Tue 14/01 - Ladies Slalom Flachau

Results of Altenmarkt DH, then (luckily?) I didn't have any other bets on Sunday's races.

Today Night Race in Flachau, to determine who's Yuasa among the ladies.
Previous slaloms were won by Shiffrin and Marlies Schild, two win both.
Few names showed enough consistency: Gagnon is solidly in the top 5 bot hasn't got a podium yet, today she's bib #1 and her coach is setting run 1, she comes from her first WC victory, everything seems to point in her direction; Nina Loeseth, although starting with high bibs scored three top10 finish; one last hot name is Bernadette Schild.
Maria Riesch has a good tradition in Flachau, but more than going for the win she'd rather go for points and increase her WC lead.

Picks for tonight.

Huge odds for Zettel and Nina Loeseth: although Zettel is underperforming in slalom she's got a good tradition here, Hansdotter is underperforming as well, so I think it's a very tasty price; as said before Loeseth is constatly in the top10, while Pietilae-Holmner before Bormio's 2nd place had a 20th place and didn't finish the other two slaloms.

Smaller stakes on Eklund and Feierabend. Hosp doesn't look good in slalom, she lacks of reactivity, of that fluency of movements you need in slalom (just look how she wasted over 1 second in the slalom run of the combined). Daum results are close to Feierabend ones, but Daum is achieving those results with better bib numbers than Feierabend, whom is improving: she was #45 in Levi at the start of the season.

Alpine skiing - quick recap after season opening and 1/2 American swing - part 1 ladies

Back blogging; I have few thoughts to write down about what's happening on the World Cup. A decent amount of races already completed some trending becoming evident.

Maze doesn't amaze anymore

Unrecognisable in giant-slalom and in super-g where she showed some lethargic movements, a little sparkle came with a 3rd place in Levi's slalom.

She's collected just 130 points and is 7th placed in the Cup standing.

My humble opinion is: she's aiming the Olympics, her form will come later this season.

This and Vonn still out make the fight for the Crystal Globe interesting. Although some young guns are make it interesting anyway.

Young guns: Gut, Shiffrin, Weirather

The hot names of the moment.

Gut is finally proving her talent. Three wins on the first three races and a solid lead in the Overall Standing, then out during the first run of the GS... she's still kind of unbeaten so far.
Shiffrin won the opening slalom starting the new season from where she left, but as proof of her growing up there's her first GS podium. In very short she'll rule both technical disciplines -Hirsher teaches that they're enough to win the Globe, do your math.
Weirather more than a Tina 2 looks like Gut's double, they trains together indeed. Technically speaking Tina is less aggressive on turns than Gut but has better flat sections. 3rd place in Beaver's GS was her first podium in that discipline, made even greater by the fact she was bib #29, so she's lot to work on her Starting List.

Team talk: US, Norway.

The aspect that probably most intrigues me of this sport it's the [with Gandalf voice - it sounds a bit philosophical and I had a teacher who... long story, nevermind] duality Team-Athlete: it's true that you're on your own out on the slope, but that is just a drop in the sea of training either on slopes and in gyms (plus other pre-season exercises like running and cycling), all shared with teammates. So when you leave the starting gate you put on course your individual value, your liking or disliking the slope, the course setting, other mental factors and so on, but beside this there's a big slice of the pie made by training, which is the same for you and your teammates. It's not uncommon seeing few flags of the same nation gathering at some point of the final standing of a race.
For example tennis is individual, and training is individual too. Pro-tennis players have their own staff and there aren't groups of players with similar trends. Yet Errani and Vinci since they started working together showed "similar" progress and reached their career best rank almost at the same time.
All this to say that I love talk teams.

US have to thank Shiffrin, who all alone saved the USskiteam on home soil from what looked like a Little Bighorn. Although she has to be considered more by herself than as part of a team -sorry, Resi!-, where US really team-up is in fast disciplines: Vonn and Mancuso are top racers while Smith, Ross and Cook are solid teammate worth of top10 placements. The best this bunch has done is Cook's 19th place in DH.

The most probable explanation to this is their preparation that has to be centered on the Olympics, this would be typical of the US above all of Mancuso: she better performs on biggest stages like Olympics or World Champs than on tours stages - she's won more Olympics medal than Vonn, to say.

Opposite form is showed by the Norway team, or Vikings as they're nicknamed. Actually they're not at the very top but this is a young team and after few years passed fighting for a top30 placement now they're finding the top10 with some continuity.
Ragnhild Mowinckel was the one showing the greater improvement, previous to her 8th place in Beaver's GS she scored great results in some "warm-up" events held in Copper Mountain. Almost all those events were won by Lotte Sejersted, on the World Cup satges she probably was the most disappointing though, with only a 10th place in Super-G.
The elder Loeseth, Nina, was 12th in Beaver's GS backing her 7th place achieved in Levi. She's recorded a 1st and a 3rd place in two Nor-Am GS kept this week.
The younger Loeseth, Mona, remained in the old continent competiting in European Cup record a win and a 4th place in GS and a win and a 2nd place in SL.

Other team worth mentioning are Swiss (+ Weirather), with solid team either in fast and tech disciplines, and Canada.

Thumb up for the new Raptor course 

Ladies Slalom - Ofterschwang

Hard to understand how weather and snow conditions will affect the race, let's hope it'll be regular enough

h2h Gagnon - N.Loeseth - pick Gagnon 3 units @1.83 Won +2.49
Strange to see these two tied for the bookies, but it is fair to say Loeseth is in front of Gagnon in the slalom standing.
Anyway Gagnon overall is much better than Loeseth, the problem with the canadian is that she's good only in single sections or runs, and then she waste all the good she's done with some orrible mistake.
Like yesterday when she was fifth after the first run of the GS, then wasted it all almost falling down, finished 30th.

h2h Pietilae-Holmner - Mielzyinski -pick Mielzyinski 2 units @2.50 Lost -2
Pietilae-Holmner's got much luck drawing no.1 she'll have the course in perfect conditions.
She looked in big troubles yesterday, though, maybe for the snow.
Mielzyinski is a very clean racer, and hardly doesn't finish a stage, she also enjoy humid conditions, third place this year in Zagreb, and her only career win was right here in Ofterscwang last year.

I also pick: Mielzyinski top 3 1 unit @11 Lost -1

-0.51

Bad performance by Mielzynski, she also straddled in the second run and went out, hard for her to beat yesterday's Pietilae-Holmner to be honest, the swedish seems to have better feeling with the slalom than with the Giant-slalom.
Very nice from Gagnon 4th place, one of her best career result... if she hadn't messed up the second run of the Giant-Slalom of saturday it would have been her best weekend ever.

Again Maze shows her best, her mind-clutchness. She wins and also jump on the lead of the slalom standing 595 points against Shiffrin's 588.
The baby american felt the pressure nad looked very rigid in the second run, 20th time of the run and she's down to the 3rd place.

Also to mention:
Wendy Holdener, of the raising Swiss SL team, she's been on a steady growth this year from borderline top 30 she's into the second group of the starting list and now is 7th in discipline's standing.
Anna Goodman, veteran candian slalomist, but at her first World Cup race in one year, best time of the second run and 15th place.