ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. ASPEN, Colo. – Margins absolutely can’t get any tighter than those which determined the top three women in the FIS Audi women’s giant slalom World Cup race on Saturday.

Fracne's Tessa Worley skis the first run of the Women's World Cup giant slalom ski race in Aspen, Colo., on Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010. Worley won the event by a hundredth of a second over Germany's Viktoria Rebensburg. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)

France’s Tessa Worley, who proved in 2008 that she can master what racers say is one of the toughest courses on the World Cup GS tour, put her skills on display once again with a second win in Aspen.

It was a nail biter in the truest form. The 21-year-old French racer, who was eighth going into the second run, won with a combined time of 2 minutes, 6.81 seconds, edging Olympic GS champion and first run leader Viktoria Rebensburg by a mere 0.01 seconds and third-place finisher Kathrin Hoelzl by just 0.02 seconds.

Germany's Viktoria Rebensburg skis past a gate on her way to the best time in the first run of the Women's World Cup giant slalom ski race in Aspen, Colo., on Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)

Even 10 minutes after crossing the finish line Worley was still trying to catch her breath. When Hoelzl, who is the reigning world GS champion and who won her first World Cup in Aspen last year, congratulated Worley in the finish area, they shook hands and discussed the course.

“It was very tiring,” Worley said. “I was wondering when I was going to arrive at the finish.”

France's Tessa Worley celebrates on the podium after winning the Women's World Cup giant slalom ski race in Aspen, Colo., on Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)

Worley later said she lost her breath not only because of the elevation (the Aspen course started at 2,865 meters and finished at 2,490) but because the second run course set was full of turns and very fast changes.

“It was really, really tough,” she said. “This slope is really hard. I think that’s why I like it. The second run was really tough, but I think I had the hundredths on my side.”

U.S. ski racer Julia Mancuso, of Squaw Valley, Calif., rides the edges of her skis to the second best time in the first run of the Women's World Cup giant slalom ski race in Aspen, Colo., on Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Nathan Bilow)

U.S. ski racer Leanne Smith of North Conway, N.H., crashes during the first run of the Women's World Cup giant slalom ski race in Aspen, Colo., on Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010. (AP Photo/Nathan Bilow)

The win marks Worley’s third on the World Cup (she also won last year in Are). As a clear-cut GS specialist, Worley has only ever had three other top 10s on the World Cup, beginning with a fifth in Soelden in 2007 and an eighth at the season opener this year as well as an eighth in La Molina in 2008.

The last racer down the shadow-veiled course, skis chattering madly over bumps and ruts, Rebensburg, who opened her season with a big win – her first on the World Cup – in Soelden, looked at the clock and came to grips with the fact that the hundredths were not on her side.

“Of course in the first moments I thought, ‘Ah! … one hundredth.’ But I’m really happy now,” she said. “I’m emotional, but it’s sports … you have to live with that. The second run was pretty tough. It was so dark and bumpy, but it turned out pretty good.”

That minuscule portion of time that can win or lose a race didn’t turn out as good for Elisabeth Goergl, who was fourth Saturday but only 0.06 seconds off the winning time.

With the sun beaming in a bright blue sky and the snow (according to the racers) good and grippy – Saturday’s race began the same way it ended. The first run wrapped up with a very tight pack of leaders, the top 14 all finishing within a second of one another.

The second run, however, kicked off to a harrowing start, with the first two racers on course – Susanne Riesch and then Veronika Zuzulova – both sliding onto their hips and missing gates. The twisting, energy-sucking second run course also got the better of a handful of other racers, including Manuela Moelgg – who was only 0.36 seconds behind in fifth place after the first run but slid out in the second – and Marlies Schild, who was racing GS for the first time since 2008 following a whole year off to recover from a severe leg injury at the beginning of 2009. Schild was 26th after the first run and was putting down a strong second run but lost a ski at the top of the course and slid out.

“Everything was OK, I don’t know why the ski [came off],” she said. “It was just bad luck. I didn’t go 100 percent, I just tried to get a good feeling for my first GS in two and a half years.”

