ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. Germany’s Maria Riesch proved Lindsey Vonn isn’t the only “Lady of The Lake” by winning the second Lake Louise Winterstart World Cup downhill of her career today beating out her good friend Vonn, and Austrian speedster Elizabeth Goergl.

Riesch ripped down the track in near perfect conditions and clocked a time of 1-minute, 28.96 seconds, 0.12 seconds faster than Vonn and 0.21 seconds faster than Goergl.

“I think winning is very exciting and every win is very special especially here in Lake Louise. I think I had a good line and good technical skiing on the top. I was a little bit bad on the bottom but not bad enough thank God that I didn’t lose too much time, I’ll try to do this better tomorrow,” Riesch said after the race.

Riesch, one of the friendliest and funniest stars on the World Cup tour, added that she would have to be at the top of her game on Saturday because her good friend Vonn would be clearly motivated and gunning hard for a win after the day’s outcome.

“I have a good feeling now and good self confidence but it will be a big challenge again for tomorrow and Lindsey will be very motivated to hit back and so we will see,” Riesch said with a laugh.

Vonn, who had five straight downhill victories here going back to December 2006 took the loss in stride and jokingly said she’d try to get a little revenge on Saturday in the weekend’s second downhill.

“I thought I skied pretty well, I definitely could have skied better in the middle section of the course and didn’t quite ski as well as I could have. But I’m happy with my performance. You know I’m only a few hundredths away from the win, so it’s not like it was a terrible day by any means and I’m just gonna go out there and try to get some revenge tomorrow,” Vonn said with a grin.

Goergl, who won the Super-G here last year was clearly thrilled with her third place finish and said she was excited to race again on Saturday and Sunday.

“Everything I wanted to do today worked out good and I’m happy with that result. I feel comfortable on the skis, I’m happy, I like this course, I like the slope, I like the piste conditions, and so it’s gonna be a good race tomorrow,” and elated Goergl said.

US racer Julia Mancuso, who won came in second on Wednesday’s training run and won Thursday’s just missed the podium finishing in fourth place, 0.99 seconds out of first.

Austria’s Anna Fenninger who was also fast during training this week, took fifth. Sweden’s Anja Paerson was sixth, followed by France’s Marion Rolland and Italy’s Daniela Merighetti who tied for seventh. Switzerland’s Fabienne Suter and Austria’s Andrea Fischbacher rounded out the top 10 finishing in ninth and tenth respectively.

One of the funniest moments of the day came when Vonn sang Happy Birthday to her husband and coach Thomas Vonn on the race announcer’s loud speaker. A blushing Vonn was heard saying, “Okay time to cut the microphone,” while listening to his wife’s very affectionate rendition of the famous birthday song.

Riesch, coincidentally, was also in the birthday mood, as her fiance Marcus Hoefl is also celebrating a birthday today.

Riesch and Vonn said they would celebrate the victory and second place, as well as the birthday’s of the special men in their lives together tonight.

The second downhill of the new speed season runs on Saturday at 12:30 local time.

by Michael Mastarciyan
FISalpine.com
Saturday 4 December 2010