soelden, she did that very well, showing a great securety in her weapons and displaying her great techinque which let her gaining even more advantage in the first few legs and finishing with 90 hundreds over Zettel.

Riesch and Myhrer take the first slaloms of the season

After the season opening in the Austrian glacier of Soelden, it was time for the slalom specialists to start their season and so it was high time for them Levi to come. Up in the very north of Finland the "black Levi" was ready and majestically prepared for the WC and maybe the good lightening, the great public and the very nice ammount of snow in the lovely town, but the atmosphere was the best on for these very first slaloms.
On saturday it was women's turn and the very question was about who could have bothered Marlies Schild after the amazing season she once again scored last year in the short gates of slalom. The austrian star had bib number one and so immediatly everyone was ready for another great display of technic, but this time surprisingly her race was much shorter than her opponents' just because she had gone out beforetime.
Immediatly the chance of a win seemed very much possible for a lot of girl up at the start and so every one of them fought hard against the very difficult setting of the first run, in order to make the best out of herself.
Austrian disappointment for Schild's turnoff was soon increased by a very poor performance of Michi Kirchgasser and then another exit from Zettel.

Out of that few exits, not many surprises signed the first run as local champion Tania Poutiainen was leading the race with a little gap over Maria Riesch -who looked far better than a couple weeks ago in GS- and American Mikaela Shiffrin.
In the second run a couple of great runs were shown by the girls who clearly were disappointed after their first run. That was the case with Canadian Gagnon, rising from 18th to 10th place and Zuzulova, who as usual displayed an amazing feeling with flat parts scoring a terrific time that almost looked unbeatable, until Tina Maze came down and took the leadership. The two led the race for a very long while, so that only the virtual podium was yet to go down, but then all three of them could stay ahead of the come-backers and the Slovakian ended 5th and the Slovenian 4th.
American young talent Shiffrin looked very strong-minded and could confirm her 1st run placement with a very brave 2nd run, snatchig the 2nd podium of her carreer being only 17!

Maria Riesch had a lot of experience on her side and a little advantage from the first run, but that alone wasn't enough to take the lead and try to grab another WC victory, she had to ski errorless and so it was, she ended her run with a very solid run that secured her the lead, but would that be enough against local favourite Poutiainen?
Tania started the 2nd leg with a terrific upper part adding precious hundreds to her leading, but as the steep started she lost a little determination and a couple of mistakes cost her the lead, but with experience she still could end 2nd.
THe real winner of today's race is Sarka Zahrobska though, who suffered a brain surgery this summer, but still she was able to compete and quite well considered all she's been through, bravo Sarka!

The day after it was about men to face eachother on the Finnish slope, but even if the first 4 position after the first run didn't change by the end, the race was even more spectacular than the women's one.

A lot of uncertainty was in the air throughout the race and it was not only about the fog, but all the racer showed a very great form already and the gap needed to quality for the 2nd run was so small that everyone almost had a shot for a good result before the 2nd run to start.
Surely aware of that it was Austrian Reinfried Herbst, who got in last-minute thanks to his team-mate Matt disqualification. Herbst took advantage of the perfect conditions and risked it all by attacking from the very first gates till the end and his run made him climb more than 20 places in the ranking as he finished 6th.

Italian Giuliano Razzoli took advantage of the low number in the 2nd run and could rise from 29th to 13th place, whilst Norvegian young hope Kristoffersen - year of birth 1994- rose from 24th to 11th.
It was just when the top 10 was to start that Herbst leading was broken though and it needed a terrific run by Italian Patrick Thaler to do so, but the two kept rising the ranking together for quite a few runs more.
The top 5 racers of the first run were the only left and the two above were still on the lead, Russian Sensation Aleksander Khoroshilov looked a little too cautious after the amazing first run (5th starting with bub 45) and sadly for him this attitude didn't pay off as he eventually finished only 18th. Italian Moelgg, 4th after the 1st leg, had a completely different attitude and attacked with no fears and could overtake his team mate in the leadership, but it didn't last longer as Swedish Byggmark skied an old-fashioned runs of his and despite a couple of big mistakes he still could secure himself of the podium.

