Vonn squeaks out the hometown girl in Maribor

Tina Maze might be running away with the Overall title this season, but Lindsey Vonn stole the day and collected her third career GS victory at the Slovenian’s home race in Maribor Saturday.

Maze, who started the season with a four-race GS win streak but hasn’t won the event since, had finished the first run in the lead with a 0.48 second advantage over the American who third behind Kathrin Zettel.

You’d think it would have been enough to hang on — the hometown fans certainly did — but Vonn crushed the top part of the second run, and Maze’s half-second lead evaporated to a 0.13 deficit by the first split. Maze made a couple mistakes that surely set her back. She skied uncharacteristically impatient, pumping her arms, as if she wanted to win a little too much.

But the contest wasn’t over. In the course’s lower half, Maze was able to gain a little bit of time back, reducing Vonn’s lead to 0.07 at the final intermediate. And that’s pretty much where the race would end up: Vonn fastest by 0.08 seconds.

Vonn, wearing bib No. 14, had the fastest second run on the long, demanding course set by the Americans. She allowed herself to take risks up top, got twisted up and was nearly thrown out of the course at one point. But an amazing, Vonn-esque recovery kept her in the hunt as she charged toward the finish.

“I skied well the first run, but I didn’t ski the bottom very well,” said Vonn. “Second run, I decided, OK, it’s all or nothing. I have to go for it. I definitely made some mistakes. But, damn, a first win in GS since last year. It’s been a rough year in GS for me. This is perfect. … [When I made that mistake in the second run], I thought I wasn’t going to finish. I was like, ‘No, not again!’ Two or three years ago, I was in second place and I crashed three gates from the finish, so I didn’t want to have that happen again.”

For Vonn, it’s World Cup win No. 59, three behind the all-time record of Annemarie Moser Proell. It was her first GS win since March of last season, when she clinched the Overall title in Are, Sweden.

Anna Fenninger made a couple small mistakes on the top part of the second run, but was light on her edges and relatively flawless from that point on. She was able to put together two quick times to round out the podium in third.

Maria Hoefl-Riesch, who hasn’t been on the podium since November, nearly cracked back onto it, skiing a clean second run to finish fourth. Meanwhile, after ripping the second fastest first run of the day, Kathrin Zettel was kicked back to sixth after a sluggish second effort. 

Julia Mancuso, who is recently working with a new technician, found some good turns in the middle part of the second run after a slower start. From one run to another, Mancuso improved from 16th to 8th position.

Meanwhile, her junior teammate Mikaela Shiffrin raced to 10th position in the morning and seemed poised possibly have one of her best GS results, but she didn’t quite ski aggressive enough in the afternoon, slipping back to 13th on the day.

Story by Geoff Mintz
Photos by GEPA

The SCOOP
by Hank McKee

Women’s World Cup Giant Slalom, Maribor, Slovenia, Jan 26, 2013
Equipment
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Vonn, Head/Head/Head
2 Maze, Stoeckli/Lange/Atomic
3 Fenninger, Head/Head/Head
4 Hoefl-Riesch, Head/Lange/Head
5 Lindell-Vikarby, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
6 Zettel, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
7 Marmottan, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
8 Mancuso, Head/Head/Head
9 Worley, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
10 Karbon, Fischer/Fischer/Fischer

Women’s World Cup Giant Slalom, Maribor, Slovenia, Jan 26, 2013. … It is the 47th race of the 2012-13 World Cups season. … The 25th on the women’s schedule (24th held) and the seventh of nine scheduled giant slaloms. … It is the 62nd World Cup held at least in part at Maribor., the 26th GS.

It is the 59th career World Cup victory for Lindsey Vonn. … She is three shy of the all-time women’s record of 62 set by Annmarie Moser-Proell. … It is just her third GS win, all of them coming since Oct. 22, 2011. … It is her sixth win of the season. … It is the 256th US Cup win and the 15th of the season.

It is the 54th career Cup podium finish for Tina Maze. … her 23rd in GS. … It is her fifth Cup podium scored at Maribor. … It is her 16th Cup podium of the season. … Her seventh in seven GS’s.

It is the 15th career Cup podium for Anna Fenninger. … her fifth in GS. … It is her sixth podium of the season and third in GS.

It is the 121st career Cup top 10 for Julia Mancuso. … the 18th time she has finished eighth in a World Cup race. … It is her second best of seven career scores at Maribor. … and her eighth best placing of the season. … It is the fourth best of five career World Cup GS scores for Mikaela Shiffrin. … her tenth score of the season and first outside of the top 10. … Marie-Michele Gagnon matches her 27th best career finish. … It is her best career finish at Maribor and her eighth best of 12 finishes this season. … It is the ninth best of 11 Cup scoring results for Marie-Pier Prefontaine. … her fourth score of the season, all in GS.

Tina Maze leads the World Cup Overall standings 1554-806 over Maria Hoefl-Riesch (fourth in race). … Vonn is third overall with 740pts. … Mancuso is seventh with 553pts and Shiffrin eighth with 546pts. … Gagnon leads Canada in 20th with 240pts. … Maze leads the GS standings 620-382 over Kathrin Zettel (sixth in race). … Fenninger is third with 335. … Mancuso is top US skier in 14th with 122pts and Gagnon top Canadian in 19th with 103pts. … Austria leads the women’s Nations Cup 3279 over the US. … Germany is third with 1893. … Canada is ninth with 552pts.

Results
Maribor (SLO)
FIS World Cup
Ladies’ Giant Slalom
Jan. 26, 2013