Alpine Skiing - Spindleruv Mlyn & Kvitfjell: 11/13 Mar

Do they choose these places deliberately – my spellchecker nearly exploded! Anyway, this weekend the women are in Spindleruv Mlyn (easier in German - Spindlermühle!) in the Czech Republic; Giant Slalom today and Slalom tomorrow – in addition to the actual events we have the battle between current leader Maria Riesch and Lindsey Vonn for the overall title – 96 points is the gap with 6 races to go. The first run of the GS was a little routine – conditions weren’t too good with rain and warmer temperatures and early starter Viktoria Rebensburg (start number 3) put down a time that was unbeaten for the rest of the morning. After run 1 Rebensburg (Ger) was leading with Federica Brignone (Ita, start 2) second, +0.32, and Manuela Mölgg [Ita, start no8] third, +0.59. More interestingly Tessa Worley (Fra) who was leading the GS discipline in the World Cup races by 23 points for Rebensburg skied out, so no points for her this weekend – massive pressure on the German now to see if she can have a good second run and capitalise on Worley’s mistake. Meanwhile, Vonn finishes the first run 8th while Riesch is in 10th. This should liven up the second run, if the piste holds up - more later!

In Norway it’s the first Downhill of the weekend for the men at Kvitfjell – this one is a replacement for the cancelled Beaver Creek event, and here we have Didier Cuche and Michael Walchofer vying for the overall downhill title – both looking for their fourth, which would make them the second best ever, behind Franz Klammer’s 5 titles. Conditions are rather better here, although bad weather and heavy snow caused the cancellation of one training run. Once again it was an early starter who set the pace with Beat Feuz (Swi) going into the lead with 5 skiers down. His lead looked increasingly good as the favourites one by one failed to match him. Eric Guay (Can) looked as though he might be the man to take over the lead, but slipped into 2nd by 0.05 seconds. The Italians had a bad day with Innerhofer, Heel and Fill all well off the pace. Now to the overall battle and Michael Walchofer (Aut) had a good run early on, but lost a bit of time lower down – great recovery but it dropped him to third. Didier Cuche (Swi) couldn’t quite match him and ended 5th behind Romed Baumann (Aut) with first man down the piste Guillermo Fayed (Fra) in 6th. Another downhill here tomorrow.

On to the second run of the Women's GS; with half the top 30 down (or so) the Austrian trio of Kirchgasser, Zettel and Fenninger have the podium nicely filled; Bertrand (Fra) spoils the symmetry by nicking third but Marlies Schild takes over the lead and that's 3 Austrians on top again. However this doesn't last as we head towards the faster skiers from run 1. As a supporter of Maria I find this next bit painful - Riesch makes a huge error at one of the gates (catching an edge on one of the ruts?) and has to get back above it to complete the run - not surprisingly this means she's well off the pace; real chance for Lindsey Vonn. Although Maria and Lindsey are friends I suspect the German is hoping that either Lindsey won't go well and/or if she does that others beat her time and drop her down the standings! First hope comes to nowt when Vonn takes over the lead - superb run especially as she isn't a GS specialist. Next is Lizzie Görgl who doesn't match Vonn, but Italy's Denise Karbon does, taking the lead. The next 4 skiers can't touch Vonn, losing time in the ruts, but last to go is Viktoria Rebensburg with a chance to take over the lead in the GS standings; will she take it easy to ensure this? The hell she will - she's off like a rocket and you can't even see the ruts having any effect - at the end she's first by 1.26 seconds. Brilliant win for her, which puts her ahead of Tessa Worley overall and also does Maria a favour by taking 20 points off Lindsey! Maria now leads by only 38 points!

So, today, Rebensburg (Ger), Karbon (Ita, +1.26), Vonn (USA, +1.45), Maze (Slo, +1.50), Brignone (Ita, +1.52), Mancuso (USA, +1.81). Well done Viktoria, and also Lindsey as this is apparently her first ever GS podium

Double events today too - another downhill for the men in Kvitfjell and a slalom for the women in Spindleruv Mlyn. Downhill first and it was nice to see "old" Patrik Jaerbyn in third early on, although he finished in 23rd by the end. Things came to a temporary halt when Keppler crashed through two nets and almost hit a tree - I think he escaped with only a relatively minor shoulder injury, but it suggests the safety precautions here are perhaps not all they could be; apparently Didier Cuche has complained about such issues so forcibly that he's been hit with a fine!

The Italians had a bad day yesterday, being well off the pace for reasons they still aren't revealing, but Innerhofer loooked better today; alas his compatriots weren't. Küng did well, but was soon dislodged by Sporn, who in turn was desposed by yesterday's winner Beat Feuz (Sui). For a while it looked as though he might do the double, but Klaus Kröll (Aut) spoilt his day. The side show here was the battle between Cuche and Walchofer for the overall downhill title - Didier could only manage 7th in the end (too much energy used up shouted at the ref?), but Michael W took full advantage by beating his countryman Kröll to the win today, with Feuz third. Start number 52, Matteo Marsaglio, caused some stir when he produced a very impressive run to join Didier in joint 7th, whatever is wrong with the Italians obviously didn't affect him! Ivica Kostelic finished down in 21st but with Cuche failing to take the win, he has the overall WC title wrapped up with races to spare - well done him!

On the slalom course, Marlies Schild led after run 1 from fellow Austrian Katherin Zettel, Maria Pietilä-Holmner (Swe) and Tina Maze. There is a continuing battle for overall WC points here too with Lindsey Vonn in 12th just edging rival Maria Riesch in 15th. All to play for in run 2, where at about half way Hosp led Dürr and Geiger but with the faster half of the field to come. Maria Riesch is obviously feeling the pressure more than Vonn as yet again she had a bad run, but this time the error was enough to put her out - no points today! Vonn obviously knew this and seemed to ski a little less riskily than normal; Maria was probably praying for as many people as possible to push Lindsey down the field, and luckily for her many did, including another American! Vonn ended up joint 16th but having closed the gap even more - now 1678 to 1655 in favour of Riesch.

In the end Marlies Schild (Aut) produced an immaculate 2nd run to take both the win and the overall slalom title for this year, 0.93 seconds ahead of Zettel, with Tina Maze (Slo) in third.

Missed the final race of the weekend (Men's Super G) as I was out, but caught the repeat this afternoon. Good competition, generally dominated by Austria, but then came Didier Cuche, whose weekend has been made more interesting by press coverage of his row with race officials over safety issues. Obviously determined to let his skis do the talking today after disappointing performances in the two downhills, he did just that taking the lead by 0.34 seconds - excellent stuff. The Austrians took some consolation from 2nd to Klaus Kröll and 3rd for early leader Joachim Puchner. Ivica Kostelic, who had started the day tied with Cuche for the lead in the Super G series, finished 7th and now trails by 64 (or 68 depending who you believe) points with one race to go. Go Didier, and don't take any notice of the bureaucrats!!