Several racers who were in the tight pack of leaders going into the second run were slowed in the second. One of these was Julia Mancuso, who was in second place after the first run – a mere 0.03 seconds behind Rebensburg – but said she was tentative in the second run.

“I had a little problem on top and I felt like I lost my ski, so it was hard to get back in mentally. I’ve been twice training and losing my ski so something weird clicked in my head and I maybe backed off a bit.” said Mancuso, who nonetheless finished eighth, her first top 10 in a World Cup GS in almost two years. “I would have liked the second run to go better. It was all in the dark and you can’t really see where those little bumps are. It was more turny and some of the gates were on a breakover. It was hard to get your rhythm.”

Lindsey Vonn was one of 12 racers to fail to finish the first run. Vonn was about a third of the way down the course when she missed a gate.

“I just went a little too straight. I got too excited and was not using the greatest tactics,” she said. “Sometimes my mind gets the better of me. I want it so bad that I make the wrong choices on the course.”

The Austrians had the most consistency with six racers getting points, including Andrea Fischbacher, who was sixth in spite of nearly hitting a course worker in the first run and Nicole Hosp, who is surging forward in her comeback season and took eighth. In addition to Rebensburg and Hoelzl’s tremendous performances, Maria Riesch finished ninth and Lena Duerr 17th for the Germans.

“Kati and Viktoria are the best GS girls in the world right now and I’m really proud to be part of this team – a really good slalom group and the world-leading GS group,” Riesch said. “I’m just proud to be a part of it and try to keep up a little bit.”

The only serious crash of the day was Germany’s Carolin Fernsebner, who went down hard halfway through the first run and was taken away on a gurney with an apparent knee injury. Race doctors later confirmed that she tore the meniscus and ACL in her right knee.

The FIS Audi women’s World Cup continues in Aspen Sunday with a slalom beginning at 10 a.m. local time.

by Shauna Farnell
FISalpine.com
Saturday 27 November 2010

France's Tessa Worley, center, winner of the Women's World Cup giant slalom ski race in Aspen, Colo., on Saturday, Nov. 27, 2010, is flanked on the podium by second place finisher Germany's Viktoria Rebensburg, left, and Germany's Kathrin Hoelzl, right, who finished third. (AP Photo/Alessandro Trovati)

Place   Aspen (USA)   Discipline   Giant Slalom
Date   27.11.2010   Category   FIS World Cup
Race codex   6501   Gender   L
Valid for FIS Points   YES   TD Name   Pirola Stefano (CHI)
       
Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Run 1 Run 2 Total Time FIS Points
 1  14  196928 WORLEY Tessa  1989  FRA   1:02.70  1:04.11  2:06.81  0.00
 2  6  205218 REBENSBURG Viktoria  1989  GER   1:02.11  1:04.71  2:06.82  0.07
 3  3  205993 HOELZL Kathrin  1984  GER   1:03.14  1:03.69  2:06.83  0.14
 4  12  55576 GOERGL Elisabeth  1981  AUT   1:02.35  1:04.52  2:06.87  0.41
 5  9  297601 BRIGNONE Federica  1990  ITA   1:03.06  1:04.18  2:07.24  2.95
 6  16  55750 FISCHBACHER Andrea  1985  AUT   1:02.73  1:04.55  2:07.28  3.22
 7  36  55690 HOSP Nicole  1983  AUT   1:03.39  1:04.00  2:07.39  3.98
 8  18  537545 MANCUSO Julia  1984  USA   1:02.14  1:05.37  2:07.51  4.80
 9  2  206001 RIESCH Maria  1984  GER   1:02.72  1:04.91  2:07.63  5.63
 10  5  185140 POUTIAINEN Tanja  1980  FIN   1:02.18  1:05.62  2:07.80  6.79
 11  22  196793 MARMOTTAN Anemone  1988  FRA   1:02.51  1:05.36  2:07.87  7.27
 12  47  55806 ALTACHER Margret  1986  AUT   1:04.44  1:03.45  2:07.89  7.41
 13  20  516138 GUT Lara  1991  SUI   1:02.71  1:05.31  2:08.02  8.30
 14  1  565243 MAZE Tina  1983  SLO   1:02.67  1:05.41  2:08.08  8.71
 15  8  196725 BARIOZ Taina  1988  FRA   1:03.79  1:04.52  2:08.31  10.29
 16  7  505760 PIETILAE-HOLMNER Maria  1986  SWE   1:03.02  1:05.33  2:08.35  10.57
 17  25  206355 DUERR Lena  1991  GER   1:03.52  1:05.03  2:08.55  11.94
 18  21  536481 SCHLEPER Sarah  1979  USA   1:03.72  1:05.08  2:08.80  13.65
 19  43  506399 HECTOR Sara  1992  SWE   1:04.15  1:04.70  2:08.85  14.00
 20  42  505886 KLING Kajsa  1988  SWE   1:03.89  1:05.09  2:08.98  14.89
 21  15  505483 PAERSON Anja  1981  SWE   1:04.29  1:04.85  2:09.14  15.99
 22  24  55818 KOEHLE Stefanie  1986  AUT   1:03.61  1:05.58  2:09.19  16.33
 23  10  55759 KIRCHGASSER Michaela  1985  AUT   1:02.77  1:06.84  2:09.61  19.21
 24  29  296509 CURTONI Irene  1985  ITA   1:04.22  1:06.20  2:10.42  24.77
Disqualified 1st run
   57  185271 LEINONEN Sanni  1989  FIN         
Did not qualify 1st run
   65  35089 SIMARI BIRKNER Macarena  1984  ARG         
   64  196806 NOENS Nastasia  1988  FRA         
   63  415128 JARVIS Sarah  1986  NZE         
   62  35079 SIMARI BIRKNER Maria Belen  1982  ARG         
   61  305962 HANAOKA Moe  1984  JPN         
   59  305944 KIYOSAWA Emiko  1983  JPN         
   58  565320 FERK Marusa  1988  SLO         
   56  155415 ZAHROBSKA Sarka  1985  CZE         
   54  505908 SMEDH Veronica  1988  SWE         
   52  515855 GOOD Esther  1987  SUI         
   50  538573 ROSS Laurenne  1988  USA         
   48  425707 BRUSLETTO Anne Cecilie  1988  NOR         
   45  538284 MCJAMES Megan  1987  USA         
   41  196726 BARTHET Anne-Sophie  1988  FRA         
   39  495065 RIENDA Maria Jose  1975  SPA         
   38  565268 DREV Ana  1985  SLO         
   35  105269 GAGNON Marie-Michele  1989  CAN         
   33  425629 LOESETH Lene  1986  NOR         
   30  505632 LINDELL-VIKARBY Jessica  1984  SWE         
   28  196179 BERTRAND Marion  1984  FRA         
   27  225206 ALCOTT Chemmy  1982  GBR         
   23  295435 GIUS Nicole  1980  ITA         
Did not finish 2nd run
   49  206160 RIESCH Susanne  1987  GER         
   34  705287 ZUZULOVA Veronika  1984  SVK         
   31  55590 SCHILD Marlies  1981  AUT         
   17  515766 SUTER Fabienne  1985  SUI         
   11  55898 BREM Eva-Maria  1988  AUT         
   4  296259 MOELGG Manuela  1983  ITA         
Did not finish 1st run
   60  485525 BUREEVA Vladislava  1989  RUS         
   55  516109 VOGEL Nadja  1990  SUI         
   53  538305 SMITH Leanne  1987  USA         
   51  197319 BAUD Adeline  1992  FRA         
   46  515849 DETTLING Andrea  1987  SUI         
   44  206078 FERNSEBNER Carolin  1986  GER         
   40  425880 SEJERSTED Lotte Smiseth  1991  NOR         
   37  56032 SCHILD Bernadette  1990  AUT         
   32  106825 PREFONTAINE Marie-Pier  1988  CAN         
   26  296476 ALFIERI Camilla  1985  ITA         
   19  537544 VONN Lindsey  1984  USA         
   13  296379 GIANESINI Giulia  1984  ITA