Lara Gut reclaims overall lead with downhill win in La Thuile

LA THUILE, Italy – Despite difficulties on the top of the course, Lara Gut raced to her second downhill win of the season on Friday. The Swiss skier bested Austria’s Cornelia Huetter by a commanding 1.02 seconds after finishing the technical “Franco Berthod” course in 1:35.57 under sunny skies. Home crowd favorite Nadia Fanchini was third, 1.03 seconds behind Gut.

Lara Gut admitted she had the flu over the last two training days but she was confident she would have enough energy for at least two minutes of effort to put down a strong run today. It was her sixth World Cup victory this season.

“It’s a challenging course as we already said in the last couple of days, but I prefer challenges to highways,” Gut said after her win. “When you make a mistake on a straight course it’s impossible to make up the time. Today my line wasn’t ideal especially on top and I had to drift sometimes. I hope I can really arc my turns tomorrow. The more aggressive you are with the type of snow we have, the better it is.”

Fastest in the final training session, Huetter is still chasing her first World Cup win but she proved she is comfortable on this new hill as she collected her seventh career podium result.

“It’s definitely not easy here,” Huetter said. “You have to be on the limit and push. The transitions between the steep and flat sections are very tricky. I am super happy to finish second.”

Downhill World Cup leader Lindsey Vonn of the U.S. Ski Team was leading after the first interval when she initiated a right-footed turn entirely on her inside ski before attempting to pressure her right ski in the chattery fall line. Her binding released and she slid on her hip off course, but she was able to ski down to the finish area.

“I was a little bit inside with my body position and my ski just came off,” Vonn said after the race. “I am definitely disappointed. I thought I was skiing pretty well. It happened very quickly.”

Vonn related the event to her crash in the Aspen giant slalom in November when her ski also released and admitted she is perplexed as to why it continues to occur.

“Besides the weather that is the one thing you cannot control,” Vonn continued. “I did my job and hopefully tomorrow my skis will also do their job.”

One of Vonn’s skis appeared to be bent after the race and she said she didn’t know if it happened before or during the crash.

“I am really confused about how this happened, actually, so I have to watch the video again. Normally none of this should happen. But tomorrow is another chance to get revenge on this hill.”

Vonn still leads the downhill standings with 500 points and is now trailed by Huetter with 374. If the 31-year-old American is 100 points clear at the top of the table after Saturday’s race, she will secure her eighth downhill crystal globe, as there will be only one downhill race remaining on the calendar.

With today’s win, Lara Gut regains the overall lead 13 points ahead of Vonn with 1073.

The U.S. Ski Team’s Laurenne Ross continued her positive trend from Garmisch by matching her fifth-place finish there with another at the Italian resort. Alice McKennis led the rest of the Speed Unicorns in 16th as Stacey Cook and Jacqueline Wiles squeezed into 19th and 20th, respectively.

Saturday’s downhill is scheduled to start at 10:45 a.m. CET.

Release courtesy of FIS

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The Scoop
By Hank McKee

1. Gut, Head/Head/Head
2. Huetter,  Volkl/Tecnica/Marker
3. Fanchini, Dynastar/Lange/Dynastar
4. F. Suter, Dynastar/Lange/Dynastar
5. Ross, Volkl/Lange/Marker
6. Weirather, Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
7. Curtoni, Head/Head/Head
8. Rebensburg, Stoeckli/Lange/Atomic
9. Yurkiw, Rossignol/Rossignol/Rossignol
10. Goergl, Head/Head/Head

