ARBER-ZWIESEL, Germany (Feb. 6 - Ski Racing Magazine News Service) -After being put off by fog and wind, a women’s World Cup giant slalom was finally held today (Feb. 6) in Arber-Zwiesel, Germany as Gemany’s own Viktoria Rebensburg took the victory.
Rebensburg secured her second World Cup win of the season (her fist came at the season opening race in Soelden) with a half second advantage over Italian Federica Brignone in second. Austrians Kathrin Zettel and Elizabeth Goergl finished third and fourth, respectively.
Rebensburg held a 0.74-second lead after the first run and only gave up small portion of her advantage as Brignone charged to the fastest second-run time.
Canadian Marie-PierPrefontaine led all North Americans in ninth place for her first career top-10 World Cup finish. Lindsey Vonn headed up the U.S. Ski Team in 18th ahead of Julia Mancuso in 21st and Sarah Schleper in 25th.
Adverse weather threw this weekend’s schedule several curve balls. After winds and fog forced organizers to swap this weekend’s schedule, running the slalom on Friday instead of the originally scheduled GS, weather worsened on Saturday and the race was postponed till today. The stubborn fog held on through this morning’s first start time (9:15 CET), and officials pushed the start time three hours later when the sun finally broke up the haze.
"They were so desperate to get this GS completed we had to wait it out. But it always comes at an expense, especially for Lindsey and Julia who need to go straight into the super G and downhill training runs and then into the tech races,” said U.S. head coach Alex Hoedlmoser, of the packed schedule leading up to next week’s World championships. “It's going to be a lot of days in a row and is far from ideal preparations for the World Championships"
World Cup overall leader Maria Riesch of Germany landed 11th today and currently holds a 1256-1100 lead on Vonn in the overall standings.
Hoeldmoser was encouraged by his team's effort today. "Lindsey skied awesome in the steeps today, it was fantastic actually. Then she started to back off a bit on that last break over, but her GS is still very strong. She just needs to keep the intensity all the way to the finish," said Hoeldmoser. "Sarah definitely has it. She makes some sweet turns and then makes mistakes and it just kills her, especially on a tough course like we had today."
Winner of the last three consecutive World cup GS races, France’s Tessa Worley stood second after the first run but slipped to 10th after struggling in the second run. She maintains the overall GS lead with 358 points. Rebensburg stands second with 335 points.
The world’s top racers will now head to Garmisch, Germany to compete in the 2011 FIS World Championships, which begin Tuesday, Feb. 8.
For more details including results visit SkiRacing.com.
