Ski Season 2015/16

Well, almost there - the first FIS event is in Sölden 24 Oct!!

Women’s GS: Sadly not live on Eurosport today as they are saturated with tennis, cycling and cricket, so I’m trying to gauge what is going on using the FIS live timing and ZDF live ticker! No Tina Maze in the start list of course, as she’s taking a year off, although I think she’s in the crowd today. Hadn’t heard about Anna Fenninger’s accident earlier in the week; she tore ligaments in her right knee and despite successful surgery could sadly be out for the rest of the season. Run 1 saw Federica Brignone in the lead with almost a second advantage over Mikaela Shiffrin; Tina Weirather third and Lara Gut 4th. On to run 2 and with only the fastest 5 from run 1 still to come Tessa Worley leads from Viki Rebensburg and Eva-Maria Brem. Sara Hector goes into third place after her second run and then it’s Lara Gut – she loses a little of her advantage at split time 1 but is back up at 2 and takes the lead. Tina Weirather has only 0.09 advantage over Lara; she build on it by split 1, loses a bit at 2 – in the red at split 3 but recovers on the flat to go into the lead! Shiffrin has a better buffer – pretty much the same margin at split 1, losing to 2, gaining by 3 and she goes into the lead. All pressure on Brignone, but she has 0.95 to play with – almost half has gone by split 1, but then she gains time and takes the first win of the season by 0.85. Result - Federica Brignone (Ita) wins (her first FIS world cup victory) from Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) with Tina Weirather (Lie) in third; Gut 4th, Worley 5th and Rebensburg 6th (with the fastest time on run 2). Saw the highlights of run 2 later; great weather in Sölden! Alex Tilley (GBR) did qualify for run 2, but sadly skied out.

Men’s GS: Live coverage for both runs – good news. Seems there will be no Bode Miller this season, although he “may do the occasional race”? However, Aksel Lund Svindal is fully back from his Achilles injury and goes number 17 this morning, just after Kjetil Jansrud! So, Run 1 – weather still good and first away is Marcel Hirscher; safely down on an icy course. Fritz Dopfer can’t get anywhere near Hirscher’s time, 1.54 seconds back at the finish! Ted Ligety is much more in touch, gaining back time on the flatter final section to go into the lead by 0.17. Great start by Thomas Fanara, but he loses a little lower down to go into third. Roberto Nani is the best of the next group, going into 4th and Marcus Sandell becomes the first DNF. Jansrud has a somewhat disappointing run, over 3 seconds back from Ligety, as is Svindal (although both are really speed specialists) but that might be good enough for run 2? So far only 3 skiers are within 1 second of Ted, and barring any late surprises, that’s the way it stays – Ted leading from Marcel Hirscher (+0.17), Fanara (+0.33) and Nani (+0.63)!

So, on to run 2 – set by an Italian coach; bit cloudier now. Elia Zurbriggen (+4.27) kicks us off; down safely and the target to beat is 2:28.61. Next down is Hannes Reichelt, who beat that by over a second! Good run from Roland Leitinger (Aut), who keeps the lead for a good while – one to watch this year? Further down the lists Svindal manages to pip Jansrud; useful points for both as they try to stop Hirscher winning yet another overall title. Meanwhile Andre Myhrer starts his run well, but fades on the steep and almost falls – great recovery! One of the course workers comes down part of the slope, without skis, after missing his footing – seems unhurt. Florian Eisath (Ita) looks good at the first 2 split times but loses a little time lower – he goes second, and Leitinger hangs on. Lots of people threatening, but all seem to be losing time lower down – eventually Henrik Kristoffersen (Nor), a man with a pretty good GS pedigree, manages to match Leitinger’s time – a tie for first! Mathieu Faivre (Fra) goes into 3rd – that lower section might be getting trickier! Disappointing run from Fritz Dopfer, but Alexis Pinturault (Fra) has over 2 seconds advantage as he starts his 2nd run and eventually takes the lead by 0.80; Felix Neureuther goes into joint 2nd, tied with Leitinger and Kristoffersen. Roberto Nani is losing his advantage lower down but he has just enough to hang on and take the lead! Thomas Fanara has really nailed this – starting with 0.30 advantage he ends up 1.75 clear – fantastic effort, removing the possibility of a “multiple third”. Hirscher has 0.16 at the start – builds to 0.66 at split 1, but it’s back to 0.32 at the next and just red at 3 – into 2nd by just 0.02; just Ted to come. He has 0.33 to start; up to 0.78 by split 1 – same as Fanara at 2, just green at 3 but a great lower section gets him the win by 0.15! So, Ted Ligety wins from Fanara (3rd fastest on run 2) and Hirscher. Nani was 4th ahead of Pinturault with Leitinger (fastest on this 2nd run, just up on Hannes Reichelt), Kristoffersen and Neureuther sharing 6th. Ted and Marcel had the same time (5th fastest) on this run – fantastic start to the season!

Women’s GS, 27 Nov – Aspen (Lower Ruthie’s Run): Well, run 1 is over and Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) was the fastest by 0.11 from Federica Brignone (Ita); Lara Gut (Sui) in third ahead of Tessa Worley (Fra), Sara Hector (Swe) and Tina Weirather (Lie). Now for run 2 live on Eurosport – as I join the coverage we’re about half way through the run and Adeline Baud Mugnier (Fra) leads on a course set by an Austrian coach. Marmottan looked fast but is a DNF – hopefully not hurt! Great run from Nina Løseth (Nor) to take over the lead, and she keeps ahead of Vikki Rebensburg (Ger) who goes 2nd and Hansdotter (Swe) takes over 3rd. Marsaglia skies out, but Manuela Mölgg (Ita) puts in a great run and she’s the new leader – fastest 8 from run 1 still to come! Quick break and Eva-Maria Brem (Aut) builds all the way down to take over the lead; fastest run so far on this course. The lower part of the course takes time away from the next 3 down (Fanchini, Weirather and Hector Sara)  Tessa Worley also starts well but she too loses time lower down and goes into third; only 3 to go – Lara Gut has 0.41 advantage from run 1 but she’s got it up to 0.70 by inter 2; the lead reduces lower down but she’s done enough to go into first by just 0.10. Brignone started with 0.85 in hand but she also lost out lower down and goes into 3rd, 0.34 down on Gut. Shiffrin starts almost a second ahead of Gut; 0.84 at inter 1, 0.93 at inter 2, dropping to 0.68 at inter 3 and then she falls just before the finish – no home nation win in Aspen this time either. What a surprise at the end (unfassbar as ZDF put it!) – so Lara Gut wins from Eva-Maria Brem and Federica Brignone; what a great race.

Slightly off topic but the women’s 5 Km freestyle cross country in Kuusamo/Rukka was impressive; amazing to see Therese Johaug (Nor) blast round the course, beating the time of the leader at that stage, Nathalie von Siebenthal, by a massive 41 seconds! At first sight the results on ZDF don’t seem to agree with the FIS version; it seems the FIS are running the total times for the Rukka Triple mini series, at least for the women!  Hope I’ve got these results right, bit like “Strictly Spoilers” relying on their audience moles!! Later starters made the gap more respectable and it ended with Johaug winning this 5 Km race by 17.6 from Charlotte Kalla (Swe) with Ida Ingemarsdotter (Swe) third. Norway in 4/5 (Weng & Flugstad Østberg) – between them Norway, Sweden and Finland filled the top 9 places – only Alenka Cebasek of Slovenia in 10th stopped them getting a clean sweep! In the Ruka that leaves Therese just 0.4 ahead of Flugstad Østberg with Heidi Weng third.

Interesting that in the Men’s 10 Km free, Martin Fourcade (Fra) is competing (start no 94);  he doesn’t have to carry his rifle round here, but also no stopping! Much earlier in the list is Andrew Musgrave; wonder how he’ll do this season after his summer glandular fever? Early leader is Martin Johansson (Swe), who had the benefit of doing some of his second loop behind the first looping Alex Harvey (Can)! There is an “all in one go” 55 metre ascent on this course – bit nasty! Johansson’s time is just beaten by Anders Gløersen (Nor) who clawed back some 11 seconds in the final stages, but lots of big names to come; one such is Alex Harvey who goes another 2.7 faster! Martin Johnsrud Sundby (Nor) looking fast early on; Dario Cologna (Sui) looked good there too, but he ends 0.4 behind Harvey. At this stage Andrew Musgrave is 10th, with some good names behind him. Sundby looking strong at the 8.1 Km split – looks like he had his race well planned as he takes the lead by just over 11 seconds. Delighted to see Petter Northug (Nor) has finished behind Musgrave! Tracks are breaking up a little now; Martin Fourcade is somewhat off the pace at 3.1 Km, and only just clear of Andy M at the next split; mind you he seems to be the fastest of the late starters?  Pretty much it -  final results for this 10 Km – Sundby wins from Alex Harvey and Dario Cologna; Andy M in 13 and Martin F 22nd.

Women’s Slalom (1) – Aspen 28 Nov: Missed Run 1, but with all of the well known names down it looks like Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) has topped the list again a massive 1.38 up on Veronika Velez Zuzulova (Svk, henceforth she will be known as VVZ!) with Frida Hansdotter (Swe) third; lots of DNFs though including Lena Dürr and Manuela Mölgg. Run 2 isn’t live, but the FIS live timing is on – Katharina Huber currently in the early lead. She is replaced by Vlhova (Svk) and Truppe (Aut) goes 2nd. After a very good start, Resi Stiegler (USA) goes into third. Now we are moving into the likely winners – Sara Hector (Swe) takes over the lead; Wendy Holdener (Sui) replaces her, and MPH (Swe) takes over in her turn; Gagnon moves into third. Nastasia Noens looks for a while as though she might take the lead, but loses time and goes into second; Sarka Strachova takes over the lead, only to lose it to a great run from Hansdotter – at this stage I really can’t see Mikaela losing this one too! Fairly predictably VVZ takes the lead, so just MS to go – she has an advantage of 1.38 seconds. She builds on it at inter 1, same gap at inter 2 and a massive jump on the lower sections – no mistake today and she wins by a massive 3.07 with the fastest run on this course too – very impressive! VVZ is second and Frida Hansdotter third. The FIS reckon Shiffrin's winning margin is the biggest recorded in a Women's World Cup slalom - full report here

Men’s Downhill – Lake Louise, 28 Nov: First item of note is that Jansrud has apparently been better in training than Svindal and thus gets the choice of skis!? OK, we’re away with Ben Thomsen (Can, fittingly) the first down. Nice run from Italy’s Peter Fill to take an early lead; it’s good enough to hang on – 10 down and he’s still there! At that stage Carlo Janka is 2nd and Erik Guay 3rd. Travis Ganong has a good one, going into second and after Max Franz goes 4th that’s 15 skiers down. Now it’s Kjetil Jansrud – fastest at the first speed gun but disappointing at the first 2 split times – only 5th! Guillermo Fayed goes into 3rd and now it’s Aksel Lund Svindal; slower than Jansrud at the speed gun, but better at the splits – very tight but he just steals the lead by 0.01!! What a run! (That’s probably all the exclamation marks used up for today?). Well, that’s all the really well known “seeds” down but there’s always the chance of an upset – Eurosport just about to stop coverage with the snow just starting to break up a little? Nasty crash (from what the non video coverage suggests) for Markus Dürager – lower leg injury apparently so the competition stops as Andrew Weibrecht is yellow flagged on his run. Well, back on  - hope Markus is not too badly hurt, not quite sure what has “broken” but presumably lower leg. Looks increasingly like Svindal will win by just 0.01 from Peter Fill with Travis Ganong 3rd, and that’s how it ends - great to see Svindal back on form. FIS report here

29 Nov - Cross Country update: Another master class by both Therese Johaug and Martin Johnsrud Sundby who won their races, and thus also the Ruka Triple! Full details on the FIS site at this site

Aspen – women’s slalom 2: Run 1 – Missed most of this live (but keeping an eye on the FIS live timing) due to watching the delayed coverage of the biathlon, to see if I missed anything (like Susan Dunklee losing her pole on leg 1, and the crash at the handover between the women). Well, what a surprise – the early leader is Mikaela Shiffrin, 1.69 faster than Strachova; Noens possibly not too happy to be chased down the course by a detached slalom pole! Currently Hansdotter in 3rd; must be depressing for the others when Shiffrin is in such good form – they must be hoping she falls on run 2 again, probably their only chance?! Good run from Petra Vlhova to get into 4th, but she’s 2.39 behind Shiffrin’s time! And that’s how it stays – Shiffrin, Strachova and Hansdotter in the top 3 places. Second run saw another spectacular run by Mikaela Shiffrin – this time she won by 2.65 seconds – fastest run on both courses; so that’s her double! Frida Hansdotter was second and Sarka Strachova third. Apparently Shiffrin aims to do the Super G at Lake Louise next week!

Lake Louise – men’s Super G: Quick update on Markus Dürager: Ski Racing reported: "He was helicoptered off the slope and transported via ambulance to Banff Mineral Springs Hospital and then transferred to Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary, where he underwent surgery for a broken tibia and fibula in his left leg and a broken left wrist." That was a nasty looking crash – all the best to him for a speedy and full recovery. There are reports that he had to wait 5 hours before getting to hospital - if true, that’s not at all impressive by the organisation.

Back at the Super G, there’s another great run from Peter Fill who has an early lead; Travis Ganong also going well and he’s into second by just 0.06, Erik Guay currently third. Lovely run from Max Franz, green almost all the way, but he ends up tied for 2nd with Ganong! Romed Baumann goes into 4th and there’s a TV break which will hopefully give them time to sort out the satellite feed! Still picture snags, so we miss a bit of Dominik Paris’s run – he goes into 4th just 0.08 off the lead – very close racing! Nice run from Theaux too but he lost a slight bit of time on the last jump and goes 5th. Now it’s Svindal – great start and by inter 2 he’s 0.37 up, losing a bit to inter 3 but better by 4 and he’s leading the run by 0.45 – can he take the double? Immediate threat might be Jansrud, who is 0.12 ahead at inter 3! Loses it lower down though and he can only manage 6th – as Nick said “where did that time go?”. Matthias Mayer is slower at the top but more in touch by inter 3 – heavy edge on the jump, but generally a good run and he goes into 2nd – bar that one glitch he could have ruined Aksel’s day! So, with the “names” down it’s Svindal leading from Mayer and Fill – hope Peter F stays on the podium, he’s having a good weekend here. Here we go again – Thomas Mayrpeter is a DNF; no info as there is no video any more but the race has been interrupted for a good while; hope he’s OK. Meanwhile, all the other racers have had their turn, so Aksel Lund Svindal has completed the double – welcome back! Mayer is second and Peter Fill gets his second podium of the weekend; good stuff.

Downhills overview - 4 Dec: Sadly I missed both of these as we had a major power supply problem - despite the best efforts of the company that runs our electricity supply (and they worked very hard for a long time in difficult conditions, eventually solving the snag around midnight - genuinely impressed!) there was no way I could catch the races. However, at Beaver Creek Aksel Lund Svindal kept up his run of great form in the speed events this season with another win, this time from his fellow Norwegian, Kjetil Jansrud in 2nd and Guillermo Fayed of France third. Full details in this FIS report. Back at Lake Louise, it was the turn of the women to visit; in the final training run Mirjam Puchner (Aut) was marginally fastest. However in the race she could only manage 16th as Lindsey Vonn (who must be a real contender for the "recovery of the day" award?) took an impressive win from Austrians Cornelia Hütter and Ramona Siebenhofer. Again more details on the FIS site  In cross country racing, today saw the Women’s 15 Km & Men’s 30 Km Skiathlon at Lillehammer; in the women’s event Therese Johaug continued her campaign with another win, from Heidi Weng (who apparently counted her laps correctly today!) and Charlotte Kalle – Nicole Fessel was 4th. The men’s event was dominated by Martin Johnsrud Sundby who was 44 seconds clear of Dyrhaug with Holund third – top 4 all Norwegian; they filled 7 of the top 8 spots!

Beaver Creek - Men’s Super G, 5 Dec: Awful weather as I join the action – Adrien Theaux trying to see his way down through the snow and subsequent reduced visibility! Think the start has been lowered? Marcel Hirscher (start number 4) who apparently went in slightly better conditions, is leading from Andrew Weibrecht – Theaux manages to get into third, so that’s a great effort. Now it’s Aksel Lund Svindal – good start but a mistake lower down costs him a lot of time – only 16th but he’s better placed than Jansrud! The snowstorm is continuing to build; this is possibly as atypical a result as the women’s biathlon today when the track got noticeably faster later on! Anyway – a good effort from Marcel H (as the commentators said, bit like Usain Bolt winning the 400 metres, or maybe 1500 would be more apt?) to get good points in what is not really his discipline; not sure he can quite believe it yet! Kilde has a good run to go 6th, but Ted Ligety is even better; great line and slightly better visibility gets him 2nd! Snow not so heavy now and the light is better, but Clarey still gets pushed off line, so it’s not much easier! Top 30 down – Marcel Hirscher leads from Ted Ligety and Andrew Weibrecht – enough racers down to ensure the race result stands. And that’s the way it ends – Theaux 4th ahead of Mattia Casse and Travis Ganong – difficult conditions!  FIS report


Lake Louise -  2nd Women’s Downhill: Better weather than the men are getting! Nasty little fall by Siebenhofer and a brief pause while they rebuild the gate! Corinne Suter (Sui) is the early leader; good run by Nicole Schmidhofer (Aut) to go into 2nd. She is replaced by Larisa Yurkiw (steady spell checker; easy there) of Canada. Now on course is the on form Connie Hütter (Aut); lot of green on the intermediates and she takes the lead by 0.46. Kasja Kling (Swe) goes into 2nd; here comes Nadia Fanchini (Ita) – in touch at the top but going green at inter 4; she goes into 2nd. TV break and now it’s Lindsey Vonn; well into the green at the top and building; over a second at inter 4 – it keeps going green and she’s leading the race by 1.16. I don’t know if that demoralised the rest, but the next runs were a bit pedestrian by comparison apart from Fabienne Suter (Sui) who nips into second, 1.05 behind Vonn; Nadia F off the podium whatever happens. Rather lost interest after that, a bit like when Martin Fourcade misses 2 targets out of 10 in the biathlon sprint and still wins by such a margin that he could probably have missed 2 more and still won!  FIS report

Beaver Creek – Men's GS: A cracking run from Marcel Hirscher in the first of 2 runs, but not perfect and he doesn’t look happy! Nasty crash from Thomas Fanara, but he seems to be OK – the netting isn’t doing so well though! That delays Ted Ligety’s run; while well into the green he too joins the DNFs, and then Pinturault pushes too hard and goes out as well – he’s up but that was a big thump. Felix Neureuther makes it down and into 2nd place; Henrik Kristoffersen replaces him, and in due course Victor Muffat-Jeandet records the same time and they are tied! I wonder who goes first in run 2? With 30 racers down (or not, as the case may be) Marcel Hirscher still leads, now from Stefan Luitz (+0.15) and Andre Myhrer (+0.34) with Victor M-J and Henrik K tied in 4th. Interesting perhaps that Jansrud does do this race but Svindal doesn’t (apparently not well?) – no change to the top 4 for ages and that’s how run 1 ends! In run 2, with the top skiers from run 1 still to come it’s Riccardo Tonetti leading from Roland Leitinger and Gino Caviezel; as I type that Philipp Schörghofer goes into 2nd. Florian Eisath starts well, loses a little in the middle but comes back to take the lead; now it begins! Faivre looked good most of the way but ended up 2nd; now it’s Felix Neureuther and he takes the lead. Henrik K is green at inter 1 & 2; keeps it at 3 and now he leads by 0.18. Victor M-J is red at 1/2 but green at 3 and he takes the lead – amazing run; bit risky but worth it. Myhrer goes into 3rd; Luitz is building on his advantage at the top – 0.37; 0.54; 0.93; 1.03 then a massive mistake and it’s gone – he drops to 22nd. Marcel Hirscher to go – he’s also green at 1 & 2; up to -1.26 at 3 and that’s his win sorted – final result Marcel Hirscher, from Victor M-J and Henrik Kristoffersen – good weekend for the Austrian!

Women’s Super G – Lake Louise: Early leader is Tamara Tippler (Aut – what a lovely name!), who had bib number 3 with the on form Cornelia Hütter (17) going into 2nd. Nice start from Lara Gut, but she loses time lower down and can only manage 5th. Here comes Lindsey Vonn, will I lose interest again? Yep, at inter 2 she’s almost a second up and goes into the lead by 1.32 – perhaps she needs to race against the men and give the other women a chance? Will be interesting to see how Mikaela Shiffrin does today in a speed race (remember what Hirscher did yesterday!). Good effort by Johanna Schnarf to get into 4th. Well, not a bad run from Shiffrin – into 15th and some useful points! No change in the podium; sadly rather too steady and mostly all too predictable although I was impressed by Tippler – not a name I’d seen much of before. Vonn does the triple, again, winning from Tippler and Hütter

Val d’Isere – Men’s GS: Missed the first run, but you might be forgiven for thinking we were back in Beaver Creek – after run 1 Marcel Hirscher leads by 0.14 from Henrik Kristoffersen with Victor Muffat-Jeandet only 0.04 further back; then Thomas Fanara, Marcus Sandell and Felix Neureuther. Joined run 2 as Gino Caviezel skied out! That looks a tricky bit of the course – lots of people seem to be going well green at the top only to lose masses of time lower down. Good run from Steve Missilier to take top spot; not there long though as Manuel Feller (Aut) makes a fairly large error early on – very impressive recovery and a great lower section gives him the lead – what a story. Thought Faivre might have done something similar, but he lost just a little too much! Stefan Luitz was going well, but he also lost time lower down – into 2nd. Borsotti going fast on the upper sections; what athleticism, really on the edge – again, losing it lower down and now he’s 2nd. Felix Neureuther again goes well through inter 1 & 2, but he keeps it smooth through inter 3 and he goes into the lead by 0.69 – good run. Fanara is out; quite spectacular but seems he’s OK – nice to see Tina Maze here! Back to the race and it’s Victor M-J, on home snow – lost a bit in the middle and he’s into 2nd. Henrik Kristoffersen goes – his coach set this course – that nasty compression near the top takes him out – hopefully just bruising. Hirscher starts with 0.5 advantage, up to 1.04, then 1.30 – it's still 1.17 at the last inter – another brilliant win for Marcel Hirscher! Felix N gets 2nd and Victor M-J takes the final podium in front of his home crowd!