• Women’s World Cup downhill, La Thuile, Italy, Feb. 19, 2016. … It is the 25^th of 41 races on the women’s schedule. … The sixth of nine scheduled downhills. … It is a make-up race from the race lost at Crans Montana Feb. 13. … Home of the military alpine school, La Thuile has not previously hosted a World Cup event but is no stranger to hosting both alpine and Nordic races.
• It is the 18^th career World Cup win for Lara Gut. … Her sixth in downhill and her sixth win of the season, second in DH. … The winning margin is 1.02 seconds. … Top eight are within two seconds.
• It is the seventh career World Cup podium for Cornelia Huetter. … Her sixth this season. … She has yet to win a World Cup race.
• It is the 10th career World Cup podium for Nadia Fanchini. … Her first of the season.
• It is the seventh career World Cup top five for Laurenne Ross and her second of both the season and the month having also finished fifth at Garmisch Feb. 6. … It is the 11^th career World Cup top 10 for Larisa Yurkiw. … Her sixth this season. … It is the 18th best career World Cup finish for Alice McKennis. … Her second best finish of the season after a 12h at Val d’Isere Dec. 19. … It is the 62^nd time Stacey Cook has finished in the top 20 of a World Cup race. … It is the 14^th career World Cup  scoring finish for Jacqueline Wiles.
• Lara Gut moves into the lead of the World Cup overall standings 1073-1060 over Lindsey Vonn (DNF in race). … Victoria Rebensburg (eighth in race) is third overall with 852pts.
• Vonn leads the downhill standings 500-374 over Huetter. … Yurkiw is third with 357pts.
• Austria leads the women’s Nations Cup standings 3272-2701 over Italy. … Switzerland is third with 2558pts. … The U.S. is fourth with 2217pts and Canada eighth at 898pts.

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Official Results

1	18	516138	GUT Lara	1991	SUI	1:35.57		0.00
2	16	56128	HUETTER Cornelia	1992	AUT	1:36.59	+1.02	13.34
3	10	296729	FANCHINI Nadia	1986	ITA	1:36.60	+1.03	13.47
4	21	515766	SUTER Fabienne	1985	SUI	1:36.74	+1.17	15.30
5	13	538573	ROSS Laurenne	1988	USA	1:36.86	+1.29	16.87
6	20	355050	WEIRATHER Tina	1989	LIE	1:37.00	+1.43	18.70
7	4	297910	CURTONI Elena	1991	ITA	1:37.48	+1.91	24.98
8	19	205218	REBENSBURG Viktoria	1989	GER	1:37.50	+1.93	25.24
9	17	106849	YURKIW Larisa	1988	CAN	1:37.58	+2.01	26.29
10	14	55576	GOERGL Elisabeth	1981	AUT	1:37.61	+2.04	26.68
11	26	296427	SCHNARF Johanna	1984	ITA	1:38.07	+2.50	32.70
12	15	516319	SUTER Corinne	1994	SUI	1:38.08	+2.51	32.83
13	8	245066	MIKLOS Edit	1988	HUN	1:38.29	+2.72	35.58
14	25	56088	TIPPLER Tamara	1991	AUT	1:38.33	+2.76	36.10
15	23	56125	PUCHNER Mirjam	1992	AUT	1:38.35	+2.78	36.36
16	29	538685	MCKENNIS Alice	1989	USA	1:38.37	+2.80	36.62
17	24	565360	STUHEC Ilka	1990	SLO	1:38.53	+2.96	38.72
18	9	296472	FANCHINI Elena	1985	ITA	1:38.94	+3.37	44.08
19	11	537582	COOK Stacey	1984	USA	1:38.96	+3.39	44.34
20	5	539536	WILES Jacqueline	1992	USA	1:39.11	+3.54	46.30
21	30	296008	MERIGHETTI Daniela	1981	ITA	1:39.21	+3.64	47.61
22	31	297601	BRIGNONE Federica	1990	ITA	1:39.29	+3.72	48.66
23	28	296431	STUFFER Verena	1984	ITA	1:39.30	+3.73	48.79
24	6	56087	SIEBENHOFER Ramona	1991	AUT	1:39.36	+3.79	49.57
25	7	297702	MARSAGLIA Francesca	1990	ITA	1:39.71	+4.14	54.15
26	2	425929	MOWINCKEL Ragnhild	1992	NOR	1:39.86	+4.29	56.11
27	37	56224	MAIER Sabrina	1994	AUT	1:39.88	+4.31	56.37
28	44	565333	BRODNIK Vanja	1989	SLO	1:40.02	+4.45	58.20
29	36	197497	MIRADOLI Romane	1994	FRA	1:40.10	+4.53	59.25
30	35	565320	FERK Marusa	1988	SLO	1:40.15	+4.58	59.90
31	1	56177	VENIER Stephanie	1993	AUT	1:40.26	+4.69	61.34
32	3	196968	BAILET Margot	1990	FRA	1:40.47	+4.90	64.09
33	47	196928	WORLEY Tessa	1989	FRA	1:40.71