Ligety makes it three in a row in Soelden

American Ted Ligety has won his third consecutive race in Soelden earlier this afternoon, proving once again his dominance in the discipline.
Ligety showed immediately his amazing condition when in the first run he collected a gap over the rest of the field of nine tenth of a second.
Youngsters Pinturault (second) and Hirscher (third) were the immediate followers and then the gap rapidly widened, especially due to the difficult conditions caused by the strong wind and the mild temperatures.
As proof of that it is enough to notice how, for the second run, only two racers in the top 30 did not qualify and one of them can blame a crash for that.
Surely one of the most interesting and surprising runs was given by one man starting out of the elite group: bib 32, Bode Miller.
The American star was starting a World Cup race after more than a year of absence and there was a lot of interest about this comeback.
The excitement of seeing his return immediately raised eyebrows as his known-to-be crazy technique appeared to be as effective as prior his injury. No-one around his starting number had done anything alike, but he attacked the slope and bumps with the usual brave attitude and it paid off as he finished 13th (19th after the second run).
The second run appeared to follow the pattern given by the yesterday’s Women’s race, as the worsening of the snow conditions favoured the comebacks from behind, like Defago who rose from 27th to 14th place as he ended up with the second best time of the second run.
The best time was scored by French Steve Missilier, 13th after the first run, and with this amazing second leg he could challenge the podium as he finished 4th, tied with Norwegian Aksel-Lund Svindal.
The French assault was not big enough to move any of the first-round best three names and nothing changed on top, with Ligety once more showing his class even under pressure.
The podium was then sealed by the same drivers who finished at the top of last year’s Giant Slalom cup, a clear statement that they will be once again the ones to beat.

Maze and Hirscher win 2013 ski world-cup

Maze wins and breaks records but can't take all the Globes

24 podiums, 11 victories, 2 "small globes" and the Overall title with record of points ever scored by a human being in a single season. Yes, Tina Maze just finished the best season ever in the history of ski world cup, but probably a little of a bitter taste stayed as she was very close to win all the crystal globes possible. She unarguably very unlucky with the cancellation of the final downhill where a top 7 finish would have given her the title, no matter the results of the others as she was just 1 point trailing to the injured Lindsey Vonn, who thanks to the horrible weather (and in all honesty the dumbness of FIS rules, which don't let the final races be replaced, not even in the space of the same week) won the crystal globe for the 6th time in a row - that's a record too-.
The same bad weather forced the organizers to cancel the superg too and by the effect of this choice, Tina won the superg globe without the need of defending it from the last assault of the only rival left, Julia Mancuso, who later of twitter expressed all her resentment towards FIS, which decided to hold the team event the really next day, instead of letting girls fight for either the superg or downhill title.
It wasn't then a surprise that USA pulled out of the team event and Maze didn't compete for her country there. In that atmosphere of controversy Germany could run off with the victory ahead of Sweden and Italy.
Saturday was then the day of the slalom, the last unsecure title to be given in the season, Maze was leading the standing thanks to a win in the last race, which made her overcome Mikaela Shiffrin, but the two were just few points away one from the other, hence the one of the two placing ahead of the other would have won the title.

After the first run Maze seemed so sure of the win, as she was leading the race with a margin of over a second, but in the second run the just-become-adult Shiffrin, having nothing to lose skied probably the most impressive run of the year pulverizing whatever attempt to overcome her in the final standing. As usual Tina tried it all, but there was nothing she could have done there and in the end she finished only 3rd, behind a surprising Bernadette Schild.
Tears run down the face of Tina as she crossed the finish line, Lenzerheide, after having given her first win in slalom two years ago, seemed to have become jinxed as in two days she lost everything she could have lost, but all in honesty Shiffrin totally deserved this title and for sure she will see many more coming in the next years, so there's no shame in losing a tight battle with her.

In the last day of this 2013 ski world cup GS was to be hold. Title was already secure to go to Tina, but despite that, you could see how much she wanted to finish this season well, because she attacked from the very first gates of the first run too and she was second only to Tessa Worley when one run was yet to be done.
In the second run a great comeback avoided Lara Gut to snatch her second ever podium in Giant Slalom, but nothing could stop Maze to take her 11th win of the season, she was just flawless and not even an inspired second run by Worley could do much to stop her. Tessa finished second in the end and Tina could finish the season exactly the same way as she started, winning.

Weather kills Svindal's last chances, Marcel wins the Overall again

Heading to the world cup finals Aksel Lund Svindal knew his hopes for the overall title were really few, he was trailing in the run for the title of some 50 points to Hirscher, but he could have had a chance if he had won both the downhill and the superg as everything would have then been on the Austrian's young shoulders, but the Norge didn't even have the chance to try, because as it happened for the Ladies, weather has been harsh during the days of the speed events and forced organizers to call them off.

Svindal won two globes nevertheless, the superg and the downhill ones, yet this wasn't enough to challenge Hircher as the number of slalom and giant slaloms this season was a lot bigger than the one of speed races and in the technical ones Marcel kept an impressive pace, which in the end could give him the overall title, even if he competed only in those two events.
After the team event, it was giant slalom's day and as usual it was an only man show, with Ted Ligety dominating the race in both runs, in the second of which he tamed the attack of Hirscher and Pinturault, who finished 2nd and 3rd, making the final standingof the race, the same of the GS cup!

Last day was the one for slalom, once again everything was already decided for the discipline globe and the overall was already "booked" under Hirscher's name, nonetheless the race was hugely enetertaining and in the end Felix Neureuther could snatch an impressive win over Hirscher and the once again incredible Ivica Kostelic, who's been able to win last week in Kranjska Gora and now to finish on podium despite another severe injury occurred to his knee not long ago.

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.