Tarvisio: Riesch notches season's fifth World Cup win

There’s a reason why Maria Riesch is the reigning slalom queen.

Not even Lindsey Vonn could beat her in Friday’s World Cup super-combined in Tarvisio, Italy.

While Vonn had a .76 lead on Riesch after the downhill portion of the super-combined, the German World Slalom Champion put down a solid, controlled slalom that was reminiscent of her winning second run on the Champs slalom course in Val d’Isere … or any one of the four consecutive World Cup slalom races she’d won previous to this race.

The victory is Riesch’s fifth this World Cup season and the 11th of her career – only her second ever in super-combined after last year’s win in Whistler, B.C.

When the Italian announcer at the Tarvisio race shouted, “Bravo, Maria! Super duper!” as she crossed the finish line, she nodded sagely.

Vonn put down a solid slalom run to finish .49 behind Riesch for second and World Super-Combined Champion Kathrin Zettel took third, 2.03 seconds off Riesch’s winning pace.

Zettel, who finished 23rd after the downhill portion of the combined, 2.35 seconds behind Vonn, put down a lightning fast slalom run early on and stood on the leader’s perch for nearly the whole race before stepping aside for Riesch and Vonn.There’s a reason why Maria Riesch is the reigning slalom queen.

Not even Lindsey Vonn could beat her in Friday’s World Cup super-combined in Tarvisio, Italy.

While Vonn had a .76 lead on Riesch after the downhill portion of the super-combined, the German World Slalom Champion put down a solid, controlled slalom that was reminiscent of her winning second run on the Champs slalom course in Val d’Isere … or any one of the four consecutive World Cup slalom races she’d won previous to this race.

The victory is Riesch’s fifth this World Cup season and the 11th of her career – only her second ever in super-combined after last year’s win in Whistler, B.C.

When the Italian announcer at the Tarvisio race shouted, “Bravo, Maria! Super duper!” as she crossed the finish line, she nodded sagely.

Vonn put down a solid slalom run to finish .49 behind Riesch for second and World Super-Combined Champion Kathrin Zettel took third, 2.03 seconds off Riesch’s winning pace.

Zettel, who finished 23rd after the downhill portion of the combined, 2.35 seconds behind Vonn, put down a lightning fast slalom run early on and stood on the leader’s perch for nearly the whole race before stepping aside for Riesch and Vonn.

When Vonn crossed the finish line to see that her run wasn’t enough to beat Riesch, she and her friend embraced anyway. The two have stood side-by-side on the podium in some arrangement multiple times over the last few years, and with Friday’s win, Riesch is still within striking distance of Vonn in the overall Cup standings, 1035 points to Vonn’s 1194, and has a healthy lead in slalom with 580 points to Vonn’s 440.

The ladies World Cup super-combined season ends with this race, and Anja Paerson, who finished fifth today, adding to her super-combi win in St. Moritz and a third place in Zauchensee, will walk away with the title with 205 points, while Vonn trails in second with 180.

 ”I’m really happy with today,” Vonn said after the race. “I had a really good downhill run and my slalom was OK. I knew it would be tough to win with Maria and almost impossible to catch Anja for the super-combi title, so my goal was just to finish and get points for the overall.”

Vonn raced with a splint on her hand to protect the injured tendon in her thumb. While to the average observer, the injury didn’t appear to hold her back, Vonn said it did affect her a little bit.

  “My hand is feeling a little better, but it’s difficult at the start to push off,” she said. “Also, in the slalom it’s difficult because I’m hitting my hand on every gate. It wasn’t anything special, but with my thumb it’s a little bit tricky with the balance, so that means taking a little (speed) off and just ski a little bit more conservatively.”

“Lindsey skied really well in the downhill and proved that speed is really no problem with her splint,” said U.S. Team women’s speed coach Alex Hoedlmoser, who has coached Vonn for the past six seasons. “She was a bit conservative in the slalom, but that didn’t really matter.”

Julia Mancuso finished 19th Friday, Kaylin Richardson 28th and Keely Kelleher 31st. Despite a 16th-place finish after the downhill portion of the race, Stacey Cook came close to crashing in the slalom, recovered to hit all the gates, but dropped a chunk of speed to put her in  44th when it was all said and done.

“She has been so fast all week in training and she was really fast on top today, but she was looking to be in a better postition after the downhill,” Hoedlmoser said of Cook. “We’ll look at the video this afternoon, see what we can clean up and she’ll be ready for tomorrow’s downhill. She’s in a good position to do very well here.”

“Generally, this was better skiing by Jules. She was quite a bit faster in the training runs, so we know she can put it down, she just has to execute on race day. She could have been a lot faster today, but she knows what she has to do tomorrow.”

