ALPINE:

Riesch upsets Vonn for Lake Louise downhill win

Dec. 3, 2010     ♦ Photos, from top: Lindsey Vonn talks with friend Maria Riesch during the Visa Aspen Winternational in the Audi FIS World Cup at Aspen, Colorado (U.S. Ski Team); Riesch in action at the 2010 Olympics (fisalpine.com); home page:

LAKE LOUISE, Alberta — Germany's Maria Riesch halted American Lindsey Vonn's stunning win streak at Lake Louise, winning the women's World Cup downhill Friday as the second weekend of the Bombardier Winterstart kicked off.

Vonn, gunning for career win No. 8 at Lake Louise — and sixth in a row — look poised to grab the victory again Friday, but Riesch, starting two slots behind Vonn, finished in 1 minute, 28.96 seconds, .12 better than her U.S. rival.

On a course shortened from the traditional start, Austria's Elisabeth Goergl was .21 behind Riesch to snag third place, with American Julia Mancuso in fourth.

The Canadian women's speed team, depleted due to retirements and injuries, was led by Britt Janyk, who finished 39th. Georgia Simmerling was 45th, Victoria Stevens 46th and Kelly McBroom 51st. Stephanie Irwin did not finish her run.

Riesch last won a downhill here in 2006 and since then had finished on the podium behind Vonn four times. She was also runner-up to Vonn in the overall World Cup standings the past three seasons.

"To beat Lindsey at Lake Louise is a big challenge," a jubilant Riesch said. "Every win is really special, especially here in Lake Louise where Lindsey is always killing it."

The women's downhill course was shortened by about 150 metres because of icy sections at the top. The women's start hut was from the same point as the men's super-G last Sunday.

The race was held under partly cloudy skies and temperatures of minus-10 C at the start hut. Light snow fell on skiers with an earlier start number, but visibility improved later in the race.

Vonn was faster on the bottom portion of the course than Riesch, but the German, who is almost 6 feet tall, was quicker in the earlier phases.

"I have more in me," Vonn vowed. "I'll be looking for a win tomorrow. There's a lot that's yet to be done this weekend."

Riesch and Vonn are fast friends and have spent holidays at each other's homes. They spend less time together now that Vonn is married to former U.S. team skier Thomas Vonn and Riesch is engaged to her manager, Marcus Hoefl, but the two women are still close.

Both Thomas Vonn and Hoefl had birthdays Friday, so their significant others were trying to win a World Cup for them. Lindsey Vonn supplemented her second-place finish by singing "Happy Birthday" to her husband in the finish area.

Vonn won both downhills and was second in super-G last year in Lake Louise.

"It's always hard to lose a race by such small margins, but I'm happy for Maria," Vonn said. "It's great to see my friend on the top step of the podium. I'll look at video and see where I can make up time for tomorrow."

It was a tough day on the hill for Canadians as Janyk was the host team's only legitimate medal hope. She'd finished third in a downhill at Lake Louise three years ago and was fourth and 10th in 2009.

"The speed just isn't there," Janyk said. "I can feel it on the flats and on this course, it's so important to carry speed on those top flats and especially on the bottom, you can see girls either take speed or lose speed down here."

McBroom, of Canmore, Alta., was 51st in her first race since wrecking her knee in a race on Feb. 1, 2009.

With Emily Brydon retired and Kelly VanderBeek and Larisa Yurkiw rehabilitating knee injuries, the Canadian women's speed team is thin. All but Janyk are 21 years old or younger and lack World Cup experience.

Janyk lost an experienced training partner when Chemmy Alcott of Britain crashed in Thursday's final training run and broke her leg in two places. Alcott trained with the Canadian team this off-season.

"She was kind of training partner because we've got a lot of young girls on the team and they're great, but to have Chemmy around, who is experienced as I am and racing on the World Cup as long as I have, to train next to has been fantastic," Janyk said.

While the rest of the speed team remains in Canada for developmental Nor-Am races, Janyk will travel alone to the next World Cup in Val-d'Isere, France. She won't have Alcott for moral support.

"I'll be the only one there," Janyk said. "I'll definitely miss her."

Vonn has been critical of this year's Lake Louise course, which was water-injected for the men's races last week. Injection creates a layer of hard snow and ice to prevent the course from deteriorating as the heavier men ski over it, and also to keep the course intact should the temperature suddenly rise.

Injection is sometimes used on only portions of a course.

Lake Louise has received little snow since the men's races and some sections remain icy.

"It's unfortunately getting more slick ever day," Vonn said. "It's pretty dangerous, but they're doing their best, so I have to go out and do my best and try not to think about it.

"It's better when it's not as icy for the women. You need to be able to feel the snow. For men, the ice is great, but for women, it's not as great."

Riesch and Goergl were less critical of course conditions.

"Some gates are really icy, but I think that's because of the preparation for the men," Riesch said. "It actually is OK because you know where it is and you just need sharp edges and to stand in a good position on your skis and then it's not problem."

Added Goergl, who won the super-G last year in Lake Louise, was third in 1:29.17., "I also like it when it's icy because you have to use the power and use a clean technique."

Riesch's victory was the 15th of her career, while Vonn's second-place finish was her 12th podium at a Lake Louise World Cup.

"The whole U.S. team did a great job," added Vonn. "We had seven girls in the top 30 and that just shows that we are skiing really well as a team. We've shown in training that we can be fast and I'm glad we stepped it up for the race."

Mancuso said she was skiing while thinking of best friend Alcott.

"I skied solid, but there's definitely room to go faster," said Mancuso, who was on her way to visit Alcott at the hospital in nearby Banff. "I had a long day yesterday just worrying about my friend and going to the hospital just waiting her for her to get done with surgery, so it's nice to have a solid race run under my belt."

American Alice McKennis ran first and spent a good portion of time in the leader box before slipping to 11th. Leanne Smith, Laurenne Ross, Stacey Cook and Chelsea Marshall all scored World Cup points by landing inside the top 30.

"Conditions were awesome, hard, icy and very challenging for the girls. It was a very good race," said U.S. women's head coach Alex Hoedlmoser. "Pretty much the whole downhill team is producing results and that's good to see. Everyone is really fired up for tomorrow to have a better result than today. The girls aren't even satisfied with their rankings, so it's good for them all."

"Everyone skied really well," added Mancuso. "A couple people had higher expectations because of the training runs, but in general this was pretty cool." 

The women will race another downhill Saturday (Bold, CBCSports.ca, 2:25 p.m. ET) and a super-G on Sunday (Bold, CBCSports.ca, 12:45 p.m. ET).  S-Magazine

Lake Louise women's World Cup downhill results Dec. 3

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