World Cup Rewind: The stretch run will entertain

See how this is playing out? The final stretch of the World Cup is going to have mega-drama. Just as soon as we get those pesky World Championships out of the way.
    This week, media told us a ton about Lindsey Kildow overcoming her fears for a win on the Olympic course where she crashed last year. Recall, however, she did not miss a race at last season's Olympics despite an overnight in hospital.

SEE HOW THIS IS PLAYING OUT? The final stretch of the World Cup is going to have mega-drama. Just as soon as we get those pesky World Championships out of the way.
    This week, media told us a ton about Lindsey Kildow overcoming her fears for a win on the Olympic course where she crashed last year. Recall, however, she did not miss a race at last season's Olympics despite an overnight in hospital.
    Kildow's rough times this past month have come in mediocre to plain bad conditions. At San Sicario the snow and conditions were as good as they've skied all season and Kildow rocked the house.
    Yet, despite Kildow's great weekend results (2-4-1) Renate Goetschl's were better. This 33-year-old has won the overall title before, the downhill title four times and the SG title twice. Yet, this season has been her best ever and still she is being challenged at every turn. That's a big story.
    On the men's side, the banged up speed skiers got some needed rest as the tour hosted very nearly a full third of the slalom schedule in four days. The cherub-faced Jens Byggmark became the third Swedish male to win a slalom this season and he did it twice at Kitzbühel. Short sticks in tow, the guys trampled into Schladming, fast becoming the mecca of slalom. There was plenty of excitement and even more pressure as hopes for making World Championships teams hinged on the outcome.
    The World Championships, which will take up the next two weeks, are well and good, but the test of ski racing is the World Cup. At a title meet — and this has been said many times before — it’s the any one day thing. As we have seen too many times this season, sometimes the luck of the draw plays a bigger role in the outcome of a race than might be desired. The full winter of World Cup tends to even out the breaks.
    After the championship decks are cleared, there are 21 races left on the schedule — 10 for men and 11 for women. Maybe. There are some "canceled" races floating out there which may work their way back into the schedule. We'll discuss those later.
    Early season leader Marlies Schild has been overtaken for the overall tour lead by Goetschl. Small wonder. The bulk of Schild's points have come in slalom — five wins will do that — and in combined. Since Jan. 7, she's had one reasonable chance to score big points — at Reiteralm in combined — and she got third.
    By contrast Goetschl, the "Speed Queen," has over the same span had plenty of opportunity in her strong disciplines; three downhills and three super G's. She did what she had to — winning four of the six and finishing on the podium in all of them — to take the tour lead.
    Down the stretch, the events are pretty evenly distributed, leaning slightly toward Schild. There is one combined, two downhills, two super G's, three GS's and three slaloms. The technician vs. the speed demon. Fun.
    These are not the only two women playing the game. The incredible two-woman punch from the U.S. team, Kildow and Julia Mancuso, are in the fight as well. And with those GS's looming on the horizon, it is difficult to completely rule out Nicole Hosp.
    On the men's side, no one has really taken charge at the top of the rankings. It is remarkable that men's leader Aksel Lund Svindal has not lost his hold on top of the World Cup overall standings, a spot he has held since Nov. 27 when he won the Lake Louise SG. Even more remarkable is Bode Miller in fourth. He completed one race in January — the Wengen DH win. Svindal has just two wins all season but he scores in everything, claiming points in 21 of 23 races held. Third on the list is Didier Cuche with 13 top-10 finishes in 14 races, and all but 19 of his 677 points coming before January.
    See, there were just eight races for the men the entire month. Which brings us back to the "canceled" races. All of them will require speed-course length: the Chamonix to Val d'Isere combined, and the DH, CMB, SG from Kitzbuehel. The downhill has just been moved into Garmisch, but beyond Garmisch there are just three weeks of scheduled time left. Finals week is already well clustered with six races per gender plus a team event. There are a couple of open days, so it is possible to shoehorn in a couple more races. Before Finals at Lenzerheide, the men are at Kvitfjell with DH and SG, the likely candidate to host these additional speed races. They're at Kranjska Gora ahead of Kvitfjell and they won't be able hold speed events on that hill.
    There are three downhills, two slaloms, two GS's and two super G's remaining on the men's schedule plus the dangling two combineds, and SG. Getting the speed races in would favor Cuche, or Miller, but the tenacious Benjamin Raich remains very much in the mix as the only male aside from Svindal to score in all disciplines this season. After winning the Schladming slalom, the all-but-forgotten Raich is second overall, and poised for the stretch run.
    There will be some drama.