Austrian Marcel Hirscher looked unbeatable when he ended the second run's course, as he showed some incredible agility down the steepest part of the slope, but 1st run leader and last year's Slalom cup winner Andre Myhrer had other weapons on his side and by painting amazing lines in the top flat and pushing hard like only he can do in the bottom, he still could overtake on the Austrian and took the Levi's slalom.

Petrova wins Sofia, but Caro knocks back into the top 10

Sofia, Bulgarian capital city, was this year's venue of the WTA Tour of Champions, the so called Master B, alias the event that definitely puts an end to the season of women tennis, since it's placed right after the WTA Championships and the same week as the Fed Cup.
The discussed format of round-robin, the two WCs, the generally low interest from players contributed to the poor success of this rather new tournament, that this year just moved to Bulgaria, after a few years in Bali. The very fast surface seemed also to prevent from a great display of tennis for fans of big fights and long rallies, since players were forced to shorten those trying to go more and earlier for winners.
To give a short sums-up of the Round Robin matches, in the first group, where Caroline Wozniacki was the 1st seed, everything went as expected, since the Dane won all her matches and second finished Italian Roberta Vinci, whose only loss was indeed suffered by Wozniacki. Despite her lead, Caroline didn't look as well as she did in Moscow and looked as if she didn't really enjoy the surface, which clearly didn't suit her defensive game. The former world number 1 didn't have problems beating Hsieh and Vinci, but struggled a lot more with the aggressive game of Hantuchova, who eventually lost all her matches, even though she was the only one troubling Wozniacki in the group.
In the second group things got a little messier. Kirilenko, 3rd seed, after her second match decided to pull out of the tournament letting Sofia Arvidsson in. Her withdrawal could make it possible for local WC Pirokova to advance to the second round even if she had won only one match, against Zheng in the opening day. The winner of the group has been seed number two Petrova, who was one of the main favourites for the final win, as her big game was thought to be done for the super fast Hard Court of Sofia. Unexpectedly her way to the semifinals wasn't easy at all and she needed two three-sets' matches to come through the round robin unbeaten.

In the semifinals Italian Roberta Vinci tried her best to win against Petrova and it needed a very solid performance of the Russian to avoid the defeat. Petrova found herself down of a set even if she didn't face a single break Point in the whole first set, as Vinci had been solid too and could use her variety better in the tie-break to take the lead.
Nadia didn't let this set her down and kept calm and winner by winner she built her way to the final with the score of 6-7 (8) 6-1 6-4.
In the other semifinal Danish Caroline Wozniacki faced the local favourite Tsvetlana Pironkova in what eventually would be a very easy match for the former world number 1.
Caroline didn't face a single Break Point the whole match, even if she didn't show her best tennis, but Pironkova seemed to lack a weapon to hurt Wozniacki and so she had to surrender the very moment in which Caroline changed her speed: on 4-4 the Danish indeed started to be slightly more aggressive on return and made a 7 games in a row streak before closing 6-4 6-1.
With the final Wozniacki was sure to be jumping ahead of Marion Bartoli and finish the year in the top 10, finally signing a small climb in her shocking downfall in the ranking.
Maybe a little satisfied, maybe a little tired, Caroline seemed to never show up in the final, whereas Petrova looked very focused and even more solid than the whole week passed.
The Danish serve looked pretty off and Petrova didn't let this chance slip from her hands, being very aggressive on the return, breaking early in the first game and never letting Wozniacki coming back, clearing the few break points with very heavy shots. In a blink of a eye the Russian took the first set for 6-2.

Picture from wta.com

In the opening game of the second set Wozniacki started with a 40-0 lead on her serve, but was eventually broken and from that moment on she seemed to give up to Petrova's hard hitting. 6-2 6-1 the final score.