Are, Sweden – America’s Lindsey Vonn and Maria Riesch of Germany returned to the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup battle ground Friday following the World Championships break, with Riesch tacking 60 more points onto her overall lead with a super combined victory in Are. World Championships gold medal darlings Tina Maze of Slovenia and Elisabeth Goergl of Austria finished 2-3.nVonn, who won the opening run of super G, fell to sixth after the slalom with Julia Mancuso, of Squaw Valley, Calif., eighth. Following Friday’s race Riesch leads Vonn in the overall by 216 points and the super combined standings by five points with just four weeks and only one super combined race remaining in the World Cup season.
“It’s going to be a battle for the overall title until the last race of season,” confirmed Vonn. “I’ve still got a lot of fighting to do.”
“It’s been an ongoing battle throughout the whole season,” added Alex Hoedlmoser, U.S. Ski Team women’s Head Coach. “Maria is skiing really well in all disciplines and has a lot of confidence. She’s definitely a challenge and it’s going to be tough to be beat her because she’s very consistent this year. Lindsey has to chase her now. But there still are a lot of points out there to grab. It’s over when it’s over.”
Vonn, of Vail, Colo., showed speed by winning the opening super G, but faltered in the slalom. “The super G was solid, aggressive and just like I know I can ski. I was driving my skis the whole way down and definitely feeling back to my normal self,” she said, referring to her recovery from a concussion sustained in training last month. “My super G was really encouraging, but I’m pretty frustrated with my slalom. I’ve been training really well in slalom, but haven’t been able to put it together in a race. I had a hard time with the groove and lost my balance on a rut about 10 gates in and never really got my rhythm back.”
Hoedlmoser was pleased with the U.S. women’s team’s performance overall. “Lindsey [Vonn] was right in there and Julia [Mancuso] knows how to ski that stuff. Cookie [Cook] is doing a really good job in downhill which is good to see,” he summarized. “Leanne [Smith] missed a gate but just looking at the splits she was right in there, so was Laurenne [Ross]. Pretty much all the girls are in the hunt.”
Marie-Michèle Gagnon, of Lac-Etchemin, Quebec, finished 19th for the best Canadian result on Friday.
“I was pretty disappointed after my super G run. I need to change my approach in speed events, said Gagnon, 22. “When I race technical events I want to win and go as fast as I can, but I don’t think the same way yet when I race speed. I need to start thinking like that and need to cut time off of my runs.”
Whistler, British Columbia’s Britt Janyk only took part in the super G portion of the race in order to get some training in. She completed the run ranked 33rd.
OFFICIAL RESULTS
2011 Audi FIS Alpine World Cup
Are, Sweden – Feb. 25, 2011
Super Combined
1. Maria Riesch, Germany, 1:59.60
2. Tina Maze, Slovenia, 2:00.00
3. Elisabeth Goergl, Austria, 2:00.26