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SOLDEU, ANDORRA
a surprise not to finish, because the hill is perfect, so I am dis-
appointed not to have had a good result,” said Vonn of the hill’s
debut. “It was fun to ski and the crowd was great.”
U.S. teammate Resi Stiegler, hot off a recent stretch of three
wins at NorAm races in Vail, didn’t qualify for the second run,
0.15 seconds behind the cutoff line in 34th in the first run. Julia
Mancuso struggled on the unfamiliar course in her least favorite
discipline, finishing 4.69 seconds behind the leader in 48th in the
first run.
Giant Slalom, Feb. 12
Mother Nature was two-faced on Sunday in Soldeu. The sun
shined brightly on some 5,000 enthusiastic fans in the finish
area. But winds were fierce again. So much so that after a first
run that saw 10 DNFs, including GS rankings leader and reign-
ing Olympic gold medalist Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany (her
first GS DNF in three years), race officials moved the start of the
second run down 13 gates (100 vertical meters).
Showing the grit in difficult conditions that she has become
known for in the last few seasons, France’s Tessa Worley jumped
out to a 0.13-second lead in the first run, knowing the lead in the
discipline standings was within reach after she took the win at the
last GS stop in Kranjska Gora.
The soft conditions in the second run left her with a chewed-up
course, but Worley held a tight line to bump her advantage a few
hundredths and claim her seventh career World Cup win (all GS)
in front of a largely pro-France crowd singing “Tessa, Tessa” in
the stands.
“I am very happy; there were a lot of French here and I wanted to
win this one — it was very nice skiing,” said Worley, who grabbed
a 20-point lead in the GS rankings. “I was not thinking about the
wind. I think I was lucky. I’m just happy I managed to ski fast.”
Slovenia’s Tina Maze jumped from fourth in the first run to finish
second and collect her seventh podium of the season across four
disciplines. German defending overall champion, Maria Hoefl-Ri-
esch, also earned her seventh top-three finish of the season in
third, maintaining her position in the first run and wiping away the
memory of her third consecutive slalom DNF the previous day.
Gagnon again led the North American women in seventh place
to continue her strong weekend in Andorra. She stood ninth after
the first run then put down the fifth-fastest second run to climb the
results sheet.
“I’m totally happy,” said Gagnon. “Two top-10s in a weekend — I
always dreamed of that. I was starting 25th today, so I said to
myself, ‘Let’s go; let’s attack and see what can happen.’”
Vonn, who was tied for 12th in the first run, skied solidly in the
second run but didn’t have enough course to generate her usual
Vonn magic, though she benefited from several late DNFs to fin-
ish eighth. She slipped down one step to stand fourth in the GS
rankings after taking a win in the discipline for the first time in her
career at the opening race of the season in Soelden, Austria.
“It’s not at all what I had in mind when I came here,” said Vonn. “I
was looking for podiums and the first giant slalom was canceled,
I skied out of the slalom and finished eighth here. Unfortunately,
I made a really big mistake right in the middle of the course go-
ing onto the flat and lost a lot of time. It’s an obvious disappoint-
ment.”
Perhaps that lost some sting as Vonn headed to dig into a brand
new downhill course at Sochi, Russia, with a rock solid 410-point
lead in the overall standings ahead of Maze, who gained only a
little ground over the weekend.
Fellow American Julia Mancuso, standing 18th after the first run,
was having a decent second run with a 0.41-second lead at the
last split timer, but she dropped speed on the final steep pitch and
had to settle for 16th, 2. 31 seconds behind the winning time.
It was a scrapbook day for Shiffrin, who scored her first GS World
Cup points in 26th after reaching her first-ever second run in the
discipline in 28th after the first run.
“All year I’ve been so frustrated with giant slalom because I get
down and I don’t feel like I’ve skied very well and then to top it
off, I don’t get a second run to try and make it better,” said Shif-
frin. “Finally I got the second run and I couldn’t be more excited.
This entire experience in Andorra has been great. I hope we get
to come back here.”
