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.

Ruiz-Castillo grabs first career victory, Innerhofer wins again in Garmisch

It's never easy to compete at the best of your mental attitude just one week from the ending of the most important even of the season, but that's ski WC and girls and guys had to be ready for their "routine" to start again as after the medals of the World Championships, it was time to battle for the crystal globes once again.

Sun shines for Carolina in Meribel

A very beautiful day, sunny and very cold temperature were the perfect scenario for the comeback of World Cup to the snows of Meribel after 9 years of absence. The slope was very well prepared and the course funny despite being not very challenging.
The early numbers didn't seem to be able to challenge the big names who were to come and so it was until French specialist of speed Marie Marchand-Arvier finished her run with an impressive time and an enormous lead over all the other girls at the moment (she was bib 9). If in the top part where gliding was the main tool to exploit the gaps where always very small, no-one seemed to be able to challenge the time of the French girl from the middle section to the very end, where a perfectly done last turn gave her a terrific speed to finish the race.
All the athletes were losing little by little enough to make their time worse than Marie's and even the first girls in the top group weren't able to challenge her.

It seemed that the first win in world cup for Marchand-Arvier was set to happen, but Maria Riesch had other ideas in her mind: she started pretty slow and among the girls in the top group she got the worst time in the early sections, but with very smooth moves she painted great lines in the middle steep part and made up all her gap and took a solid lead over Marie and in the end crossed the line just one hundred ahead of her.
Best time in the first training Tina Maze as usual suffered the gliding section on top, but bettered the turns of Riesch to try recovering her disadvantage but in the end it wasn't enough as those 8 hundreds relegated her to the temporary 3rd place.
Once again race seemed to be over with the girls after the first group being unable to come close to the times of the podium, but bib n°28, Spanish veteran Carolina Ruiz-Castillo immediately made the crowd well-aware that it wasn't over, not yet: in the first two sections she was the fastest and her lead was impressive, fast and accurate Caroline drew great lines in the turns of the middle section and launched the final section with a great speed which was worth of the best time.

For the Spanish it was the first victory in World Cup, the second podium after the 2nd place in GS in Sestriere 13 years ago. Carolina's win doesn't come as a surprise though as she was very close to the podium few weeks ago in Cortina (4th) and had scored great times in the training. Her joy at the finish area was a great moment for all the fans of skiing as they (and also many other girls of the tour) know the amazing person she is and how much deserved this victory was.
Quite immediately after another girl who had made her name big in the trainings got an impressive result as Regina Sterz finished 5th equalling her best result in World Cup.

Another Italian Victory in speed races

If we do not consider the world championships, this is the 4th downhill of the year where an Italian is jumping on the highest step of the podium after the win of Innerhofer in Beaver Creek and the back to back wins of Paris in Wengen and Kitz, Christof won the historical downhill of Garmisch P.K. even though this year, due to the big snowfall, it was held on a shorter track.
Slovenian "specialist" of the so called classic downhills, Slovenian Andrej Sporn, with bib number 2 scored a terrific time, by exploiting his gliding attitude in the very long flat section that followed the start. The Slovenian wasn't very lucky as the course was still "dirty" from some fresh snow, hence not as fast as it later would have been and most of all later a pale sun improved the visibility on the course. Nonetheless his time seemed unbreakable for a very long while and not even Downhill leader Dominik Paris could as he finished just a bunch of hundreds behind him (the two would finish 7th and 8th by the end).

First one to stop the Slovenian leadership was Austrian Hannes Reichelt, whose awesome first part was confirmed by a very solid choice of lines in the middle section and all that was worth of the temporary leadership. It didn't last long though, because immediately afterwards it was Innerhofer's moment and the Italian's love for the slope (where he won 3 medals at the world championships just 2 years ago) was enough of a good reason to believe he would have done well and so it was.
Despite a couple of mistakes that seemed they could ruin his time, Christof was amazing in the late section where he made almost all the advantage he had at the end over Reichelt.
The better visibility didn't prevent Svindal to fall in the traps of the waves of the middle section and those mistakes would cost him the podium as he finished 5th in end, right behind Reichelt. In any case, thanks to this placement he could overtake Paris in the leadership of the discipline.
Two Austrians completed the podium behind Innerhofer as Klaus Kroell made a very similar race to the one of the Italian but in the end a bunch of hundreds set him behind him and later (with bib 30)  Georg Streitberger scored his first podium in WC in downhill, after the 4 he scored in superg.
Very good surprises came from outside the top 30 as German youngester Josef Ferstl made his first top 10 result (9th) with bib 39, just ahead of Johannes Kroell (bib 35), while French guy Muzaton finished 13th with bib 50!

Superg gives first medals in Schladming

It's the most important event of this season, it's the event of every uneven year, it's the chance to win a medal to write your name in the history of this sport, it's a single race, all or nothing, it's the world championships.
This year's edition is taking place in the heart of Austria, in Schladming, but from the very beginning it seems to be destined to be one of the most discussed.

Maze wins through the fog, Lindsey crashes.

This seems to be Maze's season, she's the most impressive skier out there, being on top of every discipline in the world cup standings, having won more races than every one else in 4 out of 5 disciplines since October, but at the World Championships is never easy to win, mostly if you come as a heavy favourite.