Are – Women’s GS: Joined run 1 live just after the race was interrupted; not sure exactly what occurred but Sara Hector (first down) crashed on a difficult course which had new snow overnight – seemed to be a delay getting her off the course but they interrupted the race again and she was taken off on a rescue sled; maybe she was more seriously hurt than at first thought? Seems to be a knee injury, apparently.  The start had been lowered, but obviously the run remains a dangerous challenge and it's windy too. Tina Weirather did complete, as did Federica Brignone. Mikaela Shiffrin will not start, apparently after a collision with someone on a training run/warm-up? Race now back on and Eva Maria Brem goes into the lead. She leads from Nina Løseth and Tessa Worley; what a run from Frida Hansdotter to just steal the lead by 0.02! Disappointing run from Lara Gut; however Lindsey Vonn is racing today and with Shiffrin out she could build on her lead in the overall – yep, she’s fastest by 0.33 after a great lower section; weather getting worse too so she might well remain fastest for run 1. She did – Vonn, Hansdotter, Brem after run 1.
Joined the second run live about half way through, with Taina Barioz leading – weather not looking much better. Now that’s nice to see – Simone Wild (Sui) goes into the lead! Disappointing runs from Tina Weirather and Lara Gut; Maria PH takes the lead and my internet connection drops out! Over to the iPad, on a different internet service – Federica Brignone has taken the lead and Tessa Worley is now 2nd. Brem is green, red, green and takes the lead – Hansdotter has only 0.02 advantage and that’s well gone by inter 2 – into 5th. Just Vonn to go and she’s building at inter 1 – by 2 she’s only just green and she takes the win by just 0.07! Vonn from Brem and Brignone and that's a useful 100 points!

Missed the slaloms as I'd lost my internet for the rest of the weekend!

Val d’Isere – Women’s Alpine Combined - 18 Dec: Shouldn’t have to wait long for the fastest downhill run of this combi as Lindsey Vonn goes number 2 this morning! Apparently Mikaela Shiffrin is out because of injury at present although I’m not sure she would have done this anyway. OK – Nicol Delago is away; almost 120 Km/h through the first speed gun! The course is in the shade at present; the sun will be on it later. Now Vonn is on the course – over 2 seconds up by inter 2 and 3.12 at the finish! Oh well, let’s see how close whoever is second can come to that time! Lizzie Görgl has crashed out but is apparently unhurt. Laurenne Ross is into second but I’m not sure she will do the slalom leg? Good run from Ragnhild Mowinckel, into 3rd – even better from Ilka Stuhec (SLO) to go into 2nd and she is, in turn, knocked down a place by Lara Gut, who has managed to get to just 0.38 behind Vonn. Tina Weirather has gone into 4th , but that’s a gap of 1.43 – seems that she’s been DQd, but not sure quite why? Ah, now Cornelia Hütter has gone into third – that’s 2 skiers within a second of Lindsey Vonn. All power to Stacey Cook putting in a good run after a massive crash in training yesterday; into 10th! So, that’s run 1 over – Vonn leads with Gut second (+0.38) and Hütter 3rd (+0.88) – slalom to go. Now, Lindsey Vonn is supposed to be the “speed queen” (and is!) but she has won slalom in the distant past, and does have a good margin in hand over pretty much everyone – however she hasn’t done much recently and has done only a few combined races in recent years (IBU site says – “Since the end of the 2011/12 season, Vonn only participated twice in an alpine combined race: in St. Moritz in December 2012 where she did not finish the slalom run and in Bansko last March where she did not start in slalom.”). On to the slalom then; at the half way point (of the top 30) Michaela Kirchgasser is leading; she’s done a good run too – despite some healthy advantages no one has matched her yet; just 8 of the top 30 to go. Now just 4 to go, and Kirchgasser is still leading; Stuhec looked good but she’s out. Hütter has lost almost 3 seconds by inter 2; Michaela will be on the podium! Lara Gut has 2.59 in hand as she starts, and she’s not a bad slalom skier – she takes over the lead with 0.91 still in hand! Now Lindsey Vonn has only 0.38 over the new leader; it’s all gone by inter 1 but she’s lost nothing more at inter 2 – at the finish she’s just 0.01 slower; a much better race than I expected! Lara Gut wins by a whisker from Lindsey Vonn with Michaela Kirchgasser third.


Val Gardena (Gröden) – Men’s Super G: Today Svindal goes 21, with Jansrud next. Looks a nice day; the Norwegians have set the course and it’s relatively straight and very fast – not ideal for the technicians; Marcel Hirscher is not racing today! Early leader is Aleksander Aamodt Kilde – the Norwegians have obviously opened a box of fast skiers this year! Nice run from Andrew Weibrecht (USA) to go 2nd at this stage with Vincent Kriechmayr (AUT) nipping into 3rd until dislodges by Georg Streitberger (AUT). Now Matthias Mayer is into 2nd  - Austrians going well!
Now for the real Vikings; Svindal starts slowly – at inter 1 he’s 0.45 in the red; just green at 2 and 3, but in the end he goes into the lead by 0.34. Jansrud is very close after a much better start – he’s into 2nd – Norway has locked out the podium at present. Brice Roger might have been a threat to at least one of that trio, but he’s crashed out – seems OK. Tina Maze is here, I see; do wish she was racing this year! Thought some of the better known later starters might have removed at least one Norwegian from the podium, but it just didn’t happen for any of them – great win for Aksel Lund Svindal from Kjetil Jansrud and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde!

Val d’Isere – Women’s Downhill - 19 Dec: Looks like a lovely day – sunshine (on certain parts of the course) and little or no wind. Vonn going 17 today with Ross (14) and Cook (15) nicely placed to update her on conditions! Lara Gut goes 20, and there might be a few others in the mix, but given the training runs and yesterday’s downhill segment of the combined it’s hard to see anyone seriously challenging Lindsey Vonn, the “Mercedes F1 team” of women’s speed skiing events! With 10 skiers down, Corinne Suter (Sui) leads from Mirjam Puchner (Aut) and Edit Miklós (Hun). Now, there’s a good run – Larisa Yurkiw (Can) goes into the lead! …. and Nicole Schmidhofer (Aut) is in to third. Lizzie Görgl is racing, despite yesterday’s crash – lost a little lower down and into 8th; now it’s Vonn – 3 Km/h faster through the first gun and 0.74 up at inter 2. Now there’s a real surprise – a high speed error, great recovery (very impressive) but although she’s still on her feet, she’s out!! Suspect you could have got massive odds against her not winning? I’m swapping my video coverage to the biathlon and following the downhill on the live FIS data feed, just as Tina Weirather goes into 2nd. Now, Lara Gut is looking good – up to 0.39 in the green at inter 4; she takes the lead by a fairly comfortable 0.41. Fabienne Suter moves into 2nd and Connie Hütter goes 4th – Yurkiw still in a podium slot. It is staying that way for a while – top 30 all been and gone. So Lara Gut wins, from Fabienne Suter and Larisa Yurkiw – good effort by them, quite an upset! Connie Hütter 4th, ahead of Tina Weirather and Corinne Suter who are tied for 5th.

Val Gardena – Men’s Downhill: No firm predictions here – last one was a bit out – however maybe a Norwegian winner?! Lovely run from Josef Ferstl to take an early lead; amazing watching the slow motion shots of how the skis deform in turns – just as well you can’t see that when you’re skiing (not that I ever went anything like that fast). Great escape by Ondrej Bank – I’d like to see him doing well, but he was lucky to get away with that – superb shot of him against the green of the valley just as he regained control. Peter Fill is having a good season – he takes the lead by 0.69; good run! He likes it, the crowd are happy too. However, Jansrud at 17 and Svindal at 21 among those still to come. Steve Nyman was good in training and he’s up into 2nd just a fraction ahead of Ferstl. More change – Max Franz in touch all the way, and now he’s into 2nd – Fill/Franz/Nyman at present. Nasty crash for Matthias Mayer – heavy on the hip/ribs and possibly shoulder too from the look of it; he’s getting attention and has started moving again. Looks as though they are waiting for a helo; wire transfer now in progress and Mayer is on the way to hospital – no update at present about his injuries, here’s hoping for a speedy recovery. Jansrud next to go; he’ll be trying to regain focus after this pause – course workers are smoothing out the snow at the crash area. OK, here comes Kjetil Jansrud; never good to be the first down after an accident – green at inter 1, then slightly red, green, green, and 0.56 ahead by inter 5 – mistake and almost another fall, but he recovers and he’s into the lead by 0.26! Superb stuff. Erik Guay well in touch at the top, losing a bit lower down and he’s into third. Reichelt off the pace, so something isn’t working for him; now Svindal – fastest through the top speed gun and well into the green, really pushing – into the lead; can he be the first to win the double here? Fayed is going well at the top – great run, and he splits Svindal and Jansrud, going into 2nd; Peter Fill off the podium. Over to the women’s biathlon with FIS data in the background, which is no problem as it ends up (unless there’s a huge upset) with another win for Aksel Lund Svindal, from Guillermo Fayed of France with Kjetil Jansrud in 3rd. Late news - Bryce Bennet (USA) who started 57th is up to 6th just behind Erik Guay! Haven't seen any update yet on Mayer. Meanwhile Andrew Young is doing well in the CC Freestyle sprints at Toblach 3rd place in the final!

Alta Badia – Men’s GS: Run 1 – An interesting start; first down was Victor Muffat-Jeandet who set such a good time that Marcel Hirscher (5th down) and Henrik Kristoffersen (7th down) couldn’t match it going 2nd (+0.05) and 3rd (0.23) respectively! That’s a tricky blind gate near the end! This isn’t Jansrud’s type of course; not sure he’ll make run 2; Svindal a bit better but I can’t see him getting many points today – both looking a bit tired after the speed events. No change to the top 3 (all early starters), and Felix Neureuther (start number 3) remains in 4th as run 1 finishes. Run 2, which I joined after the epic biathlon race (men’s mass start – worth seeing!), to find Roberto Nani leading – very tricky looking course this one! Good run from Tim Jitloff, with some exciting moments, to take over the lead; he’s hanging on to it well too! Now, Ted Ligety is on the  course  – rumours are that he’s got back problems; certainly he’s not on full form at present (hence the relatively poor first run) but he’s still good enough to take over the lead for the moment. Good runs from Faivre and Pinturault, who are now 2nd and 3rd respectively; messy from Neureuther, who loses a lot on the lower section – big error low down and only 5th! Kristoffersen has 1.21 in hand, and he’s built on that at inter 2; he goes into the lead by over a second – brilliant run. Marcel Hirscher only has 0.18 in hand now; up to 0.59 at inter 1, back to 0.27 at inter 2, 0.33 at the last – he takes the lead by 0.19 – another very aggressive, flat out run! Just Victor M-J to come; he’s just in the red at inter 1 – bit redder at 2 and it’s drifting away – he’s into 3rd! So, 3 out of 3 for Marcel Hirscher at Alta Badia from Henrik Kristoffersen and Victor M-J. Ted gets a well deserved 4th. In the overall standings, at this relatively early stage, Marcel Hirscher now leads Aksel Lund Svindal (who only got 3 points here today) by 20 points. Parallel GS tomorrow, which should be exciting?

Courchevel – Women’s GS: Lovely day at Courchevel on a course set by one of the Austrian coaches; good start by Tessa Worley, and an even better run by Lara Gut to take an early lead. After yesterday’s victory Lara is now only 2 points behind Vonn in the overall; a good chance to take the lead today? Now, Eva-Maria Brem in the red at inter 1, but she’s much faster lower and after going green at inter 2 she’s into the lead of this first run.  Just as for Jansrud and Svindal in Alta Badia, so for Lindsey Vonn on the GS – good start but not so fast on the later sections and she can only manage 7th – might get some points though? Nina Løseth goes into 4th, ahead of Vicki Rebensburg. Some relatively slow runs by the later starters, often well in touch at inter 1 but losing lots of time by the next split – Lindsey Vonn is holding on to 10th place at present, so that’s better than it might have been. No real changes, and that’s run 1 over. Now for run 2 – with 10 of the 30 away Katharina Truppe (Aut) leads – here comes Adeline Baud Mugnier, good middle section, lost a little but she takes over the lead – very popular with the crowd! Lovely run from Sofia Goggia (Ita) who seems to have a way of making errors while gaining time – she leads by 0.80! Ana Drev (Slo) has gone into 2nd; Carmen Thalmann (Aut), who was a late starter in run 1, goes into 3rd. Tina Weirather’s coach has set this run, but she can only manage 3rd. Ten to go, so it’s Lindsey Vonn next – 0.70 in hand and a good top section but the steep isn’t so good and she’s 6th. Next is Maria P-H (Swe) and she’s building well on the top section (1.03 advantage at Inter 1); she’s another skier who loses time lower down but she has just enough in hand to take the lead by just 0.02! Hansdotter is different – red at inter 1, gains in the middle, and loses time at the bottom; top 3 remain the same. Vicki Rebensburg loses a little by inter 1, but skies the next bit well gaining time – green all the way and now she leads, despite an error in the middle of the steep. Nina Løseth (Nor) goes red/green/red but a better final stretch gets her in to the lead with just 3 to come. Tessa Worley has various shades of green but she’s out – almost audible groan from the crowd! Lara Gut is just green all the way – very close and at the finish she’s tied with Løseth! Brem loses a bit between inter 1 and 2; gaining to 3 and it’s her victory. Eva-Maria Brem wins with Gut and Løseth tied for 2nd and Viktoria Rebensburg 4th. Lindsey Vonn was 13th so in the overall standings Lara Gut leads by 58 points from Vonn.

Alta Badia – Men’s Parallel GS: A new format added to the FIS list this year! Mixed feelings about this from some of the skiers – seems an odd time to try it, between a “proper” GS yesterday and a slalom tomorrow at Madonna di Campiglio, but as they are awarding World Cup points (overall and GS) it’s pretty much compulsory. There are jumps in the course too and it’s going to be faster than parallel slalom – should be different if nothing else! So, away we go; in the early rounds they ski both courses – Hirscher v Tonetti are first off; Marcel had his race skis stolen yesterday and the replacements don’t seem to be doing the business – Tonetti nicks the first of the 2 races by 0.01! There won’t be any real feel for who is going through until both runs of the prelims are over; after that it’s just one run per heat. Victor M-J had to try and come from behind in his first heat; might be some real upsets tonight? Looks like the USA v USA heat is a mess – Weibrecht ahead but missed the last 2 gates – very odd. Schwaiger has beaten Kristoffersen in the first of their heats; the start seems to be absolutely critical – be interesting to see how people’s approach changes as they get more used to this format. Cyprian Richard has pipped Ted Ligety on their first run – maybe the rumours about Ted being in pain from a bad back are true? OK – the second run of the early rounds – Marcel Hirscher has missed a gate and he’s out; there’s a turn up! Jansrud is through to the next stage though – are the speed boys happier here than some of the tech specialists? Nani also through as are Blardone, Caviezel, Haugen, Myhrer, Victor M-J, Pinturault (arguably the only “better seed” to get through so far, although I would have said that was Victor M-J!), Jitloff, Nösig, Schwaiger (so that’s Henrik K out), Feller, Faivre, Svindal (so he can get points while Hirscher won’t) and Richard (so Ted L’s out !). On to the next round, just one run now; Jansrud wins against Tonetti; Blardone takes out Nani, Caviezel beats Haugen; Myhrer puts out Victor M-J by 0.01; Pinturault knocks out Jitloff; Schweiger takes another scalp by beating Nösig; Faivre beats Feller and finally Svindal wins against Cyprian Richard. Quarter final time; winners of this stage are – Jansrud, Myhrer, Schwaiger (nearly taken out when Pinturault almost falls into him; great recovery!) and Svindal – some very close racing! Now we go into “loser’s semis” and semis so that all the position can be worked out, and there are also big and little finals – I do have a couple problems with the concept of a “losers final”! Now, in the ”proper” semis – Jansrud beats Myhrer and Svindal puts out Schwaiger; an all Norwegian “real” final! I wonder what odds you would have got on that outcome; two speed specialists through? Now there are a few more rounds to work out the placings from 3 to 8 – I’ll wait until they produce the results! In what I would call a “bronze medal repechage event” Myhrer meets Schwaiger to decide which gets the final podium place – Andre Myhrer gets it, Schwaiger is 4th. Big final – Kjetil Jansrud manages to beat Aksel Lund Svindal to take his first win of this season, but that still leaves Aksel with 80 points (and a load of cash)! Wonder if Marcel will ever get his race skis back?

Madonna di Campiglio – Men’s Slalom: Joined this well into the first run where the really hot news is that Henrik Kristoffersen has managed to pull out an advantage of 1.03 over second placed Marcel Hirscher! Stefano Gross currently in third. Razzoli 4th, then Khoroshilov and Neureuther – and that’s the way it stays! Now in run 2 the course seems to be cutting up after about 12 runners. Nice to see that Dave Ryding got a second run, so he’ll get some points from this. At this stage Marco Schwartz (Aut) is leading (and he’s technically still a junior!), and that’s how it is at the half way stage. Marco is holding on to his lead, with Luca Aerni (Sui) second and Fritz Dopfer into 3rd. Victor M-J is away with 0.58 advantage but he’s into the red by inter 2 – the ruts aren’t helping and he’s down to 9th. Myhrer fares little better and Hargin joins the DNFs. Felix Neureuther has 0.71 in hand but most has gone by inter 1 and he is also a DNF! Similar story for Khoroshilov – he does complete but he’s back to 9th after struggling with the snow conditions. Now Giuliano Razzoli – he had a better middle section, still just in green at inter 2 but he can’t quite do it – into 2nd. Just 3 to go; Stefano Gross has 0.88 in hand but again he’s in the red by inter 2, bounced just after that and only 15th. Hirscher has 1.08 – bit vanishes by inter 1, he nearly got hit by the camera drone (hope he didn’t see it!), bit more at 2 – but he’s into the lead – what a bizarre accident! Henrik Kristoffersen produces a master class (presumably after a quick removal of the drone wreckage!) – beautiful run and he takes the win by 1.25. So Kristoffersen, Hirscher, Schwarz – Hirscher goes back into the overall points lead just 23 ahead of Svindal; Jansrud 3rd but over 200 back, with Kristoffersen closing on him. However that’s only race 13 of 45!

Well - we all knew alpine ski racing could be dangerous, but almost being flattened by a TV camera drone falling out of the sky is surely a new one! You can see just how close this was to a serious accident HERE

Update on Matthias Mayer - sadly he's out for the rest of the season. More info on the FIS site

Lienz (Austria) – Ladies’ Giant Slalom: Run 1; another nice day, more green hills in the background – apparently the women’s events at St Anton (9/10 Jan – DH & Super G) have been cancelled due to this lack of snow! Today’s event is all on imported or artificial (snow cannon) snow. Tina Weirather is kicking off the event today, Lara Gut goes number 3, Eva-Maria Brem at 4 and Lindsey Vonn at 9 – this course set by a Norwegian coach. No Mikaela Shiffrin today, as she’s still recovering from a knee injury. Right – Tina is down and the bar is set at 1:01.90; Tessa Worley is miles off that (+1.35)! Lara Gut has a better run though, and she takes the lead by 0.16. Eva-Maria Brem leads the GS standings at present  -very tight here; red/green/red and she’s into 2nd by just 0.04. Vikki Rebensburg is into 4th and now it’s Vonn – the course is already cutting up a bit! Couple small errors but in touch at inter 1, but she misses a gate – that’s the first upset; no points for Vonn today! However, here comes another surprise – Ana Drev (Slo) has a great run – red/green/green and she’s into the lead by 0.02! Much appreciated by the Slovenian fans. So, at present Drev, Gut, Brem and only 0.06 between the 3 of them; going to be an exciting 2nd run if the margins remain that close! Tina W, Vikki R and Federica Brignone also in touch. Some disappointing times from the next group; in general the course seems to be getting slower and the top 6 remain the same. Nice run from Francesca Marsaglia though to get into the top 10 from start number 29 and Ramona Siebenhofer managed 14th after starting number 31. Quite a raft of DNFs later on too – start numbers 45, 52, 53, 54, 56, 60 & 66 – so loads of delays; hope there were no serious falls. Anyway, that’s run 1 over – 5 real contenders for run 2; Drev, Gut, Bren, Weirather and Rebensburg all separated by just 0.22 – given the way the course deteriorated the second run should rally be a test. Meanwhile in Santa Caterina Valfurva, the men are doing their second training run for tomorrow’s downhill – Hannes Reichelt was fastest in the first which was tough and bumpy – many athletes didn’t ski the whole course! Innerhofer was second and Fill third; today it looks like Innerhofer, Reichelt and Adrien Theaux. Jansrud down in 8th and Svindal 14th with most of the bigger names down.

Run 2: Emi Hasegawa (Jpn) goes first on the new course (set by a Slovenian coach?); nice to see Alex Tilley (Gbr) getting a second run! Elena Curtoni has a good run to take over the lead; can Alex match her again? Sadly not quite, lost a bit on the top section, but better lower to get into 2nd so she will get her first world cup points in GS today (and she won’t be the last of the top 30 either, as she takes a couple good scalps!). Too much to hope that would last a bit longer, as Taina Barioz goes into 2nd; Marta Bassino ties with her time, again going well on the lower section of the course! Better 2nd run from Tessa Worley but even then she can only get into 2nd. I thought Mowinckel would take the lead, but she lost time lower and is 3rd at present; Kling similar and she goes 4th – Elena Curtoni’s lead holding up well! Not sure if it’s a good thing to lose the lead to your big sister, but Irene Curtoni has done it by just 0.02. The Curtoni show comes to a swift end though as Michaela Kirchgasser goes into the lead by a mighty 0.51; good run from Francesca Marsaglia too, going into 2nd and Frida Hansdotter is 3rd.  Nina Løseth is another who starts very quickly, but again she’s losing time by inter 2 and ends 7th. MPH also starts well, but builds to inter 2 only to fall just in sight of the finish, but she’s OK! Federica Brignone is making errors all the way but it doesn’t  seem to make any difference – green all the way and she leads by 0.73!! Vikki Rebensburg is going well as the course cuts up, and she takes over the lead. Tina W has only 0.04 in hand – red/green/green and she’s the new leader. Brem is building at inter 1, but the light goes red at 2 and she’s 3rd; just 2 to come. Lara Gut also up at inter 1, still green at 2, storming run to the finish and now she leads! Just Ana Drev to come, and she has only 0.02 in hand – no fairly tale ending alas as she’s out before inter 1. So, Lara Gut wins (useful 100 points, on a day when Vonn got none!) from Tina Weirather and Vikki Rebensburg. Eva-Maria Brem was 4th ahead of Brignone and Kirchgasser – Alex Tilley in 19th (and 12 World Cup points). That means Lara Gut now leads the overall standings by 158 points from Lindsey Vonn.

