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.

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.

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.

aMAZEing Tina wins Soelden opening GS

A lot of interest was concerning this year's opening race of Soelden (Austria). As usual there was a lot of talk ongoing, mostly regarding who could confirm last year's form and who wouldn't, who could make it close to the bigger names and if there would be some newcomers.
Not only, two great questionmarks were finding place in all those rumors: the first one, pretty common here in Soelden, concerning the weather as the forcasts for the weekend were the ones of January, not of October and up to the glacier that could mean a lot of troubles; secondly, and probably the hottest topic of the year, dealing with the change of materials, with longer skis and their radius.

Surprisingly the first run was graced and all the girls (a part from the unlucky ones from 18 to 22)  could race under a covered sky, but no trubles given by snow or fog.
Bib number 1 was Austrian's evergreen Lizzy Goergl, that made quite a few mistakes in the early gates and seemed to never find a good way to deal with the long turns and maybe even with the new skis.
Two year's defending champion in GS Viktoria Rebensburg skied a very solid run, but differently from what happened in the past two season she didn't look unbeatable and soon we had a confirmation of that as after a pretty bad run of last year's winners here and overall champion Vonn, Tina Maze showed that with a bit more of corague and determination, those longer skis can still perform as well as the old ones.
Maze looked very impressive mostly on the steep gates of the middle part of the Rettenbach glacier ending the run with over a second of lead on Rebensburg and eventually only one skier could do any better of the German and it was Tessa Worley, who seemed to well adapt her tecnique to the new skis and finished the run "only" 0.76 seconds behind the Slovenian.
None ever again got any closer to the terrific time from Maze so that the last to qualify for the 2nd run was over 4 and half second trailing.

The second run had to be postponed several times because by the end of the first run a very heavy fog started go down the slope, but finally Frida Hansdotter from Sweden could make it begin with more than one hour of delay.
She could ski a very solid run, which eventually will give her a quite good uprise in the final ranking, but the girl that went down right after did something even greater. Susanne Weinbuchner, 21 year old German, didn't get any fear from that first experience in a world cup 2nd run, but on the contrary looked very enthusiastic and could take advantage of the low bib and made a terrific run, that hardly anyone going down right after her could challenge - only Nadia Fanchini, from Italy, seemed to be close on beating her time, but she eventually went out at the end of steep - and so she made a great improvement in her placement finishing the race with a raise of 17 places finishing 12th!
The weather looked like getting worse, so the girl started their run with little breaks one between the other and the rythm of that second run became even more fast and rich of emotions.
Lindell-Vikarby first and Curtoni Irene first could overtake the German in the leading, but then it was Vonn's turn and everyone was expecting her to make a great comeback in the second run; unfortunately in the early gates Lindsay crashed into a gate and was forced to retire looking highly on pain on her arm.

Then it was Koehle's turn and the Austrian made exactly what the public expected from Vonn: she started with fire in her eyes and took every risk she could painting incredible lines down the steep turns of the Rettenbach ending with the best partial time so far.
Gagnon and Gisin seemed to be unable to better Stefanie's run, but both could finish close enough to climb the ranking with her. Sadly for Italians fans Brignone couldn't really cope with the second run and went out, whilst Denise Karbon looked a little worse than in the 1st run finishing far from the podium.
An even greater disappoinment arrived to the German fanbase as Riesch skied in a very horrid fashion, never really doing anything down there and quite often going in over-rotation with the upper body and losing the outer ski.
When Zettel was about to start the fog and snowfall clearly seemed to be too heavy to let anyone making a better time than Koehle's, but so it wasn't. Kathrin risked everything and in the first gates she almost fell as much she was going down inwards to close the turns faster. She hit then an amazing time, better than the team mate and so it was all on the top 3's shoulders.
Rebensburg fell immediatly in the trapts of the upper part and after a couple of gates she was already out, same for Tessa Worley, who unluckily entered the gate with the inner ski and so had to stop.
Tina Maze was sure of a great advantage she secured after the first run, but clearly she knew that she couldn't deal on that only after the amazing run of Zettel.
So she started a little more coutious than in the first run, but still solid and aggressive enough to stop Zettel's attack to her leadership, with a magistral display of mental strenght she closed in the first position, finding a win again after more of a year.
Final result: Maze, Zettel, Koehle. For Stefanie it was the first podium in her carreer.