Despite her leadership in the SuperG standing, the favourite for the win was surely American Lindsey Vonn, winner of several crystal globes in that discipline, world champion in Val D'Isere four years ago and 20 times winner in WC. The rivalry between the two was set  to be one of the most interesting sides of this year's edition of the WCH and with the superg as the first race taking place in the very first day, things seemed to get interesting from the start.
At 11:30, time at which the race was supposed to start, a very thick fog was stuck in the middle of the curse and a light rain was dropping on the finish area. The jury hoped for a sudden improvement of the conditions and start to delay the start of 15 minutes. That happened many many times as much as most of the girls and commentators were pretty sure it was a matter of time the race was cancelled. That didn't happen at the very moment it was slightly clearer the race started. It was 3pm.

As it was evident after the first runs, the slope was as easy as it was expected to be, but the course set to make hard to interpret the waves and bumps of the slope, mostly with the bad light caused by the cloudy sky and the wintry afternoon light.
Bib number 4, Slovenian Ilka Stuhec, didn't seem to be scared of the conditions and exploited the big talent of hers to score a very interesting time, which eventually let her achieve her best ever placement in the discipline in a world cup level race. The Slovenian, who was one of the most interesting youngsters only a few years ago, suffered many injuries in her young career and you could see the joy of hers while one after the other important name in the lists of Superg finished even far behind her in the standing.
The first one to better her time was Swiss superstar Lara Gut, whose talent in Superg doesn't come as new to anyone following skiing even seldom. Swiss's race was almost errorless and her great ability to create speed even in the tightest turns let her score amazing partials whenever the course was more technical.
The Swiss led the race until the beginning of the top group and neither Rebensburg nor Suter could finish close to her, even though her team-mate Fabienne finished just ahead of Stuhec in the temporary 2nd place.

Then it was Tina Maze's time. The world cup leader started like a fury, pushing hard from the very moment she opened the starting gate, combining her power with a smooth technique. Her intermediates were all very close to Gut's, but a perfect final section gave her the necessary speed to gain as much as 38 hundreds to finish ahead of the Swiss.
Her scream for joy was suddenly silenced by another scream, coming from several gates above. It was Vonn's voice, her tears, her pain. Lindsey had just badly crashed landing from a jump and the helicopter immediately came to rescue her. Later news announced the rupture of some of her knee ligaments and the fracture of the top of the shinbone.
After the long break it took to take the American to safety the atmosphere at the start of the race was tense and one after the other Maria Riesch and Anna Fenninger committed two bad mistakes probably due to the tension, which set both of them out for the race.

Race was far from finished though, as Julia Mancuso found the strength to give her best despite the injury of her compatriot and the news of the death of her grandad. She skied some of the best sections mostly in the middle part of the race, but it wasn't enough to trouble Maze's leadership. Still, her run was worth a 3rd place, which would be hers even by the end of the race, despite two thrilling assaults brought by two Italians.
First it was caused by Daniela Merigetti, whose awesome final part made her gain quite a lot of positions, but couldn't make her finish higher than her 7th place. But mostly the 2nd was sure to scare the American, as Italian Sofia Goggia, at her very first race above European Cup level, decided she had nothing to lose and skied out of her mind being very close to cause some major upsets. By the end she was 4th, only 5 hundreds behind Mancuso, but as she herself said, this was not a loss, but an amazing result, even if it was not worth a medal.
The race was very soon interrupted due to darkness once the legal number of racers to make the result valid was reached.

Ligety surprises the specialists and wins the gold

Men superg didn't suffer of the painful delay that the women one had, but the condition of weather and snow weren't good neither. A cloudy sky made it again difficult to see and face the many waves of the slope, whilst the humidity had the snow gone soft hence difficult to cope with.
Immediately in the early runs two French skiers showed very convincing runs, first Alexis Pinturault, whose time would eventually set him at the 6th place, but most of all De Tessieres, who came to Schladming as a make up choice, the reserve, whose start happened only due to the injury of Clarey.

Gauthier, whose only podium in World Cup came in Giant Slalom a few seasons ago, knew he had nothing to lose and starting with the early number of 4, he exploited his qualities of GS specialist and the good conditions of the snow, before it worsened passage after passage. The French man had the very best section in the upper part, but his fluid movements made him keep a very interesting pace up to the end.

No-one of the following athletes could get a time close enough to worry the leadership of the two French guys, until American Ted Ligety started. GS world cup leader, despite having showed great improvements in superg throughout the season, had never won a race in that discipline, not even out of World Cup, but that didn't bother him as he knew the setting and the slope could suit his talent and skills. And so it was. Flawless he made an impressive central section and most of all painted lines in the latest steep that no-one else could copy, not even close.
His lead over De Tessieres wasn't that big though and one could believe the specialists of the superg who were soon to go down could better his time, but it just didn't happen. Aided by the fact that the soft snow made it more difficult for the top group to tame their skis and hence the snow, every one of the favourites for the title failed to catch on Ligety and De Tessieres, who both kept their first and second place until the very end.
Austrian hopes for the first medal in this home-world championships grew in the public when first Matthias Mayer and later Hannes Reichelt snatched a temporary placement on the lowest place of the podium, but in the end they were to be undecieved by Aksel Lund Svindal, the greatest favourite for the win, who had to content himself with a bronze medal, whilst the now-former world champion Christof Innerhofer seemed never racing for a medal and placed only 7th.

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.

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.