Germanys Riesch wins opening Bombadrdier Lake Louise Winterstart Ladies Downhill
Riesch beats Vonn to win first speed race of 2010/2011 World Cup season
LAKE LOUISE, AB Maria Riesch of Germany earned her first victory in Lake Louise since 2006, winning today's opening Bombardier presents Lake Louise Winterstart World Cup ladies downhill.
Riesch narrowly beat rival and friend Lindsey Vonn in '06 and repeated the feat today, finishing in a winning time of 1:28.96. That was just over a tenth of a second faster than Vonn, who has won the Lake Louise DH seven times in her career. Austria's Elisabeth Goergl was third.
Riesch and Vonn both described the piste at Lake Louise as a favourite downhill course during training earlier in the week.
"I think winning is always exciting," said Riesch. "I don't have as many World Cup wins as Lindsey has. This is my 15th today, and every one is always special. I am really proud that I won this downhill today."
"Somebody said (Vonn) has seven downhill wins here, which is really unbelievable. I think in at least half of them her advantage was more than a second, so it is a big challenge to beat her in Lake Louise," added Riesch. "There are also other downhills where she is hard to beat. Beating Lindsey in downhill, no matter where, is really special."
Britt Janyk (Whistler, BC) finished 39th in 1:31.95.
"It's the same as the training runs. My runs have been pretty solid, the speed just isn't there. I can feel it in the flats. On this course it is so important to maintain your speed on the top flats," said Janyk. "I just need to go back, look at the video and move forward to tomorrow. It's obviously not the result that I am looking for."
"We will look at everything," she said.
As for the other Canadians, Georgia Simmerling (Vancouver, BC) was 45th, Victoria Stevens (Mont-Tremblant, QC) 46th and Kelly McBroom (Canmore, AB) 51st. Stefanie Irwin (Calgary, AB) missed a gate near the end of her run and did not finish.