The downhill course at Tarvisio is not nearly so overpowering as the last course the women saw at the world championships in Val d’Isere.

“This hill is pretty easy,” Vonn said. “It’s not a high-speed course, and there’s not a whole lot of places on the course to separate yourself from the other girls, so it’s definitely important to have fast skis. My skis are definitely running today, so that’s important.”

Tune into more live racing in Tarvisio on universalsports.com with women’s downhill on Saturday at 5 a.m. EST and super G Sunday.

---

The SCOOP
By Hank McKee

Equipment
Women’s combined, Tarvisio, Italy, Feb. 20, 2009
Skier, skis/boots/bindings
1 Riesch, Head/Lange/Tyrolia
2 Vonn, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
3 Zettel, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
4 Grand, Head/Head/
5 Paerson, Head/Head/Head
6 Schnarf, Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
7 Dettling, Stoeckli/Lange/Tyrolia
8 Goergl, Head/Head/Head
9 Fenninger, Head/Head/Head
10 Kamer, Voelkl/Tecnica/Marker

Women’s Combined, Tarvisio, Italy, Feb. 20, 2009. … It is the first race post 2009 World Championships. … It is the 23rd race of the women’s 36 race 2009 World Cup schedule. … The third and final combined of the season. … It is the fourth World Cup race held at Tarvisio, and the second slalom. … Tarvisio first hosted the World Cup in 2007.

It is the 11th career World Cup win for Maria Riesch and her second in combined following a win at Whistler a year and four days ago. … It is her sixth win of the season including a gold medal at Worlds in slalom. … It is her first win of the season not coming in slalom. . … She has accounted for the last eight German Cup wins, matching her with Katja Seizinger for most consecutive German national wins.

It is the 41st career World Cup podium for Lindsey Vonn. … Her sixth in combined. … It is her 12th podium of the season including two gold medal finishes at World Championships. … Her second of the season in combined, the other a win at Zauchensee Jan. 17.

It is the 22nd career World Cup podium for Kathrin Zettel. … Her third in combined. … It is her eighth podium of the season including a gold medal in combined at World Championships.

It is the 118th top 20 placing for Julia Mancuso’s World Cup career. … Her eighth of the season including an 18th at Worlds in GS. … It is her first score this season in combined. … It is the 84th career top 20 World Cup placing for Emily Brydon. … Her eighth of the season including two placings at Worlds (11th DH and 13th SG). … It is the 15th career World Cup scoring result for Kaylin Richardson. … and her first of the season. … Keeley Kelleher was two-hundredths from scoring for the second time this season.

Lindsey Vonn maintains the lead in the World Cup overall standings 1194-1035 over Maria Riesch. … Anja Paerson (5th in race) is third overall with 900. … Kathrin Zettel is fourth at 835. … Paerson wins the combined title 205-180 for Vonn. … Zettel is third at 162 and Riesch fourth at 150.

---

Official results:

Rank	Bib	FIS Code	Name	Year	Nation	Run 1	Run 2	Total Time	FIS Points
1	20	206001	RIESCH Maria	1984	GER	1:31.98	46.59	2:18.57	0.00
2	17	537544	VONN Lindsey	1984	USA	1:31.22	47.84	2:19.06	4.38
3	19	55838	ZETTEL Kathrin	1986	AUT	1:33.57	47.03	2:20.60	18.17
4	25	515692	GRAND Rabea	1984	SUI	1:33.50	47.12	2:20.62	18.34
5	16	505483	PAERSON Anja	1981	SWE	1:32.57	48.25	2:20.82	20.13
6	9	296427	SCHNARF Johanna	1984	ITA	1:32.94	48.42	2:21.36	24.97
7	7	515849	DETTLING Andrea	1987	SUI	1:33.37	48.01	2:21.38	25.15
8	18	55576	GOERGL Elisabeth	1981	AUT	1:32.81	48.77	2:21.58	26.94
9	21	55947	FENNINGER Anna	1989	AUT	1:33.22	48.65	2:21.87	29.53
10	35	515806	KAMER Nadja	1986	SUI	1:32.10	49.89	2:21.99	30.60
11	12	515766	SUTER Fabienne	1985	SUI	1:32.87	49.23	2:22.10	31.59
12	48	225206	ALCOTT Chemmy	1982	GBR	1:33.84	48.29	2:22.13	31.86
13	8	196460	MARCHAND-ARVIER Marie	1985	FRA	1:32.95	49.22	2:22.17	32.21
14	1	515747	GISIN Dominique	1985	SUI	1:32.48	49.80	2:22.28	33.20
15	10	296008	MERIGHETTI Daniela	1981	ITA	1:33.46	48.91	2:22.37	34.00
16	14	155415	ZAHROBSKA Sarka	1985	CZE	1:34.41	48.12	2:22.53	35.44
17	28	206175	STECHERT Gina	1987	GER	1:32.68	49.91	2:22.59	35.97
18	55	505886	KLING Kajsa	1988	SWE	1:34.00	48.61	2:22.61	36.15
19	29	537545	MANCUSO Julia	1984	USA	1:33.57	49.11	2:22.68	36.78
20	15	105997	BRYDON Emily	1980	CAN	1:32.94	49.82	2:22.76	37.49
21	13	195972	AUBERT Sandrine	1982	FRA	1:35.37	47.45	2:22.82	38.03
22	26	55750	FISCHBACHER Andrea	1985	AUT	1:33.01	49.84	2:22.85	38.30
23	47	515573	AUFDENBLATTEN Fraenzi	1981	SUI	1:33.03	49.94	2:22.97	39.37
24	22	516138	GUT Lara	1991	SUI	1:34.04	49.21	2:23.25	41.88
25	23	565315	ROBNIK Mateja	1987	SLO	1:34.46	49.17	2:23.63	45.28
26	38	296438	TROJER Karoline	1984	ITA	1:34.81	48.87	2:23.68	45.73
27	41	206160	RIESCH Susanne	1987	GER	1:35.49	48.31	2:23.80	46.80
28	33	537626	RICHARDSON Kaylin	1984	USA	1:34.10	49.85	2:23.95	48.14
29	2	55806	ALTACHER Margret	1986	AUT	1:34.42	49.60	2:24.02	48.77
30	6	55818	KOEHLE Stefanie	1986	AUT	1:34.52	49.76	2:24.28	51.10
31	39	537565	KELLEHER Keely	1984	USA	1:33.80	50.50	2:24.30	51.28
32	37	296476	ALFIERI Camilla	1985	ITA	1:34.65	49.99	2:24.64	54.32
33	34	515587	PUENCHERA Jessica	1982	SUI	1:35.06	49.61	2:24.67	54.59
34	4	55766	MADER Regina	1985	AUT	1:33.48	51.36	2:24.84	56.11
35	30	505679	HANSDOTTER Frida	1985	SWE	1:35.51	49.41	2:24.92	56.82
36	46	206323	STIEPEL Isabelle	1990	GER	1:34.93	50.07	2:25.00	57.54
37	11	195671	JACQUEMOD Ingrid	1978	FRA	1:34.12	50.99	2:25.11	58.52
38	51	297153	CIPRIANI Enrica	1988	ITA	1:34.85	50.30	2:25.15	58.88
39	27	55898	BREM Eva-Maria	1988	AUT	1:34.45	50.83	2:25.28	60.04
40	32	297134	BORSOTTI Camilla	1988	ITA	1:35.14	50.16	2:25.30	60.22
41	45	195983	ROLLAND Marion	1982	FRA	1:33.42	52.25	2:25.67	63.53
42	36	196968	BAILET Margot	1990	FRA	1:34.20	51.60	2:25.80	64.70
43	49	55882	STAUDINGER Christina	1987	AUT	1:34.59	51.25	2:25.84	65.06
44	3	537582	COOK Stacey	1984	USA	1:33.21	52.65	2:25.86	65.23
45	54	196573	REVILLET Aurelie	1986	FRA	1:33.84	52.12	2:25.96	66.13
46	53	565261	ROBNIK Petra	1984	SLO	1:34.88	51.30	2:26.18	68.10
47	42	106410	DESFORGES Emilie	1983	CAN	1:35.07	51.65	2:26.72	72.93
48	50	465059	MIKLOS Edith	1988	ROU	1:34.55	52.37	2:26.92	74.72
49	56	485563	PROSTEVA Elena	1990	RUS	1:35.18	53.46	2:28.64	90.11
50	52	516052	KOEHN Anne-Sophie	1990	SUI	1:35.66	53.59	2:29.25	95.57
Did not start 2nd run
	61	106402	VANDERBEEK Kelly	1983	CAN
	60	495615	MORLANS Leyre	1987	SPA
	58	495318	RUIZ CASTILLO Carolina	1981	SPA
	31	55069	GOETSCHL Renate	1975	AUT
	24	565243	MAZE Tina	1983	SLO
Did not finish 2nd run
	44	538284	MCJAMES Megan	1987	USA
Did not finish 1st run
	59	106849	YURKIW Larisa	1988	CAN
	57	197006	GAUTHIER Marine	1990	FRA
	43	55913	MOSER Stefanie	1988	AUT
	40	538038	MARSHALL Chelsea	1986	USA
	5	505449	BENT Nike	1981	SWE