Lienz (Austria) – Ladies’ Slalom (29 Dec): Run 1; not really a fan of slalom, so I missed most of the live coverage – seems very much like Frida Hansdotter has taken the first run from Wendy Holdener (her very noisy fan club will be pleased!) and Michaela Kirchgasser. Looks like the early starters had the best of it; all credit to Katharina Truppe getting into the top 10 after starting number 29!
Run 2: Missed this live as I was out, but both Hansdotter and Holdener kept their places in run 2 – results Frida Hansdotter wins from Wendy Holdener (+0.07) with Petra Vlhova (who was 0.8 behind Frida after run 1; looks like she was fastest on run 2) getting into 3rd, just ahead of Carmen Thalmann who also had a sub 54 second 2nd run. Michaela Kirchgasser didn’t finish the 2nd run. That puts Frida Hansdotter into 3rd overall in the women’s points series, just 24 behind Lindsey Vonn who is currently second. I see the Zagreb races, scheduled for 3 – 6 Jan have been moved to Santa Caterina (5/6 Jan)! Full report on this slalom at the FIS site HERE

Santa Caterina – Men’s Downhill: Again, a sunny day with not much “real” snow – most of the racers seem to think it’s a fast, impressive course but it’s also tough and bumpy. Svindal goes at 19 but he hasn’t been going well in practice; Reichelt and Innerhofer seem to be happier here. Lots of swapping of venues at the moment, due to the lack of snow across the European Alps. Not a good start – Kilde the first on the course and he’s a DNF; missed it on video so I hope he’s OK. That course really does look a bit of a pig! Second starter Ondrej Bank is also out, missing a gate after a tricky jump. Christof Innerhofer is the third man away – great start, goes too close to a gate and he ends up skiing a good section of the course with part of that gate wrapped round his neck and goggles; eventually loses the gate pole but the material was still there and his goggles were all over the place – amazing, and all credit to him, for making it to the finish. This is a really fast course in these conditions, around the 145 Km/h level. Incredible that the next couple skiers haven’t bettered Innerhofer’s time! Weibrecht is another DNF – long fall but he’s signalling that he’s OK. Five down, 3 DNFs, Innerhofer still leading! As Adrien Theaux takes over the lead, it’s time for me to go out – really do need to see the highlights of this one!
Later: Oh what a surprise – the ski jumping has overrun on Eurosport (wish I had £10 for every time that happens, I could probably follow the biathlon season in person), we’re staying with the interviews as well! If blathering was an Olympic sport, these people could win gold. At last – back to downhill 4 of this season. I hadn’t quite hoisted in that Guillermo Fayed is second in the DH standings, behind Svindal with his perfect 300 score. I see now what happened to Kilde – ski released itself in the turn; must be a bit unnerving? Amazing watching Innerhofer and the flag/gate episode again – incredible stuff. Theaux’s run was superb; 1.22 faster at that stage. Hannes Reichelt goes into 2nd; nice run from David Poisson to go 3rd. Either I blinked and missed it, or they didn’t show Svindal’s run? Some very odd editing, as we seem to have missed a block of hopefuls but are seeing full runs from some people who seem well off the pace. Good effort from Ben Thompsen (Can) though; lots of people reaching the bottom completely drained – a very tough event. So Adrien Theaux wins by 1.04 from Hannes Reichelt and David Poisson. Amazingly Innerhofer was 4th with Svindal 7th and Fayed 9th; Jansrud down in 27th. In Men’s DH that gives Svindal 336 to Fayed’s 219; Jansrud still 3rd with 173. The good news for Aksel is that he has overtaken Marcel Hirscher again in the overall – 636 to 621, Jansrud 3rd here too but a fair way back on 411 – long way to go (if the snow comes!) Initial report on the FIS site, HERE

First day (1 Jan) saw the freestyle sprints - the women's final was won by Maiken Caspersen Falla (Norway; but she has apparently withdrawn - not sure why) from Ida Ingemarsdotter (Swe) and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg (another Norwegian!). After Falla's withdrawal, Østberg leads the tour standings. The men's sprint was won by Federico Pellegrino (Ita), from Sergey Ustiugov (Rus) and Finn Hågen Krogh (Nor). More details in the FIS report HERE

The second events were the classic style mass starts; 15 Km for the women and 30 Km (longest since 2007 in the TdS?) for the men. Very much a case of "normal service is resumed" - Therese Johaug led in a Norwegian podium (Østberg and Heidi Weng) in the women's race and she now leads the standings by 4.5 seconds. Nice to see Charlotte Kalla (Swe) up to 4th at present. More on that race at the FIS site HERE. In the men's race Martin Johnsrud Sundby continued his domination, winning by 34.6 from Petter Northug (hope the winner is anyone but him!) and Didrik Tønseth - another all Norwegian podium! Andrew Musgrave was 68th and Andrew Young 71st. Tomorrow we get the freestyle pursuits; i'll put a link to the FIS report for the men's race later. HERE

Lenzerheide - Men’s 10 Km Pursuit: Nice day, and good conditions, if a bit misty – Martin Johnsrud Sundby starts 1:18 ahead of second placed Northug; Dario Cologne goes 10th. Apparently the Brits struggled with the wax yesterday, and they weren’t the only ones (including the French and Cologne?) – a real danger that some people may be lapped today (and hence out of the TdS). Northug has dropped back a bit and Tønseth is now up with him – perhaps not an unusual tactic for Northug, who seems to like a slower start and a sprint at the end. At this early stage only 3 skiers are within 2 minutes of Sundby; Northug, Tønseth and Ustiugov! At the 5 Km split Sundby is pulling away, Ustiugov now 2:06.20 behind and being caught by 2 more Norwegians (Krogh and Røthe). Looks like Dario Cologne has made up some time (but just 10 seconds at that stage); Northug has now gone back past Tønseth, and is starting to wind up his pace – he’s back to 1:27 and if he holds 2nd he gets a 10 second bonus. Another impressive win for Sundby, Northug does get 2nd. Great battle for the next places - Finn Haagen Krogh in a photo finish with Sergey Ustiugov [the Norwegian got it, but the official times are the same], Sjur Røthe in 5th and Tønseth 6th. Cologne up to 8th and he’s made up about 16 seconds – sadly pretty much offset by Sundby’s 15 second bonus for the win! Looks like Andrew Musgrave (67th, +9:50) has survived, so has Andrew Young (71st but over 10 minutes back) – next stop (after a day off) is Oberstdorf for another sprint and a classic mass start. FIS report HERE

Women’s 5 Km Pursuit: Closer intervals at the start, at least for the top 2! Therese Johaug has just over 4 seconds over Ingvild Flugstad Østberg; they’ve both gone off like rockets! Amazing to watch Therese go up that climb out of the stadium; Heidi Weng away 1:45 behind. This is going to be close – Østberg is keeping the gap on Johaug (the ZDF ticker seems to have gone berserk again, but the video is correct!) as they begin the climb again; Weng dropping back a bit; ZDF ticker back in sync! Therese is looking tired, and her style isn’t quite so fluent – long day yesterday and of course this is at altitude, and Østberg is the better sprinter. Østberg has gone for it – she’s in the lead as they head for the finish - there’s a surprise! Now, that gives Østberg a 15 second bonus to Therese’s 10 with a classic sprint to come next! At the finish Østberg was 9.3 ahead of Johaug (with 5 seconds to be added), but third placed Weng has slipped to +2:03.6 and she gets only 5 seconds bonus. Charlotte Kalla in 4th, but has also lost time – the ZDF ticker has thrown another wobble and shows a dead heat for first! So, in the top 10 for this race – 4 Norwegians (1,2,3 & 10), 1 Swede (4), 3 Finns (5,6,7) and 2 Americans (8/9). Rest day tomorrow, next event on Tuesday

Oberstdorf – Classic sprints (5 Jan): Not a lot of snow around, apart from the track! These are alternating between the women’s stages and the men’s – looks like most of the favourites are through to the semis (except Pellegrino?), but nice to see Therese Johaug won her quarter final! Nasty looking corner after the “downhill”; Ingvild Flugstad Østberg has won her semi, from Sophie Caldwell (USA) – both to go on. Now for semi heat 2 with Johaug and Weng; Therese off to a slow start – wax snags? Johaug is through – brilliant (not sure what is happening to Eurosport – keeps going off) – seems Weng is through as a “lucky loser”. Men’s semi 1 – Ustiugov and Poltoranin through there. Now, Sundby v Northug in semi 2; Krogh has slipped at the start (ski pole inside the ski; that's my sort of mistake, all too easy!), Sundby really gritting his teeth and he wins, but backing off at the end which didn’t help those behind. Photo between Eisenlauer and Northug for 2nd – the German gets it, but Northug is through as a lucky loser (pity!). So, women’s final with 3 Norwegians in it – Nilsson down after a fall and Johaug looking rather tired and out of it (was her waxing that good?), but she’ll be happy to be in the final. Sophie Caldwell takes the win (well done USA), from Heidi Weng; Østberg is 3rd and Johaug 5th behind Ingemarsdotter, which is a good result for Therese as it limits the gap in the overall. Now, for the men – Ustiugov away fast, but Sundby is back through him; quite a surprise, Emil Iversen, who almost no one has mentioned so far, comes through later on and he sprints away for the win. Sergey Ustiugov gets 2nd, Alexey Poltoranin 3rd and Sundby is somehow 4th – possibly too much effort early on? Petter Northug is 5th and Eisenlauer takes the red light in the final. Exciting stuff; have to see what that all does to the overall positions. Andrew Young 31st today and Andrew Musgrave 55th.

Meanwhile at Santa Caterina the snow has finally arrived and Nina Løseth has taken her first World Cup victory in the women’s slalom. She was apparently fastest in both runs to beat Sarka Strachova and Veronika Velez Zuzulova. Michaela Kirchgasser was 4th, Frida Hansdotter 5th and Wendy Holdener 6th. In the slalom standings Frida Hansdotter leads on 365, from Strachova (271) and Vlhova (220), who didn’t finish her first run today; Lara Gut still leads the overall from Hansdotter and Vonn. Full report on the FIS site HERE

Oberstdorf - Women’s 10 Km mass start (classic; 6 Jan): Bonus seconds at some split times today – still seems an odd idea (it’s not cycling, after all!). So, at split 1 it’s Johaug from Østberg and Weng. A gap of almost 30 seconds to the chasers, led by Charlotte Kalla. Much more classic this year; shame! Therese just can’t seem to shake Østberg, who seems to be gliding better; again I wonder about the waxing although it may just be weight difference? Kalla has fallen and is off track – looks like Justyna Kowalczyk’s fault? Final stages – Therese has opened a tiny gap, but Østberg is a better sprinter; no, this looks like a win for Johaug – what a final lap! So Therese Johaug wins by 9.9 seconds from Ingvild Flugstad Østberg; Heidi Weng third. Another Norwegian podium!! Poor Kalla ended up 8th after the fall, and Kowalczyk 17th.

Men’s 15 Km mass start (classic): Again bonus seconds here at various stages; apparently this should have been a 20 Km Skiathlon (might have suited Andrew Musgrave better?) Apparently Andrew Young is out – something about a collision with a camera man not helping his sprint earlier this week. This is quite close still; Ustiugov just leading, quite a few stumbles on the climb – 3 Norwegians get the first bonus seconds but they aren’t the tour leaders (Tønseth, Krogh, Iversen)! At the next split, it’s Holund (Nor) from Legkov (Rus) and Røthe – Sundby in 5th with 5 Km completed; very early break by Hans Christer Holund? Dario Cologna is well up; think Andrew Musgrave might be getting wax problems, which is a shame as he’s made up quite a lot of ground so far (25th at that last split, +12.5)? The tracks don’t seem to be holding up that well – warm and soft, so this is going to get harder as it goes on. Another break in the coverage which is annoying – the tennis seems OK, so it looks like an Oberstdorf snag! Next bonus – Tønseth gets the 15 again; Sundby seems to be struggling a bit, no points for him but Northug does get a few which might help him fend off Ustiugov in the overall? Looks like the sprints have taken their toll, as there are some new faces at the front, who got knocked out in the early stages! At the next split Poltoranin from Katz (Ger); Northug still in touch and Sundby about 30 seconds back. Lost it again – pity I don’t want to watch the tennis! Missed the finish, and to add insult to injury the ZDF ticker seems to have got the result wrong! Alexey Poltoranin (Kaz) wins from Dario Cologna (Sui) with Francesco de Fabiani (Ita) 3rd. Northug was 9th, just 0.9 ahead of Ustiugov in 10th but Sundby was 23rd, 56.4 back on the winner. Andrew Musgrave was 37th (having started 62) 1:46.3 off the leader. In the overall Sundby still leads but Northug is now only 45 seconds back. The FIS report is HERE

Earlier, at Santa Caterina it was the men’s turn for the slalom. Sounds like an exciting day – after the first run Alexander Khoroshilov was in the lead from Henrik Kristoffersen and Marcel Hirscher, but the margins were really small! In run 2 Marcel Hirscher put in a real storming run (the fastest on run 2), to go into a commanding lead at that stage. Kristoffersen had only 0.03 advantage as he started his run; +0.15 at inter 1, +0.13 at inter 2, back into green (-0.07) at inter 3, but he couldn’t match Hirscher’s speed on the final section and went into 2nd, +0.21 behind the Austrian. Alex Khoroshilov also put in a good run, but he was red all the way and could only manage third today. Joint 4th were Felix Neureuther and Fritz Dopfer (from 12th after run 1). All credit to Marc Digruber (Aut) who was 21st after run 1 but who put in the second fastest time on run 2 to go into 9th overall. Also great to see Dave Ryding get 13th today! In the overall Hirscher leads with 721 points to Svindal's 636. Full report on the FIS site in due course .... HERE it is!

Ladies 5 Km freestyle and Men's 10 Km freestyle (Toblach 8 Jan): I was out today and missed what must have been some good racing! In the men's event Finn Hagen Krogh managed to beat overall Tour leader Martin Johnsrud Sundby by just 3.6 seconds; nice to see France's Maurice Manificat having a better day and coming in third, just ahead of Sergey Ustiugov who in turn has closed on Petter Northug in the overall as the Norwegian could only manage 15th today. Andrew Musgrave was a very commendable 20th. Full FIS report HERE. The women's race was also very close, and for once the Norwegians didn't have it all their own way! Great work by Jessica Diggins to take her first World Cup win from Heidi Weng and Tour leader Ingvild Flugstad Østberg. Haga was 5th and Therese Johaug kept herself in contention for the overall by coming in 5th. FIS report and standings HERE

Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria – Women’s “Sprint Downhill” (9 Jan): Training again today (8 Jan) with Vonn fastest today. This race is another oddity from the FIS – a shortened downhill but with 2 runs on the same course! This is Lindsey Vonn’s take on the format - “It's a really interesting change of pace. It's exciting not only for the athletes but for the spectators as well. It's interesting that I am the only one who has already done a two-run downhill. It was in 2002 I was 17 years old. So it was quite of a long time ago.” The race: I joined run 1 of the race just as Lindsey Vonn went down the course – there’s a surprise, she’s into the lead by a massive 1.23 seconds! Kasja Kling in 2nd at present with Nicole Schmidhofer third. Lara Gut was looking fast and in touch, but had a lucky escape mid course and DNFs – no second run, and no points! Cornelia Hütter goes into 2nd but still 0.98 off Vonn’s time. Tina Weirather started in the green, but lost a little on the final section – even so, into 2nd but 0.92 behind the leader. Apart from Vonn it’s very close for the remaining places – good run from Larisa Yurkiw who has now gone into 2nd and the gap is 0.91! Lotte Smiseth Sejersted has made a similar mistake to Gut but can’t recover it and is in the nets – think she’s OK, but the race is paused. Might be a bit more serious than I thought – they are winching her off the mountain and off to hospital – from what I can see she has trouble standing so possibly a ligament? Hopefully she will be OK soon. At present Vonn leads from Yurkiw, Weirather, Hütter and Kling. Actually Michaela Kirchgasser, not often seen on the long speed skis, put in a very useful top section; lost it lower down but even so she might just get a second run? No, that’s her out of the top 30. Several of the later starters seem to have the top section sorted but all lose time in the middle/lower sections, so no change to the top 5. Same course for run 2, and not much of a break for the later starters! I rejoined the video coverage about half way through run 2, having just missed Ramona Siebenhofer’s run – nasty crash but she seems to be OK and has got down the hill. Margot Bailet is next down and she goes into the lead, taking over from Lizzie Görgl. Sabrina Maier was living dangerously a few times, but she’s down in one piece! Again, quite a few skiers losing time in the mid section, and apparently visibility at the top is getting worse too. Now Vikki Rebensburg; she was red at inter 3 but a great final section gets her the lead by 0.02! Mirjam Puchner has had a fall too, also seems OK; Stacey Cook built on her advantage early on but again lost time in mid section to end up third. Lovely run from Nicole Schmidhofer, different line and a good final section too – she leads by 0.42 from Rebensburg. Kajsa Kling had a couple moments but no panic and she’s into the lead by just 0.06. As the light improves Cornelia Hütter is going well; right on the edge at times, very risky and she goes 0.39 ahead! Tina Weirather was going further green at inter 2, but she’s out – very impressive recovery to avoid a fall. Just 2 to go, Larisa Yurkiw turns -0.07 into -0.35 by inter 3 and a superb final run gets her the lead by 0.66 despite a massive fright 3 from home! Vonn starts with 0.91 advantage, little slower through the speed gun but she stays green all the way and wins by a full second! Interesting that Larisa Y was only 0.09 slower on run 2 – very impressive! So, a win for Vonn, from Yurkiw and Hütter. Now FIS – please stop fiddling with the formats!! Super G tomorrow. FIS report HERE

Men’s GS (Adelboden 9 Jan): Cancelled due to dense fog and adverse weather (or, as ZDF put it “Der Wettergott spielt nicht mit”)!

Tour de Ski stage 7 (Val di Fiemme, 9 Jan): Another classic style mass start (10 Km for the women, 15 for the men); this isn’t such a good year for those who prefer freestyle!! So, women away first on their 10 Km, soft snow here too – at the half way point it looks like Krista Pärmäkoski (Fin) leading from Weng, Østberg and Johaug – 0.80 between them then 12 seconds to the chasing group. By 9 Km Østberg is back in the lead but only by 0.7 from Weng with Johaug 1.7 back; Pärmäkoski still in touch a few seconds back but then about 40 seconds to the chasing group. A sprint to the line which Heidi Weng wins, Østberg second by 0.80, with Therese Johaug third 6.2 back. Pärmäkoski was 4th and Charlotte Kalla 5th, but almost a minute back. Overall Therese J is now +38.7, going into the final day. Now for the men’s race – early on it seems to be Krogh and Sundby from Ustiugov, Jonas Dobler and Tønseth; at 4 Km Sundby is ahead of Krogh and Tønseth with Northug up to 4th (bit unusual, he normally waits for the final stages). At 5 Km it’s still all very close – only 2.7 seconds separate the top 10! At half way Sundby leads from Ustiugov and Tønseth but there is still only 3.4 seconds between the top 10, and looking at a 10 second gap gets you to 36th place! There seems to have been an injection of pace now because by 8.5 Km the top 10 are now separated by 13.6 seconds, with Sundby, Cologna and de Fabiani opening a small gap at the front, but now it’s closed up again! Looks as though Cologna is dropping back – Dyrhaug and Sundby have pulled away a little at 11.5 Km, Poltoranin still in touch and a small gap to the chasers; Ustiugov also dropping back a bit; by 12.5 Km Poltoranin is 7.7 back on the 2 leaders and the chasing group are now 21 seconds back and the gap is slowly opening. Another great run from Martin Johnsrud Sundby to win from Niklas Dyrhaug (Nor) and Alexey Poltoranin (Kaz). Ustiugov down to 13 and Petter Northug down in 17th, +51.4.  The report on the women's race is HERE, and the men's report is HERE

Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria – Women’s Super G: Bit odd, I know Eurosport can’t show everything, especially on a busy winter sport day like today, but running a repeat of yesterday’s biathlon rather than live Super G seems bizarre! Well, Larisa Yurkiw isn’t going to be on the podium today – seems to be OK as the race isn’t paused. With 10 down it’s Francesca Marsaglia leading from Kasja Kling and Federica Brignone. Nicole Schmidhofer goes ahead of Kling; now start number 16 – Lindsey Vonn; quelle surprise she’s into the lead by 1.34! Lara Gut goes into 2nd and Cornelia Hütter 3rd. Lizzie Görgl goes into 4th, only to be displaced by Nadia Fanchini. Then no change; another emphatic win for Vonn, but at least Gut gets points today and a good third from Hütter!

Adelboden – Men’s Slalom: Run 1. Not a nice day – falling wet snow and not ideal vis! Something of a surprise to see Alex Khoroshilov (first down the course) setting a time that Marcel Hirscher (3rd down) couldn’t match; with 6 down it’s Alex, Marcel and Henrik K. In these conditions there are some big time gaps developing – 2.13 seconds between 1st and 10th. Pity – J B Grange going well but straddled a gate. The snow has eased off, but the course is cutting up a bit. Dave Ryding safely down, and it looks like he’ll get a second run (might be useful going relatively early?). Ted Ligety joins the DNF team, not one of his happier seasons? No change at the top – Khoroshilov, Hirscher, Kristoffersen, Dopfer, Pinturault and Neureuther. Run 2, and Dave Ryding has completed his run. With 20 away of the top 30, Manuel Feller leads; Stefano Gross has displaced him, and there are 7 to go; he’s hanging on well! Good run from Alexis Pinturault, with a better lower section – he takes over the lead. Fritz Dopfer can’t match him; Kristoffersen has 0.65 in hand though and he’s built on it by inter 1 – green all the way! Hirscher in the red at inter 1, green, green but loses it low down and is 0.06 off the Norwegian’s pace. Alex K is green at 1 and 2, but has slipped back at 3, and he can only manage third: Henrik Kristoffersen wins from Hirscher and Khoroshilov.

