Simply too Gut!

Lara Gut wins the first race of the season in Soelden and conquers her first world cup win in Giant Slalom.

The Swiss was already in the lead of the race after the first run with a margin of over Eight tenths of a second on Viktoria Rebensburg and Anna Fenninger.

The biggest surprise of the day came from Tina Maze, though. The Slovene, winner of last year’s overall and Giant Slalom globes, was surely one of the favourites for the win today. Nonetheless she looked quite slow and her preparation may have changed from last year, when she was unstoppable in the early races.  She seemed to be in far from her best form and finished sixth after the first run, before plummeting down to 18th position at the end of the race.

In the second run the rise in the temperature caused a big change in snow conditions and the course deteriorated constantly. That situation helped the comeback of athletes like Nadia Fanchini, second at the start in the final run, who scored the best partial time finishing 14th.

Right before the disastrous second run of Maze, another Tina, Weirather, scored an amazing run to secure a place into the top ten. Liechtensteiner Weirather qualified for the second run despite her high bib -37- and in the second run she tamed the bumps and waves on the course like no one else could within the top ten.

Her run let her gain two more positions and she scored her career best result in the discipline, a great accomplishment after the long series of injuries she has suffered in recent years.

The fight for the podium was a contest of four skiers, with Kathrine Zettel the only one close to the best three girls of the first run.

The Austrian skied a terrific second leg, painting great lines down the steep middle section of the Rettenbach glacier. Neither compatriot Fenniger, nor German Rebensburg could finish ahead of her.

In contrast to this, Lara Gut went down with the sole idea of winning and her performance did not fail her expectations. Despite a couple of mistakes in the middle section, the Swiss never stopped trying to accelerate after every turn and in the end this paid off with a terrific win. Her first in Giant Slalom.

As usual, women’s skiing goes break and will come back in three weeks time with the Arctic race of Levi’s slalom, Finland.

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.

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.

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.