Zauchensee: Downhill course accentuates the 'Z'

After a considerable hiatus, women’s World Cup racers strapped on their long skis to prepare for Saturday’s super-combined and Sunday’s downhill in Zauchensee, Austria.

 ”A lot of us haven’t been on downhill skis since St. Moritz, said U.S. racer Chelsea Marshall, who was among the crew training on the steep, tricky course on Thursday. “It has been a while for all of us.”

Wednesday’s training run was canceled due to weather and though about 2 inches of snow fell and had to be cleared off the course, Thursday’s downhill training was run from the very top of the course, one of the longest on the women’s circuit.

After a considerable hiatus, women’s World Cup racers strapped on their long skis to prepare for Saturday’s super-combined and Sunday’s downhill in Zauchensee, Austria.

 ”A lot of us haven’t been on downhill skis since St. Moritz, said U.S. racer Chelsea Marshall, who was among the crew training on the steep, tricky course on Thursday. “It has been a while for all of us.”

Wednesday’s training run was canceled due to weather and though about 2 inches of snow fell and had to be cleared off the course, Thursday’s downhill training was run from the very top of the course. The course is one of the longest of the entire women’s tour.

Swede Anja Paerson owned the training run Friday, finishing first in 1 minute, 48.14 seconds, followed by Austrians Andrea Fischbacher (1:48.52) and Elisabeth Goergl (1:48.59).

Canadian Kelly Vanderbeek led the first day of training Thursday, finishing in 1:51.21, followed by France’s Marie Marchand-Arvier (1:51.27) and Italian Lucia Recchia (1:51.50). Julia Mancuso had the fastest training run of the Americans both days, finishing seventh Friday in 12th in 1:49.24 and 12th Thursday in 1:52.13.

“This is a really cool slope because it’s a little different than the other downhills,” Mancuso said of the Zauchensee course.  “There are so many big swooping turns and you kind of have to go with what you have and try to build speed from there. It’s pretty technical and you have to go with your instincts. There aren’t any real long flats and there’s always something coming at you. You have to get around the corners in the trees because there’s fences on both sides. The jumps are fun because we don’t get very many jumps in our courses so it’s nice to get a little air under your legs.”

Lindsey Vonn finished the training runs 13th Friday and 18th Thursday.

The hill is notoriously tricky, with four big jumps and launching racers straight out of the start gate into the steeps.

“You pick up speed pretty quickly,” Marshall said. “It starts off steep, then the next couple of turns come at you pretty quickly. It gets flat into some gliding turns, over what we call forest jump -  you carry like 20 meters of air and come into a zig-zag section. You really have to know where you’re going. There are quick gates and you definitely need to put early pressure on starting your turn.”

American speed coach Alex Hoedlmoser also pointed out that a narrow fence runs along the tree section and control is vital.

“You have to be on it there or you’re in the fence,” he said. “Any little bit off line and you’re either going to be very slow trying to recover or tangled in the net.”

The U.S. Ski Team will have a full slate of eight starters for both races with Vonn, Mancuso, Marshall, Stacey Cook, Leanne Smith ,Kaylin Richardson and Caroline Lalive.

German Maria Riesch leads the overall World Cup standings with 729 points, while, after just a couple races (two downhills were postponed that were scheduled in Lake Louise and St. Moritz), American Lindsey Kildow and Swede Anja Paerson lead the downhill and super-combined standings, respectively, with 100 points each.

Watch the Zauchensee action live on Universal Sports. The downhill portion of the super-combined airs at 4:35 a.m. EST and the downhill portion at 7:50 a.m. on Saturday. The downhill will air at 5:15 a.m. EST on Sunday.