Gorazd Bedrac, the Slovenian FIS representative (race director in Maribor), was full of praise for the Bergbahnen, the local ski club and the organizers of the two FIS World Cup classics in Lienz as he inspected the course on Saturday 19th December. In the space of just six days a dream course had been prepared on the Hochstein mountain with the help of scores of voluntary workers and the support of the army. The piste was then flattened until Sunday evening using a beam so that the mild temperatures forecast for the next few days will not cause problems. "The temperatures above zero that have been predicted will have no effect on the course," according to Siegfried Vergeiner, Chief of Competition.

Some of the Austrian skiers were able to take advantage of this on Monday afternoon and get in some practice runs on the Schlossberg. All of them, including technical head coach Günther Obkircher, were as ecstatic as the FIS delegate. At the subsequent press conference the leading slalom specialists Marlies Schild, Michaela Kirchgasser and the up-and-coming Carmen Thalmann were all very positive.
Marlies Schild, who has been in the top six ever since her comeback, put it like this: "The course is in perfect shape, hard and with plenty of grip; ideal for fast turns." She feels totally fit now after testing under racing conditions and is even eyeing first place in Lienz, her first win of the season. "Of course, so many things have to fit together," she admitted. Michi Kirchgasser, who knows East Tyrol like the back of her hand after a week's training in summer and the climb up the Großglockner, is determined to get a podium finish on the Schlossberg: "The fantastic atmosphere in Lienz with its finish area right in the town is something very special and provides us skiers with even more motivation." Following in the footsteps of former slalom world cup race winner Sabine Egger another Carinthian girl is a hope for the future. Carmen Thalmann had excellent results in recent European Cup slaloms and is looking forward to her ‘home race' as she lives just about 30km away from Lienz in Berg im Drautal. "This is my kind of course," she claims. "I hope that a lot of my fans from Carinthia will travel to Lienz to cheer me on in my first world cup race in Lienz and I am going to do my utmost to get the best possible result."

The women skiers now have a few days' rest to spend Christmas with family and friends - most of them celebrate in the typical traditional manner, as they revealed - and then they will be ready with new elan for the exciting races in Lienz.

Exceptional logistics, new exciting bib draw set-up

Two world cup races are scheduled in Lienz on 28th-29th December. Besides the Austrians, South Tyrolean ladies are hoping for success there. Every two years Lienz and Semmering have been alternating with staging two technical events for the ladies. This year it's the turn of East Tyrol's skiing mecca again, much to the delight of the skiing enthusiasts from South Tyrol. Because from Brunico it is just an hour's drive to Lienz. What's more, the Lienz organisers provide quite exceptional logistics: the finish is very close to the town center and the draw for the starting bibs and the victory ceremony have been absolute highlights in ladies' skiing for years now. For that very reason the organizers have thought up something really special again this year. The skiers in the 1st group will have to tackle a climbing facility to get their bibs and the first three in the race will have to ‘jump' down from a height of 30 metres to pick up their trophies. In order to give the spectators a better view of the whole course numerous changes have been made on the Hochstein slope. Lienz is expecting about 20'000 spectators on the two race days.

As in the past, there will be lots of fans from South Tyrol and Christmas holiday-makers from Italy. Two years ago they had plenty to cheer about with Denise Karbon winning the giant slalom, Nicole Gius taking 3rd place and Manuela Mölgg coming in 7th - a sensational result for South Tyrol's team. Chiara Costazza won the slalom and Denise Karbon finished off her weekend in Lienz with 11th place. There is a great amount of anticipation among the girls from the Italian team, even though Denise Karbon's participation is not yet certain. Both Gius and Mölgg confirmed recently that they are ‘fired up' for Lienz.

FISalpine.com
Tuesday 22 December 2009

Ladies land in Lienz

After a brief holiday hiatus, the ladies' Audi FIS World Cup continues Monday and Tuesday in Lienz, Austria, with giant slalom and slalom.

The women's tour has stopped at Lienz, the small resort in the Eastern Tyrol region that borders Italy, every other year since 1997, alternating with races in Semmering, Austria. The Italian team dominated the venue during the last stop in 2007 and it is the Italians that consider Lienz one of their "home" hills.

Denise Karbon, who had minor surgery on her knee after jarring it in the giant slalom in Aspen at the end of November and who is reportedly returning to the circuit in Lienz, won the last giant slalom here, while her teammate, Chiara Costazza, landed her first and only (to date) Cup victory, flying past Nicole Hosp and Tanja Poutianen for the 2007 slalom win. Tanja Poutiainen will be back on the slopes after a month off nursing a bad back that started bothering her while training before the races in Aspen. She wrote on her home page on Boxing Days that she is "100% ready to return to racing."

Hosp won the Lienz GS in 2003 while the most successful racer in history here has been Anja Paerson, who won the GS in 2005 when Marlies Schild took the slalom and also won the slalom in 2003 and 2001 and finished third in the 2001 GS.

Kathrin Zettel is currently leading the GS standings with 220 points, followed by Kathrin Hoelzl with 181 and Tina Maze with 170. Maria Riesch has a sizeable lead in the slalom standings with 225 points with Sarka Zahrobska trailing with 168 and younger sister Susanne Riesch with 160.

The resort is expecting about 20,000 spectators for the two days of racing and the forecast is calling for partly cloudy and mild winter (-2 to -8 celsius) temperatures.

by Shauna Farnell for www.skiracing.com
Sunday 27 December 2009