Tour de Ski stage 8 (Val di Fiemme, Alpe Cermis): Apparently Dario Cologna is unwell and won’t start today; no more detail. Effectively a pursuit race; women first! Ingvild Flugstad Østberg starts 38 seconds up on Therese Johaug with Heidi Weng a good way back in third. At 6.2 Km the climb is starting in earnest – gap now 14.1 but it closes down really quickly – Therese is now ahead! At the 8.1 Km timing point Johaug is 1:26.4 ahead; Østberg looking very much heavier on her skis – wonder if Weng might catch her? Don’t think so, she’s slowing too. You get a much better idea of how nasty a climb this is when you see the view back down into the valley – what a beast! What an amazing performance by Johaug; she cruises over the line – happy but wiped out, having taken about 3 minutes out of IFØ today.  Østberg takes a well deserved second, over 2 minutes back and she’s really exhausted; Heidi Weng is in third 3:13.90 back – another Norwegian clean sweep! Charlotte Kalla takes 4th ahead of Kerttu Niskanen. Ragnhild Haga also looking good on this climb, and she’s made up a couple places today, coming in 6th. I wouldn’t mind skiing down that hill, but the lift looks a much better option for getting back to the top!!
No live coverage (with commentary) of the men’s race, just a noisy video on Eurosport – lots of background crowd noise, whimpering dogs and cowbells. Lonely day for Martin Johnsrud Sundby who has over 3 minutes in hand! The main interest is in the chasing group of Poltoranin, Krogh, Ustiugov and Northug, possibly with Tønseth joining them. At 7.1 Km Krogh is just in 2nd from Ustiugov and Northug with Poltoranin 5th but those 4 are still very close; Tønseth has dropped back. Sundby is now through 8.1 Km and I can’t see any other skiers in shot! This set of cameras seem to give a better idea of just how steep the climb is; Finn Hägen Krogh is holding 2nd well, ahead of Sergey Ustiugov and they have opened out about 30 seconds on Poltoranin and Northug. Well, a very convincing win by Sundby; great day for Krogh who came through for 2nd with a very good climb , and well done Ustiugov taking third and preventing yet another all Norwegian podium! In the end Northug managed to get past Poltoranin as they took 4th/5th respectively with Sjur Røthe in 6th – all look very happy that it’s over!

Flachau (Aut) – Ladies’ Slalom: This is the night slalom that was scheduled for tonight but there are three events coming from this resort this week/weekend as some of the cancelled German events (slalom & GS from Ofterschwang?) have moved here. Run 1 -  Missed this live (not hard to do as Eurosport are showing a repeat of the men’s event from Adelboden for some reason??), but the snow looks a little soft, especially in the mid sections, which isn’t going to help the later starters. Also fresh snow is falling as the event begins. With most of the ”names” down Veronika Velez Zuzulova (Svk; started number 3) is leading by a quite healthy 0.54 from Wendy Holdener (Sui, who started 2nd) who is 0.30 ahead of Sarka Strachová (Cze, who started 4th!). Nina Løseth 4th (start number 5) ahead of Anna Swenn-Larsson (11 – good effort) and Frida Hansdotter (7). Less snow for run 2, at least as far as the dropping stuff is concerned! This course set by Romain Velez (yes, that name might ring a bell, he’s VVZ’s husband!). Julia Grünwald has straddled a gate – both bindings release and she’s out, but seems unhurt. Rather disappointing run from Maria Pietilae-Holmner (aka MPH); her first wasn’t up to her usual standard either she’s 7th at present. Resi Stiegler was looking good early on but lost it a bit in the middle – great recovery though and she’s third; Mielzynski is also out so at half way it’s Anne-Sophie Barthet leading from Lena Dürr and Resi Stiegler – 15 to go. Emelie Wikstrøm (Swe) has taken over the lead. But next down is Irene Curtoni and she builds on her advantage – 0.65 faster than the Swede. A very good run but Charlotte Chable is still fastest on run 2 at present – both statements are invalidated by Petra Vlhova (Svk); into the lead with the fastest time so far on this run! I thought Noens might have done just enough but she’s into 2nd. Eight to go; Michaela Kirchgasser out (straddle) – Dad isn’t happy and, understandably, neither is she! Course seems to be holding up rather better; Frida Hansdotter is in the green all the way and now leads by 0.37; Swenn-Larsson goes into 3rd – great recovery! Nina Løseth started well but was red at inter 2/3; into 2nd. Great run from Sarka Strachová, almost doubling her advantage; that’s going to pressure the last two! Wendy Holdener can’t match her and is into 3rd; just Veronika V-Z to come and she has 0.84 advantage. She goes over a second up at inter 1, loses a little later but it’s enough – a win for Slovakia as Veronika wins by 0.31 from Sarka Strachová with Frida Hansdotter picking up useful points in third. In the overall Lara Gut (738) leads Lindsey Vonn (700) by just 38 points; Frida H closes on them with 60 points tonight – she’s now on 581.

Ladies’ Slalom (15 Jan): I think this is vice the cancelled German event (Ofterschwang?). Run 1 clashed with the men’s biathlon relay at Ruhpolding, so I missed it but with the run complete Nastasia Noens leads from Veronika Velez Zuzulova and Frida Hansdotter – only 0.20 between them though! Sarka Strachová 4th and Petra Vlhova 5th, and every chance they could still get on the podium – should be a good second run. Right – snow falling as they set to under the lights; at the half way point of run 2 Julia Grünwald (Aut) leads from another Austrian, Katharina Gallhuber. MPH does seem to be off the pace recently; another disappointing run for her. This must be a tricky course, lots of skiers losing time all the way – for example Michaela Kirchgasser had 0.80 in hand but ended up +0.59 in 5th; did she miss a gate as well? The course is getting rutted; Nina Løseth has also lost a lot of her advantage during this leg, but she had enough (1.13!) to go into 1st by 0.36 despite only the 5th fastest time on this run. That was a good run from Wendy Holdener who actually gained time – she has taken the lead! Michelle Gisin goes 3rd; despite her bare chested fan club, Carmen Thalmann can only manage 4th! Petra Vlhova started with only 0.08 advantage but despite going red at inter 1, she builds lower down and she’s into the lead; Strachová starts well but loses a bit of time lower – she’s into 2nd. Now, Frida Hansdotter has 0.39 to play with – she’s green all the way and into the lead; nice run! VVZ has only 0.03 now; she builds it to a healthy 0.35 at inter 1, 0.45 at 2, 0.21 at 3 and now she leads; good evening for Slovakia! Not a good start for Noens – she’s into the red at inter 1 and it’s going the wrong way – she ends up 4th. So, Veronika Velez-Zuzulova wins from Frida Hansdotter and Petra Vlhova – Slovakia 1st and 3rd and that’s VVZ’s second slalom win here this week!

Women’s GS (vice Ofterschwang): Missed most of run 1, looks overcast and another day with odd light and falling snow! At present Ana Drev (Slo) leads from Vikki Rebensburg and Eva-Maria Brem with Lara Gut in 4th 0.61 back. And that’s how it stays, with Federica Brignone 5th ahead of Nina Løseth. I see Lindsey Vonn has got her shorter skis out; currently in 10th! Weather looks much better for run 2, at least for the first dozen or so! Michaela Kirchgasser was 11th on run 1; as she comes to the start for her second run Stephanie Brunner leads from Nadia Fanchini. The weather has closed in again, Kirchgasser can only manage 11th place – she’ll be disappointed with that. Vonn starts well, loses time lower and she’s fallen – seems OK, but no points! Irene Curtoni also out; it’s snowing again and quite gloomy – Tina Weirather also disappointing and Løseth goes into 17th! The later starters are having problems, but Federica Brignone has put in a great effort to take the lead; Lara Gut is into the red by inter 2 and several errors lower down mean she’s just 16th at present. Brem also green at inter 1, but losing time later on – into 2nd though. Vikki Rebensburg away and building on her advantage; great run and she’s into the lead by almost a second! Ana Drev has only 0.04 at the start and she’s into the red – it’s going the wrong way but she does hold on for 2nd. Final places – Vikki R wins from Ana Drev and Federica Brignone; Lara Gut down in 19th today which means she now leads the overall by 50 points. Fastest on run 2 was Francesca Marsaglia.

Wengen – Men’s Alpine Combined: Rats! Missed the faster skiers on the downhill bit! Looking at some of the later runs it looked a great day! So, Alex Lund Svindal leads after that “half” of the event from Adrien Théaux with Hannes Reichelt (quite a late starter, so he did well) tied with Kjetil Jansrud in 3rd and Dominik Paris 5th.  No Marcel Hirscher, but Ted Ligety is 38th after run 1. It looks, according to ZDF, as if Hannes Reichelt will not start run 2; there seem to be a few who just used the downhill run as more training for tomorrow! No commentary on Eurosport for run 2 (slalom), but at least we do have video of it. With 10 down (plus 2 DNS, 1 DSQ and 3 DNFs) Klemen Kosi leads from Romed Baumann. Nice run from Marc Gisin to take the lead (by 0.14), but he loses it straight away to Thomas Mermillod Blondin (by a mighty 0.70). The Frenchman hangs on to the lead for a while, until Jansrud takes it away from him – some impressive recoveries and not what you’d call pretty, but it worked! Théaux goes into 2nd, and now it’s Svindal, who has 0.90 in hand; as he goes it drops to 0.7, then 0.19 – he’s second by just 0.04! That’s the top 30 down; Kjetil Jansrud wins; he looks very pleased both with the win, and pipping his team mate! Aksel Lund Svindal is 2nd, Adrien Théaux 3rd and TMB 4th. That gets Svindal to 85 points behind Hirscher in the overall; Jansrud 4th, 60 points behind Kristoffersen – 3 Norwegians in the top 4! I see Ted Ligety was a DNF in run 2; I still haven’t heard whether he’s entirely well.

Wengen – Men’s Downhill (16 Jan): Apparently Christof Innerhofer was presented with a gate pole and flag last night, so that he won’t need to collect one during this downhill! Seems the start has been slightly lowered but the famous landmarks are still in the course. At present, with the favourites still to come, Klaus Kröll leads from Innerhofer and David Poisson; only 0.11 between them. Beat Feuz goes under the bridge as a train goes over – supposed to be lucky; it’s his first come back race of 2016 and he goes into 6th. Dominik Paris goes into 2nd as the visibility gets worse on the bottom part of the course; here comes Svindal – 1.21 up at inter 3 and he goes into the lead by a massive 1.52! Hannes Reichelt also charging; that’s a good run and he goes second, 0.19 back on Aksel’s time. Now the race has been interrupted due to the thickening fog; 21 down but Kjetil Jansrud still to come! Well, the referees reckon it’s safe again but it’s not as good as earlier and it’s foggier further up the mountain; Jansrud can only manage 12th – unlucky! Now, can we get enough racers down to make the race count? There are 25 down, and the race is once more interrupted. Back on again but no one is close to the top 10 – they’ve reached the half way stage, so I think the race will count no matter what happens now? So, a first win on this course for Aksel Lund Svindal, and that puts him on 816  points in the overall, 15 clear of Marcel Hirscher. Hannes Reichelt takes second and Klaus Kröll has held on for third – great effort!

Men’s Slalom: Not the “normal” slalom hill apparently; looks an interesting course, quite flat and straight at the top. The favourites are going early; Henrik Kristoffersen in start number 2 has set an impressive time – it’s snowing here too, which is fitting as it’s “World Snow Day”! Khoroshilov is out; no points today! It’s snowing more heavily and the light isn’t too good either. Disappointing run from Dopfer and now it’s Hirscher’s turn – slow start and he’s more into the red at inter 2, he’s 0.74 off Henrik’s time and currently 4th. He’s pushed down another place as Felix Neureuther goes into 2nd; he, in turn, is replaced by Razzoli! Lizeroux out just 2 gates from home; Grange into 4th and it’s quite close – just 0.53 between the top 6. Luca Aerni into the top 10 despite starting 21st; he’s pushed Marcel Hirscher down to joint 9th – at least he’ll start earlier than Henrik in run 2! Thomas MB has somehow started very late (52!) and got into the top 10, pushing Marcel down another place! Good to see Dave Ryding in 14th just 0.77 off the lead (so that’s 0.03 behind Hirscher!). Despite that, no live coverage with commentary of run 2 on Eurosport. Just before Dave Ryding gets his 2nd run, Jens Byggmark is leading from Andre Myhrer and Sebastian-Foss Solevaag; Dave has lost most of his advantage by inter 1, into the red at 2 – he’s currently 7th but down the hill safely so he’ll get some points today. Now for Marcel Hirscher – visibility seems to be getting worse and that’s a massive mistake – Hirscher is a DNF; he’s looking at his skis, wonder if there was a problem? Good start by Thomas Mermillod Blondin but he too lost time on the lower section; into 12th. That’s a better run from Pinturault – he goes 2nd. Jens Byggmark’s time is holding up well! At last, Stefano Gross has beaten it, but by just 0.01. I thought Felix Neureuther might have taken it, but he’s into 3rd. Super run from Giuliano Razzoli puts him in first with just Henrik K to come – building to inter 1, just red at 2 but an amazing final section to take the win! So, Henrik Kristoffersen wins from Giuliano Razzoli with Stefano Gross third. Svindal still leads the overall, but Henrik leads the slalom standings by 140 points from Marcel Hirscher.

Kitzbühl – Men’s Super G and Super G Alpine Combination: Missed the Super G part (which is also a stand alone World Cup Super G race, as well as being the first half of this combined) as I was out, but it was won by Aksel Lund Svindal, with Andrew Weibrecht 2nd and Hannes Reichelt third. Marcel Hirscher was 23rd +1.90 back. First down on run 2 (which looks tough for the non slalom specialists) was Victor Muffat-Jeandet, and his time looked fastest for a while until Marcel Hirscher took over the lead –sadly I only joined this run after Hirscher’s descent, at which stage I heard the commentators saying that they expected Hirscher to be disqualified – no more detail, but shortly after that Marcel H’s name vanished from the top of the results and ended up at the foot of the page marked DSQ! No points for him, once again. Right, with 15 down Alexis Pinturault leads from Victor M-J and Thomas Mermillod-Blondin; great for France but this part of the event is only at the half way stage. Seems Hirscher’s fault was a straddle – that’s the second slalom in a row that he hasn’t completed/scored points! At present the French have locked out the podium. Casse and Peter Fill both DNF, Dominik Paris can’t match the target time and goes 8th. Kjetil Jansrud (4th in run 1) has 0.69 in hand but not only is this a tough slalom but the course is rutting up – by inter 2 though he’s 1.22 in the red and it goes the wrong way all the rest of the run – only 14th. Reichelt and Weibrecht are not starting this slalom; Svindal has 1.22 advantage but he’s fallen just after inter 1. He’s up and seems OK; hopefully no damage before tomorrow’s downhill. So, Alex Pinturault wins here for the 3rd year from Victor M-J (fastest in run 2) and Thomas M-B – happy time for the French, first total podium for a while!! That means that Aksel Lund Svindal gets 100 points for the Super G, but nothing  for the Combined. Marcel Hirscher got 8 from the Super G and nowt for the Combined – in the overall Aksel leads Marcel by 107 (916 to 809). Hahnenkamm downhill tomorrow!

Kitzbühl – Men’s Downhill (23 Jan): The (in)famous Hahnenkamm downhill; a 3.3 Km course which drops 860m; the start has been lowered today! Seems that heavy overnight snow and strong winds have caused a delay. With strong winds also occasionally affecting the women’s race in Cortina, this might be a difficult day for the broadcast teams. Start has been confirmed as 1145 (in UK), after a 1 hour delay. Couple of epic moments for Otmar Striedinger, the first away, he’s safely down most of the course, apart from the final couple metres – seems OK. Kilde is faster, and he can update both Svindal and Jansrud on the conditions. Good run from David Poisson, but a bit low on the traverse and he’s 2nd. Good recovery by Muzaton (who was unlucky with the wind) but he’s out of the course. Streitberger isn’t so lucky; loses it just below the Red Bull arch and he’s into the netting – rather nasty looking and I think they’re going to need the helicopter – later reports suggest a knee injury. Race is interrupted; Romed Baumann is the next down when it resumes and he’s into 4th. Steve Nyman was looking good but he’s also fallen – up and seems well though; Janka takes over first place. Great run from Beat Feuz to take over the lead – seems he’s getting full fitness back! Very impressive from Peter Fill and now he leads; Hannes Reichelt has crashed into the netting in almost the same place as Streitberger, not good but amazingly he seems unhurt and is back on his feet – tough lad! The officials are going to take him off by helo though as a precaution. Weather seems to be getting worse and the course is deteriorating too; Svindal has never won here, and he’s into the red at inter 3, maybe a bit bruised from yesterday’s slalom run? Grief – Svindal is also out at almost the same point as Streitberger and Reichelt, and that looked really nasty. He is also up and moving around; maybe questions need to be asked about that bit of the course? Aksel is walking off; his skis are wrecked! Erik Guay almost joined the netting group – good recovery  but lost speed. Jansrud starts well but he’s lost a lot on the gliding part of the course; he’s into 10th. At present it’s Peter Fill in the lead from Beat Feuz and Carlo Janka; good late run from Marc Gisin to get into 5th. The race has now been stopped but enough have started to let the results stand; no change to the top 6 although Kriechmayer did well to get into 7th after starting number 30 – great win for Peter Fill!

Kitzbühl – Men’s Slalom, Ganslern course (24 Jan): Firstly, some “injury updates” after the series of nasty crashes on yesterday’s downhill – Aksel Lund Svindal has torn his right knee ACL; out for the rest of the season, which is terrible news. Hannes Reichelt has a severe bone bruise on the left leg and is expected to be out for 2 – 3 weeks; Georg Streitberger has also torn an ACL, and he too is out for the remainder of the season. During the training we also lost Florian Scheiber (ACL) and Max Franz; both out for the season. So, on to the slalom (set by a Swedish coach) – not a good start as the weather looks a bit grim; first away was Razzoli and he has crashed, not sure how serious but he seems to be in line for a helo to the hospital? Commentators reckon it’s potentially another ACL injury, left knee? The piste sounds very icy; good recovery by Gross – very athletic! At least he’s down; nice run from Fritz Dopfer though to set a more realistic time. Now, Marcel Hirscher – he too has a problem early on, and he’s broken a pole too; he recovers but he’s +0.34 at the finish. Next is Henrik Kristoffsen; he almost falls and he too is in trouble here – into third +0.83, very unusual! Khoroshilov ties with Hirscher – really seems like people are struggling for grip on this icy course. Felix Neureuther also had a moment early on – he’s into 4th, +0.74. Pinturault has lost his pole at gate 1, and he’s out. The top section must be really tricky as it’s giving some very competent skiers considerable trouble; there seems to be a nasty roller which is bumping the skiers into the air – very hard to get any grip when you’re airborne! J-B Grange looking better and he’s into 5th; Mattias Hargin (a Swede!) goes into 2nd, just 0.18 behind Dopfer. Victor M-J is also out; seems OK. Byggmark also out, same area; David Chodounsky almost did the same but an amazing recovery gets the American into 5th – another acrobatic save! Nice, neat run from Manfred Mölgg – into 6th. Now, that was well done – Marco Schwartz goes into 3rd; Dave Ryding is down safely – might get a second run? I was going to suggest that all the real hopefuls had gone but Manuel Feller (Aut) is into the top 6, only 0.50 behind; he’s knocked down one place by Anton Lahdenperä (another Swede!!). Digruber and Herbst are both DNF (that’s 8 so far); Ramon Zenhäusern joins them, so does Tonetti! Ted Ligety has been DQ’d – not a good season for him. No late changes but 3 DSQ, 40 DNF (yes, FORTY) and 1 DNS. Dave Ryding 27th, so he will start run 2. Currently Dopfer leads from Hargin and Marco Schwarz. Marcel Hirscher and Aleks Khoroshilov are tied for 4th while Henrik K is back in 12th.
Run 2, set by a French coach – looks like there really is some nasty, tricky terrain on this hill! Now, that was a good start from Dave Ryding – almost a second up at inter 2 but he’s skied out – no points and he’s going to be unhappier still when he sees how well it was going! As Henrik K tries to repair the damage of run 1, Patrick Thaler (Ita) is leading from Jonathan Nordbotten (Nor). Already 5 DNFs and a DSQ! Henrik away well and building on a small advantage – he’s over a second faster to take the lead; very impressive! Disappointing runs from Neureuther and Mölgg. Now it’s Hirscher – 0.49 in hand at the start; up to 0.67, down to 0.27, just red at inter 3 – he’s 2nd by just 0.03; another impressive run! Khoroshilov has lost almost all his advantage by inter 1, and then it’s red all the way – into 3rd, but it looked like he straddled just before the end; yes he’s DNF. Marco Schwarz makes a spectacular recovery, but that’s lost him time. Hargin also red by inter 3, and now he’s into 3rd. Just Dopfer to go – 0.83 advantage; it’s almost all gone by inter 2, red at 3 – Fritz Dopfer goes third. What an epic, I know he’s good, but who could predict such a superb run from Henrik Kristoffersen to recover from 12th to take the win from Hirscher and Dopfer! Hirscher now just 27 points behind Svindal in the overall, and the Norwegian is out for the season

Cortina d’Ampezzo – Women’s Downhill (23 Jan): A 2.66 Km course, dropping 760m; looks a nice day but varying amounts of shadow on the course so the light conditions will be changing. Main contenders start about bib 14; Vonn goes 16, Gut 17. Really amazing run from Tina Weirather, just before the race was interrupted by strong winds near the start – difficult top section in those conditions for Tina who was in the red at inter 1, +0.85 at inter 2, a bit better at inter 3 and then into the lead by 0.05! Everything grinds to a halt. OK, it’s back on and Kling is on her way down, unhampered by Tina’s headwind; better at the top but she’s only 3rd at the finish – Johanna Schnarf still 2nd. Nice run from Edit Miklos to go 2nd; the wind seems to be getting up lower on the course now. Now it’s Lindsey Vonn’s turn – wind has eased! She is massively in the green; loses a tiny bit lower down but she’s into the lead by just over a second; how dispiriting for the other women! A respectable start from Lara Gut; she’s into 2nd. I didn’t see any obvious mistake but Vikki Rebensburg lost a fair bit of time between inter 2 and 3. That was another good race by Larisa Yurkiw – she’s into second and only 0.28 slower than Vonn - impressive. Very fast start by Lizzie Görgl but perhaps too hard just before inter 2 and she’s scrubbed off a lot of speed. Into another TV break – Vonn leads from Yurkiw and Gut. Now the strong wind is back so the break becomes an interruption. Back on, but no challenge to the top 3 and we are running out of “names”. That ends the Eurosport coverage and we seem to be going to tennis (why do so many broadcasters cover the same matches at the same time??) on both channels as Kitzbühl -  “Die Strief” - is delayed! Surely they could have let us see a bit more of the Cortina race? Tina W is still 4th and Schnarf 5th, Miklos a very close 6th. Perhaps that’s why they didn’t stay with the Cortina race – no change at the top, so that’s a 74th (??) World Cup win for Vonn, who has now broken all records for Women’s Alpine speed events (it's her 37th downhill!). Excellent result for Larisa Yurkiw in 2nd (she’s now up to 2nd in the downhill globe) and Lara Gut’s 3rd gets her 60 points which keeps her at the top of the overall, but now just 10 points clear of Vonn – Super G tomorrow!

