ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. With both the ladies' and men's tour returning to Europe for this weekend - the men will be heading to Val d'Isère (FRA) for a technical weekend and the ladies to St. Moritz (SUI) for SG & GS races - seven ladies and five men's competitions have been staged, or just below 20%.

On the men's side, the field of possible winners has visibly grown; in fact in the five events so far there have been a total of 15 podium finishers. Obviously the slightest of mistakes on the course or in the equipment selection can make the difference between finishing on the podium and in the lower end of top 30. The Austrian men's team has begun its comeback season with a vengeance, already collecting two wins at three speed races, including a double victory in the season opening downhill where Michael Walchhofer stole the title of the oldest downhill winner from Didier Cuche. In Beaver Creek, Georg Streiberger conquered the Birds of Prey super-G. After five events, the overall World Cup is led by Mario Scheiber of Austria ahead of Didier Cuche (SUI) and Aksel Lund Svindal (NOR).

It's a different story on the ladies' side. Double Olympic champion Maria Riesch has put down a stellar start with five podiums and 7 out of 7 top ten finishes so far. She also recorded back-to-back downhill wins at Lake Louise for the first time in her career. In the overall rankings Riesch has built a lead of 169 points over Lindsey Vonn, the reigning overall champion, who has suffered from some inconsistency until now. Vonn did however clinch her first season win at Lake Louise super-G, her career first super-G win there. Behind the two dominators, the group of athletes fighting for the third spot is led by Viktoria Rebensburg (GER), Liz Görgl (AUT) who will be sidelined for a few weeks due to a knee injury sustained in Lake Louise and Julia Mancuso (USA), who has celebrated her best season start ever. For the fans this means an exciting season still ahead!

FISalpine.com
Thursday 9 December 2010

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