Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Downhill canceled, Vonn settles for bronze podium in SG

World Cup results from France and Sweden


Lindsey Vonn waves to the crowd from the Val d'Isere finish line after her third-place podium finish in super giant slalom.Photo by Getty Images/Michel Cottin-Agence Zoom

From the U.S. Ski Team

It was a great opportunity for American Lindsey Vonn to pad her World Cup overall lead. But Saturday's women's downhill at Val d'Isere was canceled by visibility.

Still, Vonn earned a super giant slalom bronze and a super combined victory on the French hill. She stretched her World Cup overall lead to 50 points, 581-531, over her friend Maria Riesch of Germany.

Here's a report from Val d'Isere and from Italy, where the World Cup men raced:

Women at Val d'Isere

Franzi Aufdenblatten posted her first World Cup victory in leading a 1-2 Swiss finish in a super-G on Sunday, and Lindsey Vonn placed third to retake sole possession of the lead in the overall standings.

The 28-year-old Aufdenblatten upset the favorites to finish in 1 minute, 26.43 seconds on the Oreiller-Killy course, 0.23 seconds ahead of Nadia Styger. Aufdenblatten's ''It's a perfect day. I couldn't dream of something better."

Vonn was 0.26 seconds back in third to regain sole possession of the overall World Cup lead with 581 points. Kathrin Zettel of Austria is third with 384 points. Vonn leads in downhill (200), super giant slalom (140) and super combined (100), and stands in sixth place in slalom (112).

Still, it was another podium finish for world champion Vonnwho, after taking the win in super combined on Friday, finished third Sunday in the Audi FIS World Cup super G in Val d'Isere. Switzerland's Fraenzi Aufdenblatten won the race to mark the first World Cup victory of her career.

Vonn's sixth podium of the season puts her 50 points ahead of rival Riesch of Germany in the Audi FIS World Cup standings going into the holidays. The defending champion has now been on the podium in every discipline but giant slalom this year.

"I was a little bit disappointed with my run today. I thought I didn't execute very well in the top part of the course. I missed the timing on one gate and I feel like I lost the rhythm for the rest of the top," Vonn said. "I wasn't as aggressive as I should have been, but I picked it up on the bottom and all in all I'm happy with the day. It was a solid result and a good end to a good weekend."

Women's Alpine Head Coach Jim Tracy agreed with Vonn, saying the top could have been skied more aggressively.

"Lindsey was a little round on the top, but lit it up on the bottom section, especially where some of the girls were having problems and a couple of crashes happened," Tracy said. "She skied aggressively down there where it was fast and that was good."

Vonn, who bested the freezing cold temperatures and tricky conditions for her third, was disappointed to have lost an opportunity to ski downhill in Val d'Isere.

"I'm still a little disappointed about losing the downhill race yesterday, but bad weather happens and you just have to stay positive," Vonn said.

On Saturday, after more than two hours delay due to low visibility on the Oreiller-Killy course in Val d'Isere, officials finally canceled the women's downhill World Cup. It was not immediately known if and when it would be rescheduled.

It was a tough break for Vonn, 25, of Vail, Colo. She had dominated downhill training earlier in the week and had picked up a convincing win in Friday's super combined.

Vonn, who swept the opening two Audi FIS World Cup downhills in Lake Louise, AB two weeks ago, was poised to win after leading downhill training. The World Champion had won World Cups in Val d'Isere in 2005 and 2006.

Friday's super combined marked win #3 this season (and 25th for her career) for world champion Vonn. She aced both the downhill and slalom portions for the Audi FIS World Cup win in France.

"I definitely had some fast skis today, but I also think I skied really well. I think I made most of my time in the turns today, which I was really happy about," Vonn said. "I still made one mistake in the middle, but in general I was pretty dynamic and generating a lot of speed from the turns. That's what ultimately I wanted to do—have a solid run, and it was a good one."

According to Vonn, her plan to execute in the downhill helped give her an advantage in the slalom run.

Vonn said, "Slalom is not my best discipline and downhill right now is working really well for me, so my goal was just to have a solid downhill run and hopefully get an advantage, that way I wouldn't have to risk as much in the slalom. I was pretty cautious on the top part of the slalom and on the bottom I let things go, and I'm really happy with the result."

The women's Alpine Team now breaks for the holiday, and will resume competition Dec. 28-29 in Austria for slalom and giant slalom races.

Miller moves up in Italy

Bode Miller, 32, of Franconia, N.H. neared the podium again Friday as he finished fifth in an Audi FIS World Cup super G race in Italy. Norway's Aksel Lund Svindal won.

"It was a start position race. Early start numbers were bad because the light was bad. Then the light gets better as the race goes on," Miller said. "Unfortunately I started pretty early, which was tough. I skied well, but I had a couple mistakes."

Miller, who has been working on upping his fitness level since the start of the season, said that the race was not exhausting to him.

"The fitness is better, it gets better all the time. It's still a little bit slow, but for it being 1:40 today, it was a pretty easy 1:40. It wasn't real tiring," Miller said.

Andrew Weibrecht, 23, of Lake Placid, N.Y. followed Miller for the U.S., finishing 15th for his fourth World Cup top-15 finish of the season. Joining Miller and Weibrecht in the top 30 were Marco Sullivan, 29, of Squaw Valley, Ca. who was 21st, and Erik Fisher, 24, of Middleton, Idaho who was 27th.

The men's speed team continued the U.S. Ski Team streak of packing the points Saturday as Miller led five Americans into the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup top 24 at the famed Saslong Classic downhill. Just one year ago, the U.S. placed five racers in the top 10 and seven in the top 30.

Seven-time World Cup downhill winner Miller fell a half second behind the pace of winner Manuel Osborne Paradis of Canada right out of the gates, but Miller held his form throughout the bumpy, winding Saslong course for a finish .77 back.

Sullivan charged to an early lead as the fifth racer on the course, laying down a 2:02.16 that eventually landed him 12th to follow last-year's fourth-place result. Despite a return to snow little more than a month ago, Steven Nyman, 27, of Sundance, Utah scored 18th place for the U.S., with Fisher of Middleton was .12 seconds behind in 19th.

Meanwhile, Ted Ligety, 25, of Park City, Utah finished seventh on Sunday in Alta Badia, Italy, at the Audi FIS Alpine World Cup giant slalom, while 20-year-old Tommy Ford of Bend, Ore. impressed with 24th place in his first final run.

Ligety followed a blazing second run from Austria's Benjamin Raich by falling behind a half second at the first interval, somehow recovering for a .13-second advantage at the second and crossing .31 behind the new World Cup overall points leader.

Raich (565 points) leads Swiss racer Carlo Janka (553) with Ligety in sixth place with 317 points. Ligety has 192 points in giant slalom, jkust 43 behind leader Raich. For the U.S., Miller is 14th in overall with 200.

Cochran 9th in Alta Badia slalom

On Monday, the U.S. Ski Team's Jimmy Cochran, 28, of Keene, N.H. continued to show his slalom strength by upgrading a 16th-place finish in the first run to ninth on a tricky Audi FIS Alpine World Cup in Alta Badia. Austria's Reinfried Herbst won the slalom event.

Cochran managed to stay in as 22 men went out in the first run and three others were disqualified.

"I felt really comfortable today, and confident. Top 10 is awesome for me and I'll take it. This course suited me. It's a lot tighter and a lot more rhythmic and I think I just capitalized on it," Cochran said. "It's a solid result. We have a lot of slaloms in January so hopefully we can build and keep improving. I feel like I have more speed in me."

According to Men's Alpine Head Coach Sasha Rearick, Cochran's skiing was solid and a foundation upon which they can build for future races.

"I am very pleased with his skiing. He skied fantastic on the top and in the middle section. We've just got to keep the momentum building on him," Rearick said. "He's in a good place, he is having fun, and we've got to continue that."

For Cochran, success on the course comes from the preparation he has done, and perhaps a little maturity here and there.

"I'm maybe a little older and a little smarter—some days, anyway," Cochran said. "This year I feel like we've had really awesome preparation. We have a great group of guys who are really fun to be around.

Cochran hails from a long lineage of alpine racers starting with his grandfather, who was U.S. head coach in 1974. His dad and three aunts were Olympians, and he's got three relatives on the Ski Team. For the athlete, being among their ranks is an honor.

"It's a crazy sport and just to be in the same conversation as my dad and his sisters is really neat for me because they were my heroes growing up and they still are."

The tech team returns home for the holidays until Jan. 1 and will work on conditioning during the break. Ligety, Miller and Tim Jitloff, 24, of Reno, Nev. head to the U.S. Ski Team's European Training Base in Pagenella, Italy for the first Rockfest event on Tuesday.




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