Cortina d’Ampezzo – Women’s Super G: Course set by a Swiss coach; vertical drop of 600m on a course of 2.195 Km. Early leader was Stacey Cook, and her time is holding up well; I thought Federica Brignone might take it – she’s into 2nd. Now Kasja Kling has taken over the lead by 0.40; Marsaglia looked to be a threat but she’s fallen – hopefully OK. Nice run for Connie Hütter, and she goes 1st; Tina Weirather has no head wind to contend with today and she is first by half a second. Boring – Lindsey Vonn is fastest; that could well be World Cup win 75, I do wish there was someone who could give her more of a fight! Lara Gut will be a bit disappointed with her run, let’s see where she ends up. Impressive jump from Rebensburg which must have been a bit of a scare, but she’s still into 3rd. Very little change after that, at least as far as the top 6 were concerned – Corinne Suter did get into 7th but that’s win 75 for Lindsey Vonn from Tina Weirather and Vikki Rebensburg; Connie Hütter 4th ahead of Lara Gut and Kasja Kling. That gives Vonn 900 points and she leads Gut by 45 in the overall after today.

Schladming – Men’s Night Slalom: Course set by an Italian coach (run 1) with a Russian setting run 2 – 216m vertical drop. Run 1 will be kicked off by Felix Neureuther with Henrik K going 2 and Marcel Hirscher 4; Dave Ryding here and going number 20. So, run 1 underway - snow apparently a bit soft despite serious work on the piste. Good run from Felix N; now Henrik K is in the red on his run, and by the end he's over a second off the German's time - very unusual! Fritz Dopfer also off the pace and now it's Hirscher - he's over 2.5 seconds off Neureuther's run, what is going on tonight? Felix's run looking very impressive at this early stage, especially his speed on the lower section. Rather better from Stefano Gross, who goes into 2nd, but many quite competent skiers are losing lots of time on this course; with 10 down Hirscher is currently last! Ah, someone is slower than Marcel H - now there's a sentence you probably don't see very often! It is just conceivable that Hirscher might not get a second run. Marco Schwarz also well off the pace - not a good evening for the Austrians. Dave Ryding is also faster than Hirscher - no offence to Dave, but I wonder if the Austrians have made some major error in preparation? At present it's Neureuther from Gross and Kristoffersen. Manuel Feller adds to Austria's woes, going into 22nd, and Digruber is slightly slower. The course is starting to get rutted too, as BBC stops red button coverage - no change to the top 3. Marcel Hirscher currently 21st. (22 after the run?)
Run 2; looking quite foggy in places - not easy? Once again the middle section seems to be causing a few problems; the Russian coach seems to have set a tricky sequence here. Daniel Yule was first down, and his time is looking good at present. Marc Digruber has dislodged him; here comes Hirscher - seems he may have had a goggle problem with lenses back to front, which fogged up his view on run 1. Certainly this run is much more typical - nearly a second ahead and the course might degrade as this goes on? Ironically the visibility on the course is getting better; but sadly Dave Ryding won't beat Hirscher this time! Marcel H will gain some useful places here, but that's the second kit problem in as many weeks. At present Hirscher, Stehle and Thaler. Foss-Solevaag goes into 3rd; course repair time during the TV break. Now Fritz Dopfer goes into 3rd; everyone losing time between inter 1 & 2 where the course makes a big traverse right - Hagen has gone out too. Four to go; ruts are getting deeper! Khoroshilov has gone into the red at inter 2; better lower section though and he's second. Henrik K has 1.49 in hand, still green at inter 2 - not entirely error free but he's taken the lead! Stefano Gross in trouble and only into 6th; just Felix N to come - still green at inter 2, but he's straddled! So, Henrik Kristoffersen wins (again!), Marcel Hirscher makes the comeback of the season to take 2nd with Aleks Koroshilov 3rd. Amazing race!

Maribor – Women’s Giant Slalom (30 Jan): Sunny day; not a lot of snow in the valley (actually none) but the course looks OK and it’s shaded! Course set by an American coach (run 1, so we can guess who it’s designed to suit!) with a Swede setting run 2 – 400m vertical drop. With 4 down on run 1 Eva-Maria Brem is leading – fifth away Federica Brignone is a DNF and the race is interrupted; no video yet so I can’t see what happened. Not a long delay so hopefully nothing too serious. Lara Gut is down, and into current third place behind Vikki Rebensburg. Disappointing run from MPH; Kirchgasser also not on form - top 3 still E-M B, Vikki, Lara. Now we have video and are catching up, Brignone’s crash relatively heavy and a bit bloody (cut lip? Nose?) but hopefully nothing worse. Oops, I take back my comment about this course suiting Lindsey Vonn (who I think won this race in 2013?); nothing really obvious wrong, but +2.45 and currently 12th; course is starting to get rutted. Top 3 still the same with Nina Løseth 4th, ahead of Tina Weirather and local Ana Drev, Vonn still 12th; not sure there will be much change to that as it gets even bumpier? The second run should be tricky with these ruts crossing it; some of the later starters on run 1 are almost 2 seconds off the pace even at inter 1! Not sure what’s happening with the coverage, it seems to have jumped back a couple racers – Matt Chilton is equally bemused! I’m not sure whether Alex Tilley will get a second run; she’s currently 30th, with about 16 racers to go. She’s missed it – good effort from such a late start though. That’s run 1 over – no change to the top 12.
So, run 2 – 5.77 seconds between Eva-Maria Brem and 30th place! Gagnon is one of the early leaders, but already the course is beginning to get rutted. Prefontaine displaces her fellow Canadian and, in turn, is replaced by Kirchgasser. Now it’s Lindsey Vonn – green at inter 1 but she’s out, taking a gate and (almost) a course worker with her en route; think she’s OK! Good chance for Lara Gut to regain the overall lead. Meanwhile MPH has taken over the lead - Ana Drev has built on her advantage by inter 1; the crowd get more vocal as their local skier goes into first place! Tina W just misses out, by 0.02 – into 2nd; just 4 to go. Nina Løseth has also built by inter 1 but it drifts into the red at inter 2 – she’s 3rd. Lara Gut has a real chance to score points at the expense of Vonn, who leads her in the overall  by 45 points – she was steaming down but hits a gate and she’s out too – missed chance! There goes Vikki Rebensburg, with 0.93 in hand. An early error, but she’s still green at inter 1; more time has drifted off at inter 2 but a great final section gives her the lead. Just Eva-Maria Brem to come, with 0.37 advantage – she builds to inter 1, still green at inter 2, loses the line a bit and she goes 4th. So Rebensburg wins (good day for the German women with a win at the Aussie Open too) from Ana Drev (good day for Slovenia too with Kline’s 2nd at the Garmisch downhill) and Tina Weirather; Brem 4th ahead of Løseth and MPH.

Maribor – Women’s Slalom: Run 1 set by Norway; 190m vertical drop. Much cloudier than yesterday and so overcast that they have the floodlights on! For the first run, with 5 down, Sarka Strachova leads, from Petra Vlhova; Nina Løseth has just become the first DNF; Wendy Holdener is just slightly in the red all the way but a great finish gets her exactly the same time as Strachova. Now it’s raining, visibility gets more tricky, umbrellas up in the crowd – forecast is for snow next week but that won’t help today! In these conditions, MPH is off the pace and finishes almost 2 seconds off the leaders’ time – the rain isn’t going to improve the longevity of the course! Gagnon is out and I suspect the DNF list will be quite long today. Kirchgasser is +2.4 in 10th and looks unhappy with the conditions; she almost certainly isn’t the only one! There are an army of course workers trying to keep things running – hopefully they will also keep out of the way of the skiers – there were a couple instances yesterday where they were too close! That’s 20 starters away – still Holdener and Strachova tied in first, Vlhova third and Velez-Zuzulova 4th and discipline leader Frida Hansdotter 5th – can’t see much change if conditions stay like this. Bernadette Schild is out, using an advertising flag as an extra safety net – seems OK. Lena Dürr is also out – 5 DNFs so far. The course really is looking awful; Geiger has hit the same advert as Schild – long interruption for more work on the course, re-arranging the mush, and I wonder how long they can keep up the pretence that this is a viable race? We have only seen 25 starters of over 60 and conditions seem grossly unfair for the later starters. That’s it – race cancelled; great shame, especially for Holdener and Strachova but surely the correct decision. (or, as ZDF put it – “Wenn man die Piste und die Schwierigkeiten der letzten Läuferinnen gesehen hat, ist das sicherlich die richtige Entscheidung!“)

Garmisch-Partenkirchen – Men’s Downhill (Kandahar, 30 Jan): Obviously no Aksel Lund Svindal today, and in addition to the other recent injuries I hear that Ted Ligety has also injured an ACL in training. However, Hannes Reichelt is apparently fit enough to compete here, listed as start number 20 and fastest in the single training day on Thursday (although he did miss a gate!). The Kandahar looks good, but again little snow in the valley – lot of the course in deep shade though so it should be icy despite the recent warm conditions and yesterday’s rain. It’s apparently faster than it was in training, and it may well be a tough day! Good recovery by Andy Weibrecht, but that cost him time on the lower section. With 5 down Bostjan Kline leads from Andreas Sander. Nice run from Beat Feuz, despite a couple errors, to go 2nd by just 2 hundredths – great lower section! Christof Innerhofer also made up a lot on the lower section and he’s third, just 0.03 off the lead – very tight at the top! Now, given that all the top 3 made some errors at various stages, you might expect that the lead would be taken over by one of the coming “big boys” in fairly short time – however … Johan Clarey skies out – long fall pursued by various bits of his kit; that’s a steep, icy section but he’s up. Travis Ganong goes into 4th, but Theaux takes that away – just 0.07 off the lead. Commentators starting to wonder if anyone can ski this run entirely free of error! We’re getting towards the end of the top 30 and it’s still Kline, Feuz, Innerhofer with Theaux 4th. Jansrud is down in the mid teens and Erik Guay, Hannes Reichelt and Werner Heel are among the DNFs. Going number 30 is Aleksander Aamodt Kilde; well in touch at the top and close in the middle – couple moments lower, but he takes the lead by 0.22! That’s a win for Norway, even if it wasn’t the man some of us thought might deliver. Kilde wins from Kline and Feuz – Innerhofer misses the podium by just 0.01! Theaux 5th and a good late start run from Matteo Marsaglia (number 52) to go into joint 6th with Ganong.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen – Men’s GS: Seems the GS has been cancelled as the conditions are similar to or worse than the Maribor slalom. Yes, confirmed as they can’t run a "fair and safe" race.

Women’s Downhill (Training): Well, the Kandahar course is apparently OK for training (although  Vonn described it as on the limit of safety, and not suitable for racing) if a bit soft in patches – initial FIS report (on FB) says Lindsey Vonn was fastest was in the first training run from Vikki Rebensburg and Breezy Johnson, but their home page shows Romane Miradoli (Fra) as even faster than Vonn? Seems some skiers missed gates and Miradoli was one of them – potential DQ. Another training run Friday, IF conditions allow! (They didn't!!)
Downhill - Race Day: Apparently a colder night last night - the course was very bumpy in training; the reports are that it has been smoothed out a bit but it's also very icy so there might be a few missed gates! Impressive view of the course; some relatively flat bits but also some very steep sections and a mix of shade and sun. Seems to be a slight delay to the start - more blue dye being put down. Right, the race has started with Verena Stuffer the first away. Into the compression, bounced and she's missed a gate - first DNF! Another interruption as they are moving a gate - bit late? Jacqueline Wiles is next down - slower than Stuffer but through the compression and safely down. Ramona Siebenhofer is faster - green all the way until she can't keep the grip lower down and she too has missed a gate. Tamara Tippler is massively faster until she's off line lower down (near where Siebenhofer went out); lots of speed scrubbed off and then she falls within sight of the finish. Three DNF from 4 starters; the Hölle section is obviously tricky! Alice McKennis well off line in the same section, body twisted and she's out too. Schnarf takes it more slowly, nice line but very upright and she's into second. Mowinckel has fallen; maybe a bit bruised but she's up and making her way down. A pause while a gate is repaired; I sometimes count up the DNFs at the end - today it might be easier to count finishers! Nadia Fanchini had a couple epic moments but she survived them and she's almost a second and a half faster. Laurenne Ross is even quicker; I thought Stacey Cook might have beaten her but she lost a lot of time mid course and goes third. Similar story for Corinne Suter who takes over third place - some nasty turns in this course, very hard to maintain grip. Lovely run from Tina Weirather but she's wide on a couple of the lower turns - second by just 0.02! Again, Edit Miklos looked to have it, but lost a bit of time a couple gates from the finish - Ross, Weirather and Miklos at present. Very close call for Lara Gut but she made it down; good start by Larisa Yurkiw, clatters a gate, a little wide in a couple places, but she goes into the lead. Lizzie Görgl looked to be set for the lead but she's bounced wide on the lower section and loses too much speed. Epic stuff here; what a run from Fabienne Suter as she takes over first place. Local favourite Vikki Rebensburg is next - into second by just 0.06, probably lost a bit on that last roller? Here comes Vonn; much tighter line, and faster too - that's the lead by over 1.5 seconds - possibly the podium might change a little but surely that's the win decided. The top 30 are down (one way or another) and it's Vonn from Suter and Rebensburg; Yurkiw 4th ahead of Ross and Weirather. And .. that's the way it stayed - Miklos took 7th with Nadia Fanchini 8th one place up on sister Elena; Corinne Suter 10th. That was Lindsey Vonn's 38th downhill win in World Cup competition; she has 1,000 points in this year's overall compared to nearest rival Lara Gut (who finished 14th today, scoring just 18 points ) on 873. looked like just 9 DNFs?

Garmisch-Partenkirchen – Women’s Super G: Conditions seem to be OK today although apparently there is a storm due later – much warmer though so not as icy; better grip but maybe some soft patches! Lara Gut goes 17, followed by Weirather and Vonn who, having broken pretty much all the records for women’s alpine skiing, is now chasing Stenmark’s win record! The Super G starts a little lower compared to the downhill - the whole course is in shade, so no changes in light today (unless the weather throws a wobbly!). Surprised to see Yurkiw a bit off the pace among the early starters; nice run from Stuhec to go into 2nd behind Venier. Nasty fall for Corinne Suter – that might be a knee injury, hope she’s OK. Great work by Kasja Kling, who went first after the interruption – into the lead by just over half a second! Federica Brignone is the best of the next few – she’s into second. Nice run from Laurenne Ross too, she seems in form at the moment and she goes into third. The upper section of the course is getting rather more of a challenge as the race proceeds, some of the coaches seem a bit concerned. Lovely run from Cornelia Hütter – red at all the intermediates but a great lower section gives her the lead by 0.04. Now here goes Lara Gut and she’s a lot quicker; well green at the top and building on it – she takes the lead by almost a second – brilliant stuff! Tina Weirather can’t match her but she’s into second place. Now it’s Vonn – fractionally green at Inter 1, slightly red at 2 and 3, an epic recovery later and it’s second place – well done Lara! Now there’s another turn up – Vikki Rebensburg has beaten Vonn’s time and goes into second! Lara Gut will be happy as that gets her a few more points back! Some of the following skiers seem to be losing time between inter 1 and 2, although the course does seem to be holding up better than expected. Looks like the podium is decided; Margot Bailet very disappointed with her run and it can’t help having a TV camera shoved in your face when you’re so upset! Lovely start from Mirjam Puchner but she’s lost time lower down – pity! That should be it – great win for Lara Gut, Vikki Rebensburg in second and Lindsey Vonn third – that’s her 42nd podium, and another record!

Jeongseon (Korea) – Men’s Downhill: Two years to go to the Olympics here, so this is a test for the Downhill and Super G venue! Kjetil Jansrud was the fastest in the first training run, ahead of Romed Baumann and Peter Fill – sounds a testing course! In the second training run Jansrud was again fastest from Peter Fill and Dominik Paris.
Now, the major snag with events in Korea is that the live coverage is at some unearthly hour – at 0300 in this case and even the repeat was at 0745 – hope the video is available (if not it's supposed to be on the BBC Ski Sunday)! Sounds like conditions were pretty near perfect – sunny but cold with good snow. The training results were, at least this time, a fair indicator and Kjetil Jansrud took his first downhill victory of the season (as he said – a season of firsts as he won the first parallel GS and has now won the first test event at this venue). Dominik Paris was second and Steve Nyman third. Here’s part of Steve’s comment on the event - “It's been very cold here and dry and the guy who prepped the hill, Tommy Johnson, he preps Beaver Creek, so it's very similar and a lot of fun to ski on. The racecourse, there's a lot of flow to it, it's a lot of fun to ski. You have to be clever when you're skiing, it's not controlled by the gate, it's controlled by the terrain." Peter Fill, who also went well in training, was fourth and good to see that Beat Feuz seems to be retaining fitness as he took 5th ahead of Otmar Striedinger. Jansrud is 4th in the overall on 735 to Hirscher’s 969.

Jeongseon (Korea) – Men’s Super G: Snow overnight in Korea, so lots of effort required from the course workers to get the line ready. Again, missed it live but looking at the results the big shock was seeing Kjetil Jansrud’s name among the DNFs, so he doesn’t gain any points today to help close the gap to Marcel Hirscher in the overall! Did see some of the re-run though – impressive looking course, and some epic recoveries! Good win for Carlo Janka from Christof Innerhofer and Vincent Kriechmayer; Norwegian honour upheld by Kilde finishing 4th ahead of Peter Fill (who seems to be having a good season) and Romed Baumann. Janka put in a very dominant run and never looked in much danger of losing the lead – Innerhofer was +0.82 and Kriechmayer over a second back – almost Vonnesque times! Didn’t see what happened to Jansrud as the re-run stopped suddenly to go over to Garmisch and a résumé of yesterday’s downhill!

Yuzawa Naeba (Japan) – Men’s GS: Again, very antisocial timing if you wanted to see it live, especially with 2 runs! In Summary - Winner – Alexis Pinturault, ahead of Mathieu Faivre and Massimiliano Blardone. Henrik K 4th ahead of Victor M-J and Marcel Hirscher. That leaves Hirscher leading the overall with 1045 points, and Kristoffersen now 2nd on 921, having overtaken the injured Svindal. Slalom here tomorrow. Details of the GS at the FIS Site, here
Slalom: Well, the overall gets more interesting still! Marcel Hirscher straddled a gate on run 1 of the slalom and thus gets no points this time! Fritz Dopfer was best on run 1. Run 2 took place in rather worse conditions when the visibility wasn't as good - This time Felix Neureuther took the win from Andre Myhrer (Swe) and Marco Schwarz (Aut). Fritz Dopfer managed 4th with Austria's Marc Digruber and Michael Matt in 5/6. Henrik Kristoffersen was 7th whcih gets him 36 WC points; that leaves the overall with Hirscher still on 1045 and Henrik up to 957. Britain's Dave Ryding got a second run, finishing in 22nd place. FIS report HERE

Crans Montana – Women’s Downhill: Now that’s interesting – second training run, Fabienne Suter fastest ahead of Gut and Ross with Vonn 5th +0.30! So, Saturday morning dawns, and after a massive overnight snowfall, the race has been postponed!! Apparently the avalanche danger is currently too high, and the FIS will try to reschedule the race on Sunday; the Sunday Alpine Combined is therefore cancelled and will not be rescheduled. A slalom event (vice the one cancelled in Maribor) remains in the programme for Monday. The FIS also say that the cancelled Men’s GS from Garmisch will be rescheduled in Kranjska Gora on 4 March.
So, the Sunday attempt – not exactly looking good as the Jury have decided to postpone the start by 2 hours! More patience required by the skiers! And .. not third time lucky, as it’s cancelled – just the prospect of a slalom tomorrow, if …
The FIS comment on the cancellation is HERE

Better luck next time hopefully!

Slalom: Well, this one has gone ahead and .. Shiffrin is back on the tour after missing a couple of months due to a knee injury! At the end of run 1 Mikaela Shiffrin was in the lead from Frida Hansdotter and Zuzulova (VVZ). Strachová in 4th ahead of Gisin and Noens; and I’m going to miss the second run! Seems I missed an interesting one – tricky conditions too with soft snow. Great comeback day for Shiffrin who took an impressive win. Nastasia Noens was second ahead of Marie-Michelle Gagnon, who was only 10th after run 1. Frida Hansdotter ended up 6th, Sarka Strachová 7th and VVZ 10th – Michelle Gisin didn’t complete run 2; after all that Frida leads the slalom standings with 545, 99 ahead of VVZ – 3 slaloms remaining. Full report HERE

Chamonix – Men’s Alpine Combined (Downhill on the Verte des Houches course): Programme here is for an Alpine Combined on Friday (the final one of the season) and a Downhill on Saturday. I missed what should have been the downhill section of the Chamonix race – due to the weather and various delays they swapped the races round and did the slalom bit first, which was won by Alexis Pinturault, who was 0.36 faster than Thomas Mermillod-Blondin; Victor Muffat-Jeandet third, then Ivica Kostelic, Dominik Paris and Carlo Janka – French in the top 3 places! Saw a bit of the recap of this slalom (before the downhill came on) and it looked a bit nasty – certainly the weather wasn’t good; quite misty. Quite odd but Eurosport don’t seem to be covering the downhill runs live (possibly because they weren’t sure when it might start?) – apart from a commentary free version which I’m watching as I also scan the FIS live data feed! The start has been lowered because of the mist and snow conditions, and new snow is also coming down. Over to the non live highlights. The course isn’t as fast as it was in practice; even so a lucky escape for Peter Fill! Good run though, despite that error, and he moves into the lead. Romed Baumann seemed to lose a bit of time in the lower sections – in to 2nd place. Kilde went well on the top section; lost a bit lower down but he takes the lead. Doing the runs this way round means some of the more technical skiers are quite well placed, but need to hold the advantage on a tricky downhill – not easy! Nice run from Theaux; good slalom run and now he leads after the downhill. Now it’s Jansrud – that’s a good run, and he takes over the lead; can he take the combined crystal globe, which will be decided today? Yet another interminable advert break, 8 to go when it ends – Tonetti into third! Carlo Janka into the red at split 2, but it’s a good run and he goes 2nd. Dominik Paris has the fastest speed through the gun and he’s in the green all the way – he leads the combined from Jansrud and Janka – 4 to go! Kostelic has lost a lot of time; well into the red at inter 2; into 6th but that’s a good result for him this season. Victor M-J had 0.90 in hand as he began his run, but it evaporates as he goes down the course – into second; good run. Thomas M-B looks to be doing the same; he’s just in the green at inter 4 but can’t hold on, and he’s into second! Great run from Paris there – not surprised to see it’s the best on run 2. Pinturault has a massive 1.27 advantage at the start, and it’s only slowly reducing – still -0.58 at inter 4 and he takes it by just 0.27! So, Alexis Pinturault wins (1st in slalom, 9th on the downhill course – that gets him up to 5th in the overall) from, Dominik Paris (5/1), Thomas M-B (2/12) and Victor M-J (3/14) – three French in the top 4! Jansrud takes 5th and a useful 45 points – he’s 4th in the overall but 265 points behind Marcel Hirscher (who, together with Henrik Kristoffersen, gets no points today). In the Combined, after the 3 races, Pinturault has won the small globe (220 points; 20/100/100) with Thomas M-B 2nd (170; 50/60/60) and Jansrud third (165; 100/20/45); Paris in 4th, Victor M-J 5th – all quite close today!
Men’s Downhill – Saturday 20 Feb: The La Verte des Houches course; no delays here at present and forerunners on the course, although Eurosport seem to be staying with La Thuile a bit longer than expected – yes, the men are away and there’s no coverage yet; pity Tessa Worley couldn’t pull out a real upset to make it worthwhile staying! Endlich – we have coverage; 5 down and Manny Osborne-Paradis has just taken the lead; what a recovery! Bit of snow falling here too, and more problems with variable visibility – that’s a long jump too! Johan Clarey into 2nd; just 0.44 between the top 5. Now, Erik Guay goes into 2nd – good history of Canadian success here! Oh, that’s a great run from Steve Nyman and in poor conditions too – he goes into the lead by 0.81! Mist getting a little worse and snow a bit heavier; Jansrud off the pace today – just 11th at present. Ah, the Europeans strike back – Dominik Paris is on form and he’s taken the lead; can he make it an Italian double with Nadia Fanchini? Adrien Theaux is into 3rd, displaced minutes later by Guillermo Fayed; Peter Fill into 4th. Weather conditions getting slowly worse; Beat Feuz still manages to get into 3rd. Again, all the major favourites are down – with conditions deteriorating there are fewer TV breaks, so that’s one benefit! At present Paris, Nyman and Feuz; Fayed 4th and Fill 5th – no change to that. Marc Gisin out but OK; that’s 30 down and the race will stand. Not a great day for Kjetil Jansrud who is currently down in 19th (oops - now it's 20th, 21st) – not many points today! Two downhills remain in the men’s programme this season and the small globe is a lot closer and more open than the women’s equivalent. At present Aksel Lund Svindal is still just leading but, of course, he won’t get any more points in the last 2 races. Peter Fill is just 26 points back in second, with Theaux and Jansrud still just within 100 (if Kjetil doesn’t get pushed back any further today). In the overall Hirscher and Kristoffersen remain 88 points apart, Svindal still 3rd; Jansrud, in 4th, hasn’t made much progress today and Paris is up to 5th but 415 behind Hirscher. That's it from Chamonix!

