ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. ASPEN, Colo. – Viktoria Rebensburg wanted to make sure the hundredths of a second were on her side this time … and a few more. The 2011 World Cup giant slalom champion from Germany surged ahead in the second run of the Aspen World Cup GS race on Saturday, edging Elisabeth Goergl by 0.33 seconds for the victory as Julia Mancuso made the home crowd very happy by taking third, 0.44 seconds back.

Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany competes in the first run of the giant slalom during the Audi FIS Women's World Cup at the Aspen Winternational on November 26, 2011 in Aspen, Colorado. (November 25, 2011 - Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images North America)

Shadows fell across the steep Aspen course that eliminated 18 racers in the first run and three in the second.

Austrian Elisabeth Goergl set the pace in the first run, blazing down more than a half a second faster than the rest of the field. Rebensburg was nearly a second behind going into run No. 2, but was determined to make up for lost time.

“My first run wasn’t that good. I had a huge mistake at the top,” said Rebensburg, who also took second in the season opening race in Soelden, finish 0.04 seconds behind Lindsey Vonn. “I thought, OK, I just had to go in again. I just wanted to be in the race. I knew if I skied properly I could win. I had to put everything together. It was a pretty tough run. My heart was totally beating.”

Rebensburg classifies Aspen as “the most difficult slope” on the World Cup ladies GS tour. Last year she was second here, finishing just 0.01 seconds behind France’s Tessa Worley, who was putting down a speedy first run until she slid out and crashed on the last bank turn before the finish line on Saturday.

“That’s what it takes in skiing – hundredths of a second can make a decision,” Rebensburg said. “My heart was beating when Liz came to the last pitch. I didn’t know if it was enough for me, but it was … and I’m really happy.”

Goergl, who got her first GS podium since her 2010 Olympic bronze in Soelden last month but hasn’t won a GS race since 2008, said she didn’t struggle in the second run on Saturday, but wasn’t feeling quite as fluid as in run No. 1. Nonetheless, she was smiling.

“I’m happy I’m having my second GS podium,” she said. “The second run was definitely more difficult. I didn’t have this flow like in the first run. I was just a little too stiff after the second pitch. That was the mistake … if I can talk about a mistake. I improved my technique in the last years again. It’s fun skiing GS. I really like it.”

For Mancuso, whose only GS victory was her gold medal in the 2006 Olympic Games, Saturday’s third place was her first World Cup GS podium in nearly four years.

“I’ve been wanting to ski really fast in GS. I had a couple unlucky second runs last year so this is a great way to start,” said Mancuso, who was also 10th last month in Soelden. “I know with any start position I can make it onto the podium and climb my way up. GS is all about training and consistency in training.”

Rebensburg described the snow conditions as “perfect,” and nearly all the racers praised it for its consistency and grippy texture.

The slope, however, dealt a few blows on Saturday, beginning immediately with the first racer on course, Federica Brignone, who landed her first World Cup podium in Aspen two years ago. Brignone slid onto her side around a rough gate near the top of the course, the same place that eliminated the majority of the other 17 racers who failed to finish the run.

Worley, who won last year’s GS in Aspen as well as in 2008, said she was feeling really good until her skis flew out from under around the last curve in the first run.

“I just went a little bit with my upper body and my skis slid too much,” Worley said. “I had so much good feeling from the start to this part. The snow was very, very nice. It’s really a bummer.”

Besides GS specialists like Rebensburg, Brignone and Worley, Saturday’s race proved telling for speed specialists working their way up in the discipline. Austrian Anna Fenninger outshined her sixth place GS performance in Soelden, finishing fourth on Saturday, just 0.06 seconds off the podium. Lara Gut, who has only ever podiumed once in GS (in Semmering 2008), and who was closest to Goergl’s fireball pace in the first run, ended up fifth, 0.81 seconds off the winning pace. Italian veteran and GS specialist Denise Karbon was in third place after the first run and was leading for most of the second when she made a big mistake on the second half of the course, recovered, but ended up sixth, 0.89 seconds away from the win.

The rest of the field finished well over one second off the pace on Saturday. Slovenian Tina Maze, who won the gold medal in last year’s world championship GS, was seventh while German Lena Duerr posted a personal best World Cup result in eighth. Austrian Stefanie Koehle tied her personal best GS finish in ninth and Sweden’s Jessica Lindell-Vikarby rounded out the top 10.

World Cup slalom champion Marlies Schild, who added GS back into her repertoire last year, was 11th and Vonn, who made a couple of mistakes in the first run, fought from 21st place to 12th. Tanja Poutiainen went wide around a couple of gates and ended up 13th, while speed specialist Dominique Gisin, wearing bib No. 33, tied with Taina Barioz for 14th.

World Cup overall champion Maria Hoefl-Riesch, who was 12th after the first run, made a couple of big mistakes in the second run, narrowly avoiding a crash and missing a gate.

The 2011 Aspen Winternational women’s World Cup weekend continues Sunday with slalom, first run kicking off at 10:15 local time.

By Shauna Farnell
FISalpine.com
Saturday 26 November 2011