World Cup Rewind: Riesch and Maze claim Maribor

The women’s race circuit puts technical events in the past for a while, wrapping up with giant slalom and slalom races in Maribor, Slovenia, last weekend, while the tour takes a turn to speed events for the next few weeks.

Racers well-equipped for tight gates let their talent shine before it was all said and done, however, particularly German Maria Riesch, who is quickly becoming one of the more notable slalom skiers of all time.

Nobody came close to Riesch in the Maribor slalom. Even after the first run, she held a 1.29-second lead over her closest contender, Kathrin Zettel, then went on to beat Zettel by 1.15 seconds with her two-run combined finish time of 1 minute, 29.64 seconds. Riesch now leads Lindsey Vonn in the slalom standings, 500 points to Vonn’s 340, and leads the Cup overall with 729 points followed by Tanja Poutiainen with 644 and Vonn with 616.

The women’s race circuit puts technical events in the past for a while, wrapping up with giant slalom and slalom races in Maribor, Slovenia, last weekend, while the tour takes a turn to speed events for the next few weeks.

Racers well-equipped for tight gates let their talent shine before it was all said and done, however, particularly German Maria Riesch, who is quickly becoming one of the more notable slalom skiers of all time.

Nobody came close to Riesch in the Maribor slalom. Even after the first run, she held a 1.29-second lead over her closest contender, Kathrin Zettel, then went on to beat Zettel by 1.15 seconds with her two-run combined finish time of 1 minute, 29.64 seconds. Riesch now leads Lindsey Vonn in the slalom standings, 500 points to Vonn’s 340, and leads the Cup overall with 729 points followed by Tanja Poutiainen with 644 and Vonn with 616.

Poutiainen leads the GS standings with 328 points and has also been making strides in slalom, finishing third behind Zettel at Maribor. She will be left behind in the points in the weeks to come, though, as the Finn’s disciplines include only GS and slalom. Maintaining her consistent top-five finishes, Poutiainen took fourth in the Maribor GS, but the racer who really put her mark on the Slovenian course was home girl Tina Maze. Maze won the race in 2 minutes, 45.15 seconds for her first podium this season, .39 seconds faster than last year’s GS World Cup champion Denise Karbon of Italy and .92 seconds ahead of German Kathrin Hoelzl, who stood on a World Cup podium for just the second time in her career at the Maribor GS.

Vonn managed to stay in the game in solid form over the weekend, finishing seventh in GS and tying Anja Paerson for fourth in slalom, where she set the second run ablaze trying to catch up time from her 18th-place, first-run finish.

“In the first run she was skiing a little bit cautiously and lost speed at the bottom,” U.S. tech coach Trevor Wagner said. “It wasn’t full gas like she can do. Second run she made up a huge amount of ground. On a hill like that, you really need to go for it. All or nothing.”

Riesch dedicated a good block of her slalom victory speech to acknowledging her good friend Vonn, pointing out that it will be challenging to maintain her overall Cup lead now that the tour is moving toward speed races, which, though she’s come on strong in slalom this season, are more Vonn’s strong suit.

“There were so many technical events. Now we’re coming back to do downhill and super G,” Riesch said. “I think it’s Lindsey’s turn now. I’m so good in slalom now. She’s good, too, but she’s better in downhill, so it will be a hard fight.”

While Vonn appeared pleased with her Maribor results, she too, is eager to put on her jetpack and longer skis in the coming weeks.

“I’m really excited to get back into speed,” she said. “I feel good, my timing feels right and it will be great to get back on the long boards.”

Women’s World Cup racing continues Saturday and Sunday with super-combined and downhill in Zauchensee, Austria.