La Thuile (Italy) – Women’s Downhill (Franco Berthod course): This is apparently the first ever World Cup race to be held here. Connie Hütter was fastest in final training ahead of Alice McKennis and Lizzie Görgl; Lindsey Vonn was 13th but fastest on Wednesday and is reported to have been adjusting her line and trying different skis on Thursday! Lara Gut was 11th. Programme is for the “Crans Montana downhill” to run here Friday, the “original” La Thuile downhill on Saturday and a Super G on Sunday. Race day – downhill 1 – Stephanie Venier is first away; good snow and a technical course. The FIS live timing seems to be on the blink now! Elena Curtoni is having a really fast run despite a very narrow escape early on – what a recovery and she’s into the lead by over 2 seconds; Jaqueline Wiles finishes horizontal, but she’s into second! Next change is Edit Miklos going into 2nd and then Elena Fanchini moving into third. Nadia Fanchini is next away and faster than her sister – she goes into the lead with 0.88 advantage; great run! Kling has skied out, missed a gate, but Laurenne Ross has gone into 2nd. Sadly that’s where I leave it for the moment; I’ll try to catch the re-run later. However, instead of showing that, they are covering the delayed and amended men’s alpine combined! In summary – despite having flu for the two training days and “problems” on the top of the course, Lara Gut skied to a second downhill win. Connie Hütter was second, but 1.02 behind and Nadia Fanchini a very close third. Lindsey Vonn was ahead at inter 1 when her ski released and she slid out – seemingly unhurt and able to ski down (she later posted video on a social media site of her hitting the ski/binding with a hammer; she has since apologised to HEAD, so I suspect that post has vanished? Given her string of wins, I suspect there is no issue with kit, just a flash of frustration). Fabienne Suter was 4th, ahead of Laurenne Ross and Tina Weirather. That win puts Lara Gut back into the overall lead but only by 13 points! Full report on the FIS site HERE
Saturday Downhill: Not looking too promising – the start has been postponed due to strong winds! Now I have video I can see the problem – poor visibility and dangerous wind conditions – they are moving the start down the hill a bit! Commentators not too optimistic about this, and you can see why. Still looking quite brisk at the new start – safety netting/banners blowing noticeably but the lower sections are better protected by the trees; visibility not ideal either in parts though, flat light with some snow. Forerunners are on the course, but the wind seems to have picked up in some sections of the course; this could be a bit of a lottery. OK, Francesca Marsaglia is away, race is on – upper section not nice but the lower bit looks skiable. Start intervals have been shortened, presumably to get them away in case things gets worse? If someone is lucky with the weather …. ? Good recovery by Venier; Marsaglia’s time is holding up well at present. Nice run from Elena Curtoni, into 2nd; even better from Daniela Mehrigetti despite worsening visibility – into the lead by 0.73! Top 4 all Italian at present, but Stacey Cook is looking good at inter 1 – no, it’s gone red, and she’s 5th. On to the “higher seeds” – Nadia Fanchini goes into the lead by 0.72, that’s 5 Italians! Elena Fanchini can’t match her younger sister – vis even worse higher up and she’s well off the pace. Laurenne Ross also losing time after a good start, but she is good enough for third. Wind is shifting, blowing the loose snow around. That’s 15 down – Nadia F leads from Mehrigetti and Ross. Lara Gut isn’t going to get the double – better vis, but into a gusty headwind and she’s only 7th. Lindsey Vonn next, presumably on the skis she tested on Thursday – she’s just 2nd though, that must have been a super run from Fanchini junior! Reasonable run for Yurkiw too, into 4th, but disappointing from Tina Weirather and Connie Hütter, as the vis again fades out a bit. Better for Fabienne Suter, who goes 6th. Great start by Vikki Rebensburg, but again it drifts away lower down and she’s 10th. If things stay this way, Vonn’s 80 points from 2nd should give her the downhill small crystal globe? Siebenhofer is down – skis haven’t released; she’s sitting up, maybe just trying to catch her breath – seems OK? That’s all the skiers down whose form suggests that they could change the podium, but if the weather suddenly improves, who knows! Currently Nadia F, Vonn and Mehrigetti; Yurkiw 4th ahead of Ross and Suter. Lara Gut is in joint 11th at present. In the downhill standings Vonn has 580 points, 173 ahead of Yurkiw and 191 ahead of Hütter, so that’s the small globe sewn up – she now has 20 total, including 16 “small” so that’s another record. In the overall Vonn will lead Gut by 43 points if nothing changes, with Rebensburg 3rd. Interesting that, excluding DNFs, there is a Fanchini at both ends of the list of finishers! Well done Nadia Fanchini – her first downhill win, and ahead of Lindsey Vonn too! Super G tomorrow, weather permitting.

Women’s Super G (21 Feb): Hmm, start postponed, but not by much at present. Looks a much better day though, although windy – Vonn goes 17, Gut 18. We’re away – sunny day and huge crowds. Yurkiw is a DNF but Corinne Suter’s run is a good one – early lead! Doesn’t last however as Fabienne Suter (no relation) takes over 1st place by a margin of 1.64 – impressive! Tessa Worley into 2nd, to be replaced there by Romane Miradoli. Laurenne Ross has been fast on this hill, but this morning she can only manage 4th. Elena Curtoni into 3rd, and fastest so far through the speed gun. Tamara Tippler is even faster through the gun (103.90 Km/h) and green at 1/2 but she’s losing time lower down; into 6. Still quite windy and the course is cutting up a little. Federica Brignone into 3rd; a bit lucky with the wind, perhaps? Francesca Marsaglia good at the top but lost a chunk of time in the technical turns – 7th. As we take the first TV break it’s Fabienne Suter (Sui) from Miradoli (Fra) and Brignone (Ita). Tina Weirather first after the break, in good conditions, and very good through inter 1 and 2; still green at 3 – very impressive on the final section and into the lead by 0.67. Lindsey Vonn is next; fast through the gun but red at inter 1 and 2, hand down in the snow, still red at 3 – into 2nd but 0.64 back on Weirather! Lara Gut away – also red at 1 & 2, still red at 3 – now she’s into 2nd, so that’s a few points clawed back from Vonn today. Ideally Lara now needs a couple people behind her but ahead of Lindsey – not going to be easy as there are only 7 hundredths between them! Nadia Fanchini isn’t going to do a double – well red at all 3 intermediates and she’s skied out – not a bad fall and she seems OK despite almost being taken out by a course worker! Vikki Rebensburg also out, missing gates. Disappointing run from Connie Hütter, into 17th. Next TV break and it’s Weirather, Gut (+0.57), Vonn (+0.64). Fabienne Suter remains 4th (+0.67, so very close to Vonn’s time) ahead of Miradoli and Brignone. The course is cutting up a little more and I can’t see any change to the top 6 – no late surprise and the top 6 are undisturbed! In the overall Lindsey Vonn, on 1200 points, leads Lara Gut by 23; Vikki R third but well back (-322) and Tina W up to 4th. In the Super G standings Vonn again leads (420) from Gut (-79) and Tina W (-154).
Caught a bit of the men’s Skiathlon from Lahti in Finland – another impressive win for Martin Johnsrud Sundby (despite a crash in the classic section); top 5 all Norwegian! Andrew Musgrave was 18th; good result!

This is in place of the cancelled Munich event! Joined a bit late - Wendy Holdener had already put out Lindsey Vonn early on (while Veronika VZ beat Lara Gut at the same stage) – she then beat Petra Vlhova in the quarters; on to the semis against MPH while Frida Hansdotter is against Nina Løseth. After the second run Hansdotter has just beaten Løseth by just 0.04! Holdener has an advantage as they start run 2 – 0.44 up at the start; not quite so dominant this time but she wins, putting out MPH by 0.20. Final will be Holdener v Hansdotter! Small final MPH v Løseth. Small final – MPH wins run 1; Final run 1 goes to Hansdotter! One run to go – pressure mounting, obviously most of the crowd want a local win! Run 2 – MPH wins again so that’s two Swedes on the podium, but can Frida get the win?! What a start by Holdener – Wendy Holdener takes it – Switzerland wins, with Sweden 2nd (Frida Hansdotter) and 3rd (MPH)!

In the men’s semis Alex Khoroshilov (who beat Victor M-J in the quarters) beats Andre Myhrer (beat Kjetil Jansrud, who in turn put out Henrik K in round 1, in the QF) in run 1 (0.50) while Marcel Hirscher beats Stefano Gross (0.21) – run 2 now; Myhrer stays error free and he steals it back from the Russian, recovering a relatively large deficit! Now, who will join him in the final – Hirscher extends his lead and beats Gross! Final Hirscher and Myhrer; small final Gross and Alex K. Small final 1 – Gross just gets it by 0.01! In the ”proper” final – brilliant start by Hirscher and despite a slightly wild jump he wins by 0.26. Just 1 run to go – the smallest possible advantage for Gross, in the small final – Gross wins it by 0.18 so Italy take third. Now – last run of the evening – Marcel Hirscher takes the parallel slalom event, winning from Andre Myhrer with Gross 3rd; useful points for Hirscher!

Little change in the women’s overall points as both Vonn and Gut only got 15 points each, but for the men Hirscher took 100, Jansrud 40 and Henrik K only 15 – overall women; Vonn 1215, Gut 1192 (Slalom Frida H 625, VVZ 486, Sarka S 432). Overall men – Marcel H 1145, Henrik K 972 (although he still leads slalom by a healthy margin), Aksel LS 916, Kjetil 830. Full report on the FIS site HERE

Men’s GS (26 Feb): This first event of the weekend was instead of the race cancelled at Adelboden – missed it live, which was a pity as it sounded like a good competition. Alexis Pinturault is obviously on good form at present – he led after run 1 and eventually produced the best time on run 2 as well, despite an error just before the flat section, to take the win. Marcel Hirscher was second to take his 13th podium of the season with Thomas Fanara third. FIS report HERE

Super G (27 Feb): Not on Eurosport for some reason, or at least not when it started! Early starter Steve Nyman set the mark from start number 2; he was displaced by Patrick Schweiger, who in turn lost the lead to Bostjan Kline. Nice to see Marcel Hirscher racing again today, it’s easy to think of him as only a technical event skier – start number 9; this looks (courtesy of ZDF! My less than impressive German is being really tested – it’s even rustier than I feared) quite a steep, icy course. Kline’s time is looking good at present; now it’s Hirscher – very impressive run from him – he was in the green at inter 3 and 4, eventually going into 2nd just +0.11 on Kline’s time! Now we are into the favourites – Kilde takes the lead. Peter Fill has skied out, could have been nasty but he controlled it and is OK. Alexis Pinturault was in touch at 1 & 2, but loses time lower down – into 5th. First TV break and it’s Kilde, Kline and Hirscher on the provisional podium; Kriechmayer into 4th. Big error from Dominik Paris between 2 and 3 costs him time, and Andrew Weibrecht (were they calling him “wild horse”?) gets a nomination for “escape of the day”. Theaux into 5th; Hannes Reichelt joins the “impressive recovery” club! Carlo Janka goes into 5th; Jansrud is risking it all at the top, possibly too much as a big error between 2 and 3 costs him time – into 9th! Next TV break and the top 3 are unchanged! I wonder if the middle section is getting slower or more cut up? Thomas M-B was well in touch at inter 1, still OK at 2 but off the pace by 3; Fayed never looked happy and eventually missed a gate. Striedinger has fallen but recovered it and he’s a DNF too. Beat Feuz looked as though he might have upset the rankings; only +0.06 at inter 2, but he too lost time lower down into 15th! ZDF have moved away from this race – can’t see much chance of an upset now – Aleksander Aamodt Kilde takes the win from Bostjan Kline and Marcel Hirscher – bet he’s glad he dug out the bigger skis today! If those positions are confirmed then Hirscher gets another 60 points today which gives him a lead of 263 in the overall. In the Super G standings Svindal still leads but Kilde is now just 25 behind with Kriechmayer (who was 4th today, ahead of Janka and Theaux) up to 3rd. ahead of Janka and Hirscher (who is only 106 points behind the leader)! FIS report HERE

Men’s GS – 28 Feb: If an Austrian wins today, it will be the 100th World Cup win in Austria, by an Austrian – apparently the first nation ever to win 100 on home snow – no pressure Marcel! The course looks OK (run 1 set by a German coach; tight and technical) but the rest of the hill looks very green and it’s warm. Might be good to go early today – Alexis P is 3, Henrik K 4 and Marcel H 7. Victor Muffat-Jeandet first down; Roberto Nani was looking as though he’d be half a second faster but an error low down threw him off the course – DNF. Next is Alexis Pinturault, very much on form and he’s into the lead by 1.33 (no sign of the thigh injury that was rumoured to be troubling him!) – surely that’s going to be hard to beat! Henrik K starts well but he’s in the red by inter 3 – second place; Fanara goes into 3rd. Felix Neureuther’s coach set this course – he’s not so fast at first but gained time lower down – into 2nd. Now it’s Hirscher – also red at 1 and 2 but he doesn’t pull back as much lower down – into 4th (+0.56) – just 0.01 behind Henrik K! With 12 down, the course is beginning to get rutted; large time gap separating the top 10 – 10th place currently +1.92. First TV break – currently Pinturault, Neureuther (+0.47), Henrik K (+0.55), Marcel H (+0.56) on run 1. Kjetil Jansrud is competing today – into 16th but +3.09; maybe still a second run possible, but he is dropping down the list as the later starters come down. No real upset to the top 10; Eurosport staying with this as the women’s combined has been postponed. Some huge time gaps for the later starters; Jansrud is still in the top 30 at present! A massive 75 starters today – that piste is going to be very rutted when they try to set a second run on it! Run 1 over – no late changes to the top 10 and Jansrud was 24th so will get a second run. No live coverage on Eurosport at present but the FIS feed shows Kilde has had a great 2nd run from 29th place after run 1, but Luca de Aliprandini has just beaten it, and he’s replaced by Haugen – lots of change expected before the top 6 go! Meanwhile Eurosport have gone to ski jumping for a mind numbing 2 hours 15 minutes – where is the second run from Austria?? Oh well, back to ZDF – just as I feared I might have been rash to forecast lots of change (as Haugen’s time seemed to be holding up well) a great run from Tonetti gives him the lead, which he loses to Janka. Fritz Dopfer next, so 10 to go – disappointing run (German coach has his head in his hands!) on what looks a tricky course and only 12th; Janka still leads, Kilde still has the best 2nd run time. Now, nice run from Mathieu Faivre, building on his advantage at the first 2 intermediate points – lost a bit lower but he’s into the lead; only 7th best on this run though. Another scrappy run from Victor M-J; he’s into 7th at present, losing more than a second on his run. The course seems to be cutting up (there are patches of earthy colour off the line) and skiers are losing time lower down – Fanara into 2nd though. It might be difficult for the top 3 on this course? Stefan Luitz goes from -0.74 to +0.59 on his run, into 5th. Now Marcel Hirscher – starts at -0.95, builds slightly at 1, loses a bit by 2, builds again to 3 and he leads by 0.97! Fantastic run, but still only 7th best on run 2! Now, can the rest match that? Henrik Kristoffersen next and he’s keeping it green through 1 and 2, but it’s drifted into the red at 3 – he’s 2nd; just 2 to go! Felix Neureuther is already into the red by inter 1; he seems to have a problem with second runs this season – into 5th, coach looking even less happy! So, just Alexis P to go – 0.56 in hand; he’s built a little by inter 2, and more by 3 – he wins by a massive 1.14 – superb stuff, once again fastest on both runs! So, Alexis Pinturault wins his second GS of the weekend from Marcel Hirscher and Henrik K. Faivre 4th ahead of Fanara and Neureuther; Kjetil Jansrud gets 2 points! Thus, in the overall points standings Marcel H gets 80 points compared to Henrik K’s 60 – Marcel now leads by 283 from the Norwegian. Svindal is still just in third with Jansrud 4th and Pinturault 5th. In the GS standings Hirscher still leads but now by 131 (20 less than yesterday!) from Pinturault with Kristoffersen up to 3rd. Victor M-J picked up 20 today and is 4th just ahead of Felix N. Austria will have to wait for their 100th on home snow!

Super G (Women, 27 Feb): Again, the weather has something to say about planned ski races – due to strong winds and new snow the start of the women’s Super G has been delayed by a couple hours, and the start lowered a little. The video (and Vikki Rebensburg’s instagram) of conditions at the planned start showed how bad it was but by the delayed start of 1230 (UK) it’s looking better – lots of work to prepare the course I suspect. Eurosport do have video but no commentary for this one; back to ZDF. Still looks a bit stormy down the valley and there are a few snowflakes – tricky course too; Joana Haelen and Fabienne Suter are both DNF with just 5 away! The weather is getting worse again; more snow, probably more wind and poor visibility – short start intervals! With 10 away Federica Brignone leads from Laurenne Ross; Tamara Tippler into 3rd. Snow getting heavier by the minute – they’ve cancelled the TV break to try and get the race over before it all gets too bad – must be serious! This is going past unpleasant to possibly dangerous; Lindsey Vonn is next away  she’s green at 1, greener at 2 and she’s crashed – outer ski skidding, but neither have released. Didn’t seem too bad a fall at first but this isn’t looking too good – she isn’t sitting up and hasn’t moved her legs. The snow is now really heavy which can’t be helping things; the course workers are putting down more blue dye to try and help with the visibility. The team have eventually got Vonn into a stretcher and are skiing it down the course – no info yet on her condition; best guess at present is a left knee injury? The forerunner is on the course; Lara Gut should be the next down – the FIS seem to be continuing the race despite the conditions – I wonder what Lindsey V will say when she makes a statement? Gut is away; she’s down safely but in 13th place – she doesn’t look at all impressed by the conditions! I suspect the course is slower now with the new snow, and the interruption probably didn’t help either. Nadia Fanchini and Connie Hütter are also unusually slow (15th and 16th). Not a bad run for Vikki Rebensburg, into 7th and the best of the later starters; it’s now trying to rain as well as snow? Not sure if it’s my imagination but bits of the course are looking a bit brown? TV break and it’s still Brignone, Ross and Tippler; nice to have Brignone’s interview in English! Tessa Worley down – she also doesn’t look happy! I don’t think anyone has a chance of changing the podium now that conditions have changed (the start numbers for the podium are 8, 10 & 11). Well, that’s 30 away so it looks like the race result will stand – hope the FIS are pleased! Conditions seem to be varying around the course, but still poor in places and looking awful for some of the later starters, such as Anne-Sophie Barthet. More blue dye going down – bit like putting a sticking plaster on a broken leg, snow is now really heavy again! Watch Lindsey’s FB page for eventual comment, methinks!!  Anyway, well done Federica Brignone – think this is a first Super G win? Laurenne Ross second and Tamara Tippler third. If things stay as they are Lara Gut is now just 8 points behind Lindsey Vonn in the overall – will this be another series decided by injury? The FIS report says “Today’s effort returned the Overall World Cup lead to Gut” but their own points listing shows Lara still 8 points behind, which is in the same report just a little later? That version of the report HERE - it may change later?

Alpine Combined 28 Feb: Firstly – Lindsey Vonn apparently has a hairline fracture of the left knee; she has had it drained a few times and is apparently intending to “go up the hill and see” today – brave but crazy! Nothing much on her FB page about the Super G, but some shots of large needles! Might be a bit academic though as the start of the first run (Super G) is delayed (again, clearing new snow this time). Now gone another 30 minutes right, but confirmed as 1100 (UK time) – second run still at 1330 (UK). The Super G begins at the same height as yesterday’s – still a bit gloomy at times, but some sun too; the weather is certainly better than yesterday! This set up – short Super G and slalom might favour the technical specialists? It wasn’t my imagination yesterday, the snow really is a little brown in patches – apparently sand, blown in from the south (skied on something similar once in Bavaria – very odd!). With the shortened course the start intervals are also “brisk” – that should let them get the race run before any deterioration in the weather? Vonn is on the start list at number 20 – really not sure that would be wise. Anyway – good run from Tessa Worley to take the early lead as the weather improves even more; Stacey Cook is 2nd and Sabrina Maier goes 3rd. Nice run from Gagnon too – she takes the lead by just 0.01! A couple good slalom skiers leading the way on this Super G. Now that is impressive – lovely run by Johanna Schnarf to go into first by 0.41, but she isn’t such a reliable slalom skier. Her lead doesn’t last long though, as Laurenne Ross takes it away. It’s clouding over a little now; no TV break – it’s Ross ahead of Schnarf with Miradoli going into 3rd. Vonn has her skies on at the top and seems to be checking her knee, while Lara Gut has her run – good start but losing time in the middle; better on the final section to go second, +0.17. Breeze getting up a little as Mowinckel goes into 4th. Lindsey Vonn has started; both knees braced – red at 1 & 2 but a great lower section gets her the lead by 0.26. Now, how will the knee hold up on the slalom? There is a TV break – now Vonn, Ross, Gut leading the way. The live video seems to have satellite snags, and there isn’t any coverage of the men’s 2nd run either as far as I can see? On the FIS data feed it seems Ilka Stuhec has gone into 3rd, pushing Lara down a place. Video is back on – Kajsa Kling has had a good run and she’s into joint 2nd with Ross, despite hooking an arm on a gate early on. Federica Brignone started very well – lost a little lower down but into 6th. Vikki Rebensburg started well but skied out; now it’s Mikaela Shiffrin – green at inter 1, but lost it lower down only 28th! That completes Eurosport coverage of run 1. Currently Vonn, Kling, Ross, Stuhec, Gut with Brignone and Schnarf tied in 6th. That’s the Super G over with no change to the top 6. Eurosport don’t seem to be covering the second run live either, and ZDF are also showing ski jumping! Ah, there is a commentary free feed on Eurosport now – impressive early run from Anne-Sophie Barthet, as a few flakes of snow begin to fall! Wendy Holdener takes the lead and the snow seems to be getting heavier!! That looks like a nasty gate arrangement just before the finish. More snow, less visibility and 2 DNFs in quick succession, but it still doesn’t look as bad as yesterday. We’re half way through the top 30 and the weather might have eased a little? Threatening stuff across the valley though; lots of skiers losing considerable amounts of time between inter 1 and 2. Gagnon isn’t one of them though – she did lose a little between inter 2 and the finish but did enough to take the lead, although Holdener’s second run was better! Just 10 of the top 30 to go and Gagnon leads from Holdener. Marsaglia joins the DNFs and we take a TV break! Some of the speed specialists seem to be finding this slalom more than usually tricky? Brignone is another who has lost time on the final section – she’s into 4th at present. Lara Gut going well at the top but she’s skied out – no points today! Big loss of time between 1 and 2 for Stuhec – into 10th. Laurenne Ross is already in the red by inter 1 and she too is a DNF. The course isn’t looking particularly good; Kling hasn’t had a good run – down in 17th. Lindsey Vonn starts with 0.96 in hand, she’s red at 2 and has lost almost 3 seconds on the run – into 12th – lucky that last turn was on her right knee! You have to admire her determination, but let’s hope that hasn’t done any more damage. However – there’s a late development – Mikaela Shiffrin has posted the 4th fastest slalom time which lifts her to 8th overall, dropping Lindsey 1 place to 13th – Mikaela won’t be getting a Xmas card this year! So, a very impressive win for Marie-Michele Gagnon (who was 13th in run 1), ahead of Wendy Holdener (25th in run 1, fastest on the slalom) and Anne-Sophie Barthet. That gives Lindsey Vonn 20 points, so she leads the overall by 28 from Lara Gut, who got nothing today – if she had stayed 12th, Vonn would also be leading the discipline standings by 2 points, but in 13th it’s a tie (80 + 20 to 100 + 0), not sure if there is another combined to come? There seems to be one in the schedule – 13 March in Lenzerheide.

For those who haven't heard - Lindsey Vonn has decided to end her season as a result of her last injury. While the initial diagnosis was of one hairline fracture posing a minimal risk to her competing (so she skied the Alpine Combined last weekend!) the more detailed follow up indicated a more serious injury. This from her FB page: "After the Super Combined on Sunday, I went to Barcelona where more precise MRI and CT equipment was available and scans were performed on Tuesday morning. Those images showed that there was not just 1 hairline fracture, but in fact 3. And the fractures are not hairline, but instead they are significant enough that they are not sufficiently stable to permit me to safely continue skiing. Further damage any of the fragments could result in a serious surgery that would risk my future in ski racing. With the World Championships in St. Moritz next year and the Winter Olympics in South Korea the following year, I cannot take that risk" Sad, but probably the only decision to take.

Kranjska Gora (Slovenia) – Men’s GS: Should have been out for run 1, but it wasn’t a nice day so we changed our plans. They have lowered the start today, fresh snow overnight and course condition. I joined run 1 of this race (which replaces the cancelled Garmisch event) with 10 down; Alexis Pinturault once again seems to be the man to beat – he leads from Philipp Schörghofer and Felix Neureuther; Fanara 4th ahead of Victor M-J and Henrik K. Marcel Hirscher +0.82 and currently joint 7th with Faivre; only 2 hundredths behind Kristoffersen! The later starters don’t seem to be making much impression on the top 6 places, although that was a neat run from Gino Caviezel to go into 10th; the course is rutting in places now, which won’t help. Blardone looked good for a top 5, but caught a boot clip and that was his run over – only DNF so far. Local boy Zan Kranjec is into 15th, looks good for a second run (ended 16th as Adam Zampa nicked 15th – good effort from start number 36). The second run should be interesting for the top 10 if that course cuts up like this one is doing! Run 2 – nice steep bit just before the finish! Good run from Cyprien Richard, who was 24th in run 1, into an early lead. He’s gained a few places with that run – his time is holding up well at present – Janka into 2nd. That’s 12 of the “reverse top 30” down and the ruts are getting deeper! Justin Murisier takes second; Richard still hanging on! Eventually Manuel Feller takes top spot away; de Aliprandini also gets “boot clipped” out. Stefan Luitz looked good but a late error dropped him to 3rd; Caviezel is out. Poor Leif Kristian Haugen – great run but he misses the lead by just 0.01! Another TV break and now it’s Marcel Hirscher. He starts with 0.61 in hand; it’s 0.87 by inter 1, 1.16 at inter 2 and he’s into the lead by 0.89 – what a run; he seems to be making a habit of 2nd run charges! Faivre can’t match that but he goes into 2nd, just 4 hundredths better than Feller. Henrik K is into the red by inter 1, but he keeps it neat and goes into 2nd. Victor M-J has also lost time on the top section, and he’s only 6th. More Frenchmen – Thomas Fanara also in the red at inter 1, huge error on the roller and just 13th! French coach isn’t looking happy about that! Felix Neureuther was still green at 1, but he’s fallen – now it’s the German coach looking boot! Good run from Schörghofer, green all the way, similar error to Neureuther but he gained a bit of time at the bottom – brilliant recovery and he’s into the lead – Marcel won’t be happy; his fellow Austrian has done the French a favour! Just Alexis Pinturault – he’s building on his advantage and he takes his 4th straight win! So, Pinturault wins from Schörghofer and Hirscher; Henrik K in 4th. In the GS standings Alexis gets 100 points to Marcel’s 60 – Marcel still leads the discipline but his advantage is now just 91 points, with 2 races to go. In the overall Hirscher now leads Kristoffersen by 293 with Pinturault up 2 places into 3rd.

Kranjska Gora (5 Mar) – Men’s GS: This is the “scheduled” KG GS; Felix N kicks off run 1 – which has been set by Marcel Hirscher’s slalom coach – looks very technical, unremitting and tough! Marcel goes number 2, Henrik K 4 and Alexis Pinturault 6! Misty  and the surface has frozen overnight – sounds icy but looks like it’s sleety rain falling, especially lower down! This is the full length course too – starting at the normal height, unlike yesterday – it’s going to be tiring! Good run from Marcel Hirscher; looks like it’s hard to see with the wet snow and mist. Not such a good run from Thomas Fanara (some epic moments!); Henrik next and he’s a bit slower than the Frenchman – he’s not happy with his run! Victor M-J is arguably a fairly ideal build for this twisty course, but he’s also slower; now for the very on form Pinturault; the vis might be just a touch better at the top but still poor lower down? He’s more in touch at the intermediate points; slightly in the red all the way and into second, +0.41. This is a challenging race in difficult conditions (very different to run 1 yesterday!); going to be hard to match Hirscher and Pinturault, especially as the course may well break up a bit later on. I think the clag has closed in too, as the snow gets heavier! Currently it’s Marcel H, Alexis P, Felix N filling the top 3 places; then Fanara, with Henrik K 5th, just over a second back and Victor M-J in 6th. Good start from Leif Kristian Haugen; he’s a strong skier but even he is losing time lower down – into 10th. Conditions are getting slowly worse; not sure what will happen for the second run? They’ve trimmed the start interval and ditched the second TV break to try and get this run completed; that’s a neat run from Zan Kranjec from a relatively late start – into 13th. Two DNFs follow; Missilier’s due to a binding release. Cyprien Richard makes it 3 DNFs in a row; that’s 30 starters away and we take the TV break. Aamodt restarts the race and he is also a DNF; start interval now down to 40 seconds and we are seeing some completed runs again – Loic Meillard has skied into 14th. There are currently 10 DNFs, 1 DSQ – no change to the top 6.
Run 2: Weather looks awful in places, snow up top, rain below – start has been lowered. I joined after the biathlon with Manuel Feller having just taken the lead; now we have just 10 to go. Visibility at the top looks bad; Philipp Schörghofer has taken the lead, from Feller and Meillard. This is a less aggressive course, which might suit Pinturault rather than Hirscher? Victor M-J doesn’t seem to be enjoying it today; into 6th. Henrik K is going well on this run though (despite a rumoured back problem) – keeps his advantage and he’s into the lead. Much better than run 1. Fanara can’t match that – he goes into 2nd. Quite a few poles being knocked out of the skiers hands! Felix Neureuther has lost quite a bit at 1; barely green at 2 – he’s into 2nd. Alexis P has 0.68 in hand – he’s built massively at 1, keeps it to 2 in thick fog and heavy snow and he’s into the lead by over a second! Impressive stuff! Just Marcel H to go and at inter 1 he’s lost all his advantage; really risking it all but back green at 2 and a superb final section gives him the win by 0.53! Absolutely superb performance! That gives him his third GS globe; 111 ahead of Alexis with just the one race to go! Henrik K was third today, giving him another 60 points to bolster his third place in the GS standings. Marcel H now leads the overall standings by 333 from Henrik K with Alexis P third, 485 back.

Kranjska Gora (6 Mar) – Men’s Slalom: Lots of wet snow overnight, and colder than it has been so far this weekend; let’s hope Dave Ryding gets a reasonable finish and qualifies for the final races of the season! First run on a course set by a French coach – lots of tight turns near the finish. Fritz Dopfer down first - he seems unhappy with the run but it’s better than Felix Neureuther can manage! It’s foggy again in patches; how did Stefano Gross lose the advantage he had at inter 2 – looked free of obvious error lower down? Despite the cold night the snow looks a bit soft in patches; visibility not that good at the top/middle. Good start by Henrik K but he too has lost time between inter 2 and finish to go 4th; just 0.17 off the pace though. Here comes Marcel H – he’s really ripped up this course – green all the way and he leads by 0.79! Ten down and Marcel Hirscher leads from Julien Lizeroux (+0.75) and Fritz Dopfer (+0.79); Henrik Kristoffersen is 6th (+0.96). Visibility is now a lot better but as we go to a TV break, the top 6 remain the same. Dave Ryding is currently in 17th position – needs to better that a bit in run 2. No change to the top 10 as the later starters come down – on to run 2. Very tight gates on this run, set by a Russian coach - looks very tricky! A few errors from Dave Ryding – he’s into 8th at present; hopefully he’s done enough to get into the WC slalom finals? First TV break of run 2 – David Chodounsky and Mattias Hargin tied in first; as we rejoin the coverage Dominik Stehle goes into third. Alex Khoroshilov into third now; his coach won’t be too happy! Weather seems to be getting a little worse and the ruts are starting too. Another good run from Alexis Pinturault – he takes over the lead with 12 to come. Marco Schwarz replaces him – good performance from him. Patrick Thaler has straddled and he’s out. Now for Henrik K – builds to inter 1, lost a bit at 2 but into the lead with exactly the same advantage he began this run with! Impressive run; Felix Neureuther has just got the green light back when he makes a massive error – he’s out! The German coach is kicking the scaffolding!! Stefano Gross can only manage second – this is all boosting Henrik’s points today! Now, Fritz Dopfer has also had problems with his second run recently – not too bad but only into third. Now with Henrik 131 points ahead in the slalom and just one left in the calendar – a gap of 20 between Henrik and Marcel gives the Norwegian the slalom globe! That’s it – Lizeroux is out at the first gate!! Kristoffersen is the slalom champion. Marcel Hirscher makes a point by winning this final race with a lead of 0.81 – that’s 100 points for the overall, but he’s 111 behind Henrik in the slalom; secure in second though.

Jasna – Women’s GS (5 Mar): Looks like the start has been delayed by an hour? Yes – wind too strong apparently. That means it clashes with the men’s 10 Km biathlon; hopefully Eurosport will stick with the biathlon as the GS has 2 runs. That decision has just become a bit academic as the race has been cancelled – bad news for Lara Gut who was poised to try and re-take the lead in the overall now that Lindsey Vonn is hors de combat! Seems Lindsey has friends among the weather gods! The race is currently rescheduled for Monday 7 March, according to the FIS

Jasna (Slovakia) – Women’s Slalom (6 Mar): First FIS WC here since the 1980s! No live coverage on Eurosport so it’s a combination of commentary free video there plus FIS live data! Jasna also looks foggy in patches and there is some snow falling; getting heavier from the look of it! Lovely run from Mikaela Schiffrin (start number 2) – that might take some beating! This course, which has some quite dramatic turns, seems to be causing problems for some normally impressive skiers – disappointing runs from Strachová (+2.26) and Hansdotter (+3.10). Løseth ends up +2.02 – conditions don’t look good, but all credit to the course workers for making this race possible! The course is cutting up though which won’t help the later starters. With 15 down (or not!) only 3 women are within 2 seconds of Shiffrin – Veronika VZ (+1.67), Petra Vlhova (+1.88) and Wendy Holdener (+1.88)! Løseth 5th and Gagnon 6th. Good effort by the home favourites (VVZ and Petra). Back to the non live coverage, with commentary; no change looks likely for the top 6 places. Well, there we go, Lara Gut is a DNF – no points today either (you can put away the doll now, Lindsey!). So, that’s the first run over; no change to the top 6. Run 2 clashes with the men’s biathlon pursuit and isn’t on Eurosport live either! I joined the ”no commentary” feed just as Wendy Holdener took over the lead from Michaela Kirchgasser (who was only 12th in run 1). Petra Vlhova slipped to 7th and after a good start Veronika VZ went 2nd – visibility really awful on the upper sections! Just Mikaela Shiffrin to go – she’s building on an already massive lead, and that’s another great win – Shiffrin really is in a league of her own! Mikaela Shiffrin (best time in BOTH runs) wins from Wendy Holdener and Veronika VZ; Kirchgasser 4th ahead of Noens and Gagnon. So, no change to the top of the overall points, but in slalom Frida Hansdotter remains in the lead, now 105 points clear of VVZ with Holdener 3rd. As I can only see 1 more slalom in the calendar that must surely mean Frida has won the slalom globe?

Jasna (Slovakia) – Women’s Giant Slalom (7 Mar): This is the race that was cancelled on Saturday – weather not ideal (again) as it’s snowing and the vis is “less than perfect”! Some big gaps opening up already; Eva-Maria Brem has put in a great first run and is currently 0.74 faster than Lara Gut with Federica Brignone (+1.11) in third. Nadia Fanchini is out, but seems OK. Mikaela Shiffrin is down – bit slower today, probably as she has had to get back after injury and has prioritised slalom (and look how well that’s worked out!). Quite athletic crash for Michaela Kirchgasser, but again she seems to be alright. No change yet to the top 3; Nina Løseth 4th and Frida Hansdotter has gone into 5th. Top 10 separated by 1.91 at present; no TV breaks and short start intervals so I presume they are trying to get the run completed – wonder what the weather forecast says? Some reasonable placings but with much bigger time gaps from Brem than might be expected – Carmen Thalmann, for example, is into 20th , looking as though she could get a 2nd run, but +3.08! Nice run from Brunner to get into the provisional top 10. That’s 30 away, and there’s a TV break! At that stage I had to go out, but I don’t think there was any significant change before run 2, which seems to have been a cracker! In summary, Eva-Maria Brem produced what I think might have been the second fastest time of run 2, which gave her the win. Second place however was a real surprise – Vikki Rebensburg was only 12th on run 1, after struggling with her set up; she worked with her technician pre run 2 and they seem to have got things just right as she produced the fastest time on run 2 and went into second place – brilliant recovery. Federica Brignone kept third place after the second run. Lara Gut dropped a couple places, into 4th, but that gave her 50 points which moves her back into the lead in the overall World Cup by 22 points from the injured Lindsey Vonn. In the GS standings Brem is 52 points clear of Rebensburg with 1 race to go. The full FIS report is HERE

Lenzerheide – Women’s Super G (12 Mar): Nice day at the top but cloudy/misty in the valley, so slightly dodgy visibility at times. Joined this a little late with Tamara Tippler leading from Johanna Schnarf and Ilka Stuhec. Good timing as the “favourites” are just about to go – having said which – what happened to Vikki Rebensburg, looking sluggish and losing time – are the skis right today (remember run 1 last weekend when the set up was all wrong?). Much better run from Tina Weirather, into second by just 7 hundredths! Next is Lara Gut but she is also a little off the pace; well into the red at inter 2 but better on the final section, and she’s into third. Just Connie Hütter before the TV break – green at 1, just red at 2, green again at 3 – she’s into the lead! That will help her standing in the discipline points; she is one very happy lady! Now, if the positions remain as they are (and they aren’t as Fabienne Suter has just gone second – she’ll be off Gut’s Christmas card list!), in the Super G standings Lindsey Vonn will remain in the lead but now by 19 (post Suter!) ahead of Gut; Connie Hütter is 80 back, Weirather 84 – all to play for in the final race of the season and those margins could change yet! There are some good names still to come, but maybe not Super G specialists? Gagnon is out – not too bad a fall until just before the nets when she was bounced into them by the piled up snow – she’s walking off though, so hopefully alright for tomorrow’s alpine combined. With 30 down the top 6 remain Hütter, Suter, Tippler, Weirather, Gut and Schnarf, and that’s how it stays. So, in the Super G Vonn still leads by just 19 from Gut; in the overall Gut’s now 67 ahead of Vonn with Rebensburg 294 back in third.

Lenzerheide – Women’s Alpine Combined: Seems Vikki Rebensburg has pulled out of today’s race to concentrate on the final races in St Moritz? Gut and Gagnon are tied in the discipline points on 100 each, but they aren’t the only contenders; looks a bit misty for this slalom leg – make that quite foggy! The poor visibility is the reason for the slalom leg coming first. Good early run from Johanna Schnarf, possibly not known as a slalom specialist. Good run from Lara Gut; she’s 0.09 behind Schnarf but the Super G should suit her. What a massive run from Wendy Holdener (who is currently only 2 points off Gagnon and Gut in the combined standings!) – into the lead by 1.37! Michalea Kirchgasser is into 2nd, Barthet into 3rd – Lara heading backwards in this part of the event. Now it’s Gagnon – nice run and into 3rd, 0.67 back. Course cutting up a little – Lara Gut currently in 7th, +1.46. Denise Feierabend goes into 6th; Michelle Gisin (start number 22) into 5th despite the ruts (good work by the course workers to ease them off just before her run)! That’s about it for run 1 – Holdener leads from Kirchgasser, Gagnon and Barthet; Gut in 9th.
Run 2: No commentary but Eurosport do have video – it’s still foggy in Lenzerheide! Visibility looks very dodgy in places, the mist is quite patchy but the race is on. With half of the top 30 down the FIS data stream shows Miradoli ahead (-0.12) but also as 16th and a DNF – can’t all be right! A couple more racers down and it looks like Laurenne Ross (21st in run 1) is leading from Francesca Marsaglia – short interruption as they replace a gate on one of the foggier bits of the course! Rahel Kopp is next down and she’s flattened another gate – you can scarcely see her at times through the fog, sure its’ getting thicker. Another interruption, partly to fix the course but also, I suspect, because of the thickening fog. We’re back on and Lara Gut is flying – lost a bit lower down but she’s into the lead by 1.73; only 3rd fastest on this run though (Ross best so far). Ilka Stuhec joins the DNFs, as the start interval is trimmed; nice run from Feierabend, into second by just 0.04. Schnarf goes red at 2; she’s snagged a gate which has cost her a lot of time and nearly threw her out of the course – into 4th. Michelle Gisin has also lost time between 1 and 2; good recovery but lost a lot of speed, but Barthet is into 3rd. Now for Gagnon, tied for the discipline lead with Gut – she’s lost quite a lot of her advantage by 2 and is just red at 3 – into 3rd! Kirchgasser is also losing time lower down, slower through the top gun but she goes first by just 0.01! Hard to bear, if you’re Lara Gut, but she’s smiling! Wendy Holdener is having an amazing run – gained a huge amount between 2 and 3 to take the lead by 0.46! So much for whoever said she’s just a slalom specialist – she has taken over the lead in the discipline standings! Maybe only the 12th fastest on the Super G but enough to win the event! So, Holdener wins from Kirchgasser and Gut. Laurenne Ross was fastest on this leg of the combined. That leaves the discipline standings as Wendy H 198, Lara Gut 160, Michaela Kirchgasser 153 and M-M Gagnon 145; Anne-Sophie Barthet just within 100 points. That was the last combined, so well done Wendy Holdener on securing the small globe! In the overall Lara Gut is on 1362, ahead of Vonn with Rebensburg 3rd 355 back – according to the FS that gives Lara the overall title, although there appear to be 4 races still to go at St Moritz? This from a Canadian website: "Gut skied down a foggy super-G course to earn 60 World Cup points and build a lead of 355 over Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany, who did not race Sunday. There are four races left in finals week at St. Moritz — offering 400 points for four wins — but Rebensburg never raced in World Cup slalom and does not plan to start next weekend". Well done Lara!!

Kvitfjell – Men’s Downhill: Not a good omen – the start has been postponed for 30 minutes to 1200 CET due to fog in some parts of the track; jury decision at 1130 (CET). We seem to be in business; lovely weather at the top, bright sun and what seems to be a really nice track. Good early run from Manny Osborne-Paradis, from start number 3 – he seems to really like this venue. With 10 down Manny O-P leads from Kilde, Clarey, Sander and Janka. Travis Ganong went well in training, and he’s now into third, but no one has really threatened MO-P’s time yet. Erik Guay shows that Manny’s time isn’t just a Canadian thing – into 9th! Now, Steve Nyman – red at 1 and 2, better but still red at 3 and now it’s green all the way – lost a little at the end but into the lead by just 6 hundredths! Great run! Adrien Theaux was well in touch at the top but lost from inter 3 – into 5th. Beat Feuz similar; nicely green at 1/2 but then into the red – good run though and it gets him into 3rd. Home fan time – it’s Kjetil Jansrud; green at 1/2, slightly red at 3, red by 0.01 at 4, more red at 5 and he’s into equal 3rd with Beat Feuz! Here might be an upset – Dominik Paris is green at the first 3 intermediates; just red at 4, slightly redder at 5 but really fast through the final gun – he’s leading! Very impressive run. Now Peter Fill is in with a shout in the discipline standings so he needs points today – he’s a bit off the pace though and goes joint 9th with Clarey; that would give him the downhill lead by just 3 points (with Paris just 7 behind him – IF nothing changes!). So, at present Paris, Nyman, Osborne-Paradis. Good grief – Valentin Giraud Moine in touch all the way and into the green at inter 5 by just 0.01 – slower through the final gun though and into 2nd – amazing run from the Frenchman (he's not going to get a celebration drink from Peter Fill)! That makes the discipline points even tighter; more change possible? Or, maybe not – Otmar Striedinger was start number 30 and he’s almost into the nets – seems alright, but DNF. That’s back to back wins for Dominik Paris! So, the downhill discipline standings are – Peter Fill and Aksel Lund Svindal both on 436 and tied for first, Dominik Paris in third, just 4 points back on 432, with both Jansrud and Theaux still within 100 points of the lead! The overall is unchanged at the top as neither Hirscher nor Kristoffersen raced today;  Jansrud stays in 5th but gains 45 points and Paris is up to 6th.

Interesting extract from the FIS report? "The battle for the downhill globe is now very tight, with a tied leading duo Peter Fill / Aksel Lund Svindal (the Norwegian had to end his season after an ACL injury in Kitzbuehel), ahead of Dominik Paris (only + 4 points), Kjetil Jansrud (+ 54 points) and Adrien Théaux (+ 66 points). These 5 athletes can still win the globe at the Finals‘ Super-G in St.Moritz" Surely in the final downhill?

Kvitfjell – Men’s Super G (13 Mar): I had wondered where Gus Fayed was yesterday – seems he had a nasty fall in training – FIS comment “On Saturday, during the second training of the Audi FIS Ski World Cup downhill in Kvitfjell, Frenchman Guillermo Fayed crashed in the lower part of the Olympiabakken course. He suffered a severe injury on his right knee, including a torn ACL and a bone avultion. Fayed is flying back to France on Monday and will undergo surgery as soon as possible”. Lots of justification followed about how the recovery and evacuation worked well – not sure why, did anyone suggest otherwise? I see Johan Clarey is on the start list but shown as DNS. This is a gliding course, favouring the real speed merchants apparently; few technical bits – so, no Marcel Hirscher today. Nasty fall for Schweiger; his airbag has inflated and he seems to be OK. That’s a nice start by Manny O-P, very green at 2/3, only -0.01 at 4 but into the lead by 0.33. Very nice run from Andreas Sander, couple epic moments, but only 1 red inter and he’s leading by 0.54 – impressive! Ralph Weber also very much in touch and he goes second by just 3 hundredths! Max Franz – impressive recovery but he can’t keep in the course; more bad news for the Austrian speed skiers. Good run from Innerhofer too – with ten skiers down (or not) – Andreas Sander leads from Ralph Weber, Christof Innerhofer, Manny O-P and Mattia Casse. Nice from Romed Baumann, but he lost a little time lower down – into 4th. Adrien Theaux also well in touch, red most of the way, but not by a lot – cruel – he’s second by just 0.01! Top 3 separated by just 0.03 at present. Travis Ganong has a lucky escape, but into 4th. Now, Peter Fill is green at 2,3 & 4 – he takes the lead, but again the margins are tight – 0.06! TV break, and then Carlo Janka takes over first place – 0.04 this time; doesn’t last too long in the winner’s enclosure though as Vincent Kriechmayer puts in a very smooth run to take over and this time it’s a good gap – 0.69! Can Austria take the win – Dominik Paris might be the man to disappoint them – mix of red and green, lots of risk – into 2nd, +0.15. Crowd are a bit noisier as Kjetil Jansrud starts; again a mix of red and green but he knows this track really well – he takes the lead! Aamodt is next – good start, but losing time between 2 and 3; into 4th. Andy Weibrecht started well but again lost time lower – he’s provisionally 5th with Beat Feuz going 6th. Well into the higher start numbers now; nice start by Klaus Brandner but losing time later – a creditable 15th. That’s the top 30 down; Erik Guay into 8th – Jansrud wins from Kriechmayer, Paris, Kilde, Weibrecht and Feuz. In the Super G standings Kilde has taken over the lead from the injured Svindal; Kriechmayer third (-37), Jansrud 4th (-40), then Weibrecht and Janka – both just within 100 points so all to play for in the final race.

St Moritz – Men’s Downhill: Rats – the race is delayed until 1030 (CET); I was hoping to catch a good part of the race before going out, but now … curses! Looks like fresh snow (still falling a little; visibility not too clever either); apparently the race line is clear but they need to clear the sides too for safety and put down the blue dye. Eurosport have drafted in Didier Cuche and Tina Maze to fill some of the time; nice to see them here! Quite a tricky course and new to many (all?) of the skiers – just one practice and Dominik Paris fell early on, so he hasn’t seen the lower section of the course at first hand – might not help! The race is on and conditions don’t look particularly nice! Lovely run from Valentin Giraud Moine, into the early lead; visibility is already deteriorating. Steep start – 0 to 60 (mph? Kph?) in 4 seconds! Missed the rest live, but caught the repeat later. Great effort by Beat Fuez (start number 18) recovering from a slow top section to take the win today from Steve Nyman (+0.08, start 17), with Erik Guay making a late return to form in 3rd. Kjetil Jansrud was 4th, which wasn't enough to win him the downhill globe this year! Johan Clarey was 5th ahead of Travis Ganong. Early leader Valentin Giraud Moine ended up 7th - could be one to watch next year? Carlo Janka looked like he had slow skis; only 8th with 1 to come, who was Peter Fill – he was 10th which gave him the downhill crystal globe - apparently he's the first ever Italian male to win it (according to the FIS)! The injured Aksel Lund Svindal was second in the downhill standings (and would have won if Fill had been a DNF!), ahead of fellow Norwegian Kjetil Jansrud who was tied in third place with Dominik Paris - this year is the first time a Norwegian hasn't won the downhill globe since 2012. Of the other possible contenders for the downhill title, Adrien Theaux made an error on the top jump and was 16th; Dominik Paris started well in the green but seemed to be affected by his recent injury (the training crash) and ended down in 19th – no points for either, as they are only awarded for the top 15 in these final races. FIS report HERE

Women’s Downhill: Not quite so crucial as Lindsey Vonn has already wrapped up the downhill globe despite her injury, and Lara Gut has won the overall, but everyone is still keen to end the downhills on a high note. Weather looks a bit worse than for the men’s race – snowing a little with some fairly thick clag in places and flat light. Again, I missed video coverage of this live but did manage to see the FIS data feed in real time and the Eurosport repeat. I joined the data stream with Mirjam Puchner in the lead from Verena Stuffer; just as I was making notes Elena Curtoni went into second and shortly after Johanna Schnarf took over third. That was a great run from Puchner, building on her advantage – green all the way despite a long wait after Merighetti’s crash (think she was OK). So, with 10 starters away – Puchner, Curtoni and Schnarf. Lizzie Görgl goes into 3rd, displacing Schnarf from the provisional podium – nice run. Good start by Stacey Cook, but she lost time lower down – similar story for Corinne Suter. Disappointing results (by their standards) for Tina Weirather, who was good on the training runs, Larisa Yurkiw and Laurenne Ross. Now it’s Fabienne Suter – green at 1 and 2, but then lost half a second to 3 – stabilised the losses to 4 and was pulling back time at 5 – great lower section to go 2nd! That would put her second in the downhill standings. Vikki Rebensburg looked a bit off the pace today, and then missed a gate – no points today! That was pretty much it – Mirjam Puchner gets her first win (and podium!!) from Fabienne Suter and Elena Curtoni. Suter gets 2nd in the downhill standings and Lara Gut gets another 20 points to take her total in the overall to 1382. FIS report HERE

Women’s Super G (17 Mar): Well, Happy St Patrick’s Day! In the Super G standings, before this race, Lindsey Vonn still leads by 19 points from Lara Gut, with both Connie Hütter and Tina Weirather still in the hunt for the small globe. Tina goes number 16 today, Lara 18 and Connie 22. Very impressive camera run down the course, which is quite slick on the racing line – quite a few blind sections but visibility is much better today – beautiful weather. Mowinckel down but Tessa Worley has missed a gate on one of the blind turns! Mitch Gagnon doesn’t get quite as far, and also misses a gate! Corinne Suter looks much more confident and that’s a good run to take the early lead. Miradoli out at the same gate as Worley; maybe the French recce wasn’t quite correct? Venier gets past that section, but she’s also missed a gate on the steep section – tricky course! And, exactly the same error, at that same gate, from Elena Curtoni – another DNF! Kajsa Kling is nicely in the green at inter 3 and she’s into the lead! Johanna Schnarf is into third, but +1.22; seems the cold, dry snow is quite a challenge. Ten racers away, and 5 DNFs so far! Ilka Stuhec was nicely green but there was a mistake in mid course which cost her speed an a flatter section – into third. Amazing recovery from Fabienne Suter, but even so into 4th. TV break and then it’s Tina Weirather – starts nicely in the green and she builds on that all the way - what a recovery on the steep – she’s into the lead by a mighty 0.70! Tippler gets the line wrong and she’s out – on her feet and seems unhurt. Short interruption, which isn’t ideal for Lara Gut who is at the start. She’s away, red at 1, more red at 2, +0.68 at 3 but fast through the speed gun – she’s into second, +0.41! Provided she stays better than 7th, the globe is hers; 6 to go! Vikki Rebensburg into 4th; Laurenne Ross good at the top, just fractionally red at 2, +0.36 at 3 – slow through the gun though and into 4th – that’s it; Lara Gut has won the Super G globe!! Connie Hütter is into third; nice run. Goggia skies out at the Venier/Curtoni gate! Final skier is Nina Ortlieb – world junior champion and daughter of Patrick! Nice run and she’s 11th, in a strong field – impressive! So, impressive win for Tina W in the final women’s Super G of this season; that gets her into second in the Super G standings, ahead of Lindsey Vonn. Lara Gut second today, so she wins the Super G globe by 45 points, and is now 227 clear in the overall. Connie Hütter third today ahead of Kling and Ross.

Men’s Super G: So, before the race Kilde leads the Super G standings by 25 from Svindal, 37 from Kriechmayr, 40 from Jansrud, with Weibrecht and Janka still mathematically capable of winning the small globe. Interesting to see Marcel Hirscher’s name on the start list today! Erik Guay going well but he’s a DNF! Pinturault almost joins him; currently Thomas Tumler leads, Max Franz goes 2nd. Beat Feuz trying for the double – green all the way, slightly slower through the gun but skies the lower section beautifully and leads by 0.96! Patrick Schweiger joins the DNFs, so does Travis Ganong and then Hannes Reichelt too – three in a row! Ten away, 4 DNFs for the men. Andreas Sander into 2nd, but +0.89. Now, Peter Fill –wonder if he had a party last night? Apparently so – but a good top section and fast through the gun – into 3rd. Even better start by Bostjan Kline, but red at 3 after a “moment” on the steep bit, and into 5th. There’s a TV break and then it’s Kjetil Jansrud – fractionally green at 2, fractionally red at 3 – he’s into 2nd by just +0.10. Here comes another contender – Andrew Weibrecht; good start but he’s also out at the Venier/Curtoni gate, which I think was the one that did for Erik Guay today. And Vincent Kriechmayr is also out – the Austrians aren’t having a good season (with the exception, of course, of Hirscher). Now for Carlo Janka; OK at 1 but then a big error and he’s lost a lot of time – into 12th. Now the current globe leader – Aleksander Aamodt Kilde; green at 1, even more green at 2, lost a tiny bit at 3, epic recovery at the Venier/Curtoni gate but fast through the gun – into 2nd, tied with Jansrud, and that’s the Super G globe for Kilde! Adrien Theaux looking good and he’s into 4th (but seems to have vanished from the FIS data sheet; back now). That’s a nice run from Marcel Hirscher, he’s into 5th just 0.49 off the lead – best of the Austrians so far, and I think he wasn’t even going flat out! That’s it – Beat Feuz wins today, Kilde and Jansrud tied in 2nd and Theaux 4th; Kilde takes the small globe, ahead of Jansrud and Svindal. Marcel Hirscher has added another 45 points to his overall total, now on 1670 and 398 ahead of Kristoffersen.

Well done Lara and Aleksander! (and Beat and Tina)

Women’s Slalom (19 Mar): Well, first off congratulations to the Swiss, who won the team event yesterday! (FIS report HERE). A long, but fairly straightforward (according to the pundits) course. Frida Hansdotter has the discipline globe, but there is a good fight in prospect for second place (VVZ, Wendy Holdener, Sarka Strachová). Wendy has put in a fairly good first run, but Sarka is not as neat as normal – off the pace here! Mikaela Shiffrin is amazing though – into the lead by 0.72; what a shame she had that injury mid season! Frida H is a bit off the pace today too, +1.26 on the American’s time; all quite close in the “chasing pack”. Michelle Gisin is out, a momentary lapse of concentration and she’s missed the gates. Ten away and it’s Shiffrin from Noens (+0.72), Holdener (+1.00) and VVZ (+1.24); Frida H is +1.26 and Petra Vlhova +1.28. Nina Løseth into 4th (+1.07); several skiers seem to be very tense today; worried about start numbers for next season, or the fact that this venue will host the world championships next year? That’s run 1 complete; Shiffrin leads from Noens, Holdener and Løseth. A few snags with the microphones as we try to hear Tina Maze’s take on the race so far! Now, run 2 (snow getting a bit softer) – with 5 down Bernadette Schild leads. Carmen Thalmann had a great start, building on her advantage (despite one error which scrubbed off a bit of speed) and she gets the lead. Anne-Sophie Barthet takes over; MPH in the red at the intermediates but gains lower down to go into the lead. A mistake from Kirchgasser but she recovers well and now she’s in the lead! Very athletic recovery from Vlhova, but it cost her too much time. Frida Hansdotter has put in the best time of run 2 so far to take the lead; very short time there though as Veronika VZ takes it away. Løseth skies out; Wendy Holdener is into the red by inter 1 and it keeps going the wrong way – into 3rd. Noens also out; that looked a very hard landing! Help on site quickly, race interrupted – she is up but not walking well (knee?); they are bringing a stretcher to take her off the course – sad end to her season. Mikaela Shiffrin hasn’t let the delay affect her – she starts with 1.27 advantage and wins by 2.03! So, Shiffrin wins her 5th race of the 5 she started – Veronika VZ in second, which gets her the runner up position in the slalom standings, with Frida Hansdotter third (with the globe already hers). Wendy Holdener was 4th, which puts her third in the discipline this season.

Men’s GS: No real battles in the discipline standings here – Hirscher has already won and Pinturault is second. Another long, tough course; after 5 starts Mathieu Faivre has an impressive lead (0.85) over Philipp Schörghofer with Victor M-J third. Alexis Pinturault into 2nd; Marcel Hirscher a bit off the pace, into 4th. Thomas Fanara (start number 14) goes into third; that’s France in the top 3 places! Not for long though as Florian Eisath goes into third; well done Italy! Good run from Marcus Sandell to go into 6th, but otherwise little change. That’s run 1 complete – Faivre, Pinturault, Eisath. Run 2 has started – what a superb day it seems to be in St Moritz! Five away and Felix Neureuther leads – seems he had equipment setup snags on run 1? Lovely run from Kilde to take over the lead! Most skiers looking quite tired – it’s been a long season! Rumour has it that Max Blardone will retire after this season, but he’s into 2nd here. Leitinger into 2nd; Kilde’s lead holding up at present. Jansrud is losing his advantage as he comes down – red by inter 3 and he’s third at the moment. Caviezel does something similar – also red at 3 and he’s into 2nd by 0.03. Course seems to be cutting up a little; Henrik K also losing a little but he keeps it green and that’s a different Norwegian leading. Hopefully no real problems with his knee before tomorrow! The French are sitting at the top, packing snow round the boots! Justin Murisier into the lead now, but Victor M-J takes it away from him! Marcel Hirscher is just red at 1 and 2, still just the wrong side at 3 but he’s made up time and goes into the lead! Kilde’s time still the best on run 2 though. Marcus Sandell looked as though he would take it away but he’s second by just 0.01! Now Schörghofer goes into the provisional lead; good news for Austria! It’s far from over though – great run from Thomas Fanara to give him the lead and that’s the best time for run 2 as well. Eisath into 5th; this could be an all French podium? Alexis Pinturault building at inter 1 but he’s lost a bit by 2; just red at 3 and second by just 2 hundredths! Mathieu Faivre is losing his advantage too but he’s steadied it by inter 3 – slower on the final section though and into third – it is an all French podium! Thomas Fanara wins from Alexis Pinturault and
Mathieu Faivre. Schörghofer in 4th ahead of Hirscher and Sandell. So, no change at the top of the Super G standings Hirscher wins from Pinturault and Kristoffersen; Faivre up to 4th ahead of Victor M-J.

Men’s Slalom (20 Mar): Now, Henrik Kristoffersen has the slalom globe sewn up already. Some of the favourites going very early; looks another nice day! Felix Neureuther is fastest by 0.01 until Marcel Hirscher goes 0.07 better – very close to a straddle though and a slight wobble low down! Seems to be OK. Andre Myhrer was red at the intermediates but a great lower section gives him the lead; Henrik K seems to be working hard but he’s slightly off the pace – into 5th +0.68. Now, that’s a new style from Daniel Yule and it’s working well – he’s fastest by 0.20! Sebastian Foss-Solevaag briefly into 2nd; replaced by Marco Schwarz – lots of new blood enjoying the last event of this season! TV break – at present Yule, Schwarz, Foss-Solevaag – top 6 separated by 0.39. Course workers are repairing gates which have been taking a pounding in the softening snow. No further change to the top 6; Dave Ryding in 14th as the first run is completed. Marco Schwarz was apparently DQ’d after run 1, but now seems to be reinstated? Course workers checking the gates – one in shorts! Run 2 is away – good run from Patrick Thaler to take an early lead; Manuel Feller even better but Fritz Dopfer isn’t having a good season – another disappointing run! Not a typical day from Henrik K either; looking tired and he’s 1.21 off the pace in 8th at present. Now there’s a thing – Dave Ryding faster than Kristoffersen!! Eight to go – Lizeroux leads from Feller, Mölgg goes into 3rd. Felix Neureuther into the red by inter 2, and he’s only 6th; Feller is still fastest on run 2. Marcel Hirscher started with 0.33 in hand – he’s got that up to 0.60 by inter 2 and goes into the lead by 0.44 (second fastest on run 2). Myhrer is red at 2, but pulls it back lower and takes over the lead! Sebastian F-S into third; Marco Schwarz gaining at the top but red at 2 – he goes 4th. Just Daniel Yule to go – half his lead is gone by inter 1 and he’s red at 2; nothing obvious but he’s lost time on the lower section – into 11th! So, Andre Myhrer wins, Marcel Hirscher 2nd and Sebastian Foss-Solvaag third; that gets Marcel up to 1795 points in the overall this season! Dave Ryding 15th in the end – that gives him 16 more points!

Women’s GS: This discipline globe isn’t quite decided – Eva-Maria Brem (who goes 5th in this first run) leads Vikki Rebensburg (going 4th today) by 52 points; Lara Gut 3rd but 130 back! Quite a challenging course, making the most of the terrain! Lara Gut goes number 3 – nice run and she takes the early lead. Vikki into 3rd, +0.46 off the lead – now what can Brem do? Slow, nervous start but less red at inter 2 and even better at 3 – green at last at the finish – she leads by 0.20. However, Federica Brignone is flying at the top; gone into the red at 3 and slips to 3rd. Good start by “Mitch” Gagnon, but again she’s losing time lower down – she goes 3rd. Lots of skiers looking tired on the lower section – 10 away and it’s Brem leading from Gut and Gagnon; Rebensburg in 7th, +0.66 – a lot to recover on run 2. That’s a worry – Mikaela Shiffrin massively ahead when she fell – seems to be OK and hopefully no damage to the previously injured leg. Late surprise – Taina Barioz goes into 2nd, just 0.06 off Brem’s time, and on a roughened course! That’s run 1 over; Rebensburg now 8th after Barioz’s late run! Run 2 now – with 5 away it’s a Curtoni fest at the top of the results – Irene just ahead of Elena! Nice run from Adeline Baud Mugnier to take over the lead, although Irene Curtoni is still fastest on run 2 so far. MPH going less green all the way and ends up 2nd; Frida Hansdotter has a similar run and now she’s 2nd. This seems to be a course which is all too easy to lose time on! Good start by Ana Drev, building on her advantage up to inter 2; enough in had to take over the lead. Interesting, Michaela Kirchgasser red pretty much all the way, but made up time at the finish to take the lead; strong all the way! Vikki Rebensburg is flying – 0.05 at the start, up to 0.99 at inter 2, a massive 1.55 at 3 and into the lead by 1.52! What a run, fastest on run 2, that could take a lot of beating! Brignone into 2nd, but losses that place to Gagnon. Good run from Lara Gut, but even she can only manage 2nd. Two to go – Barioz has lost her 0.60 advantage by inter 2 – she goes into second. Brem has 0.66 as she starts – down to 0.24 at 1, red +0.71 at 2, over a second red at 3 – she looks nervous and into 4th at the end! That is just enough to take the GS globe, by 2 points – 592 to Vikki’s 590! So, today Rebensburg, Barioz, Gut, Brem! Nail biter to the end; great race. Lara Gut ends the overall on 1522, Lindsey Vonn still 2nd and Vikki R third. No biathlon today because of the weather, so that’s another winter season over – withdrawal setting in already! Oh, hang on – snowboard cross!