ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. ZAUCHENSEE, Austria – No matter that Lindsey Vonn has spent the last few days fighting a bad stomach flu and came very close to hitting the nets at one point in her run, the American still managed to win yet another World Cup downhill on Saturday, charging down the Zauchensee course in 1 minute, 46.39 seconds.

Anja Paerson was also back on her game, finishing second, 0.43 seconds behind Vonn as young local Anna Fenninger, whose fan club kept a wailing siren going throughout her run, earned the first downhill podium (and second overall on the World Cup) of her career, finishing third, 0.98 seconds back.

Warm temperatures softened the snow on Saturday and Vonn said this is what may have accounted for steering wide as she came out of the forest section of the course, where she swung her skis around before hitting the fence and got back on track to maintain the lead she planted on the first interval of the race.

“It definitely got wild,” Vonn said of her run. “I came into the forest section with a lot of speed. With the soft snow I hit a roll funny and almost went into the nets. Thankfully I didn’t do that, but it definitely cost me a lot of speed. I knew if I could carry the speed into the next left-footed turn, I could make some time back on the last couple of turns.”

According to Vonn, the winning line on the course at Zauchensee is not as easy to find as it is at other venues.

“This course is really tricky, there are a 100 different lines you can take on almost every turn of the course,” Vonn said. “It’s a matter of how well you can take your speed from the top to the bottom. It’s not necessarily who makes the cleanest turn or who makes the tightest line, it’s a matter of carrying speed. Thankfully even though I had that mistake I was able to carry the speed.”

Paerson, who tied Dominique Gisin for the win in the last World Cup downhill at Zauchensee in 2009, felt that her race on Saturday – especially in soft snow, in flat light and with new skis on which she’s only had a couple of days of training – marks a turning point in her season.

“I’m pretty happy about today,” she said. “It would have been awesome to win it, but Lindsey was really strong. I was surprised I picked up the speed so fast and also in bad light. Everything in there I’ll take with me. When I came down in the lead, I knew I’d be on the podium. This is going to be a change for me this season, for sure coming into world champs. We have a few more races to get things perfect with the material. If you want to win against Lindsey and Maria, you have to be perfect. That I know. This is a step on the way.”

Maria Riesch, who still leads the overall standings with 883 points to Vonn’s 747, had less-than-ideal training runs in Zauchensee, including missing a gate on Friday, but finished fourth on Saturday, 1.05 seconds off the winning pace and 0.07 off of the podium.

“It’s hard to be on the podium every single time,” Riesch said. “I just missed it by seven hundredths. I’m really happy about my race today. I was having lots of problems in the training runs, Yesterday I was a little too tight at some gates. After my big mistake when I missed a gate, I was a little nervous about today. Maybe not every turn was perfect but all in all, I’m really happy about my race, also with the fourth place.”

Fenninger, who earned her first World Cup podium in the 2009 super G in Cortina d’Ampezzo, was almost speechless with joy at earning her second ever podium and first in downhill, on her home course where her fan club was creating a deafening din from the point when she first appeared in the start gate to when she crossed the finish line nabbing the lead from then-leader Elena Fanchini (who ended up ninth).

“I don’t believe it today,” said the 21-year-old Austrian. “It’s so great. At home, it’s the best thing to happen. It’s unbelievable, you come into the finish and people are so loud.”

Fenninger’s compatriot Andrea Fischbacher also had a strong race, finishing fifth, as Lara Gut came in sixth, Gisin seventh and Elisabeth Goergl, who pulled off an amazing recovery after landing off the Hot Air jump on one ski and almost fell onto her back, finished eighth. Daniela Merighetti tied her teammate for ninth.

by Shauna Farnell
FISalpine.com
Saturday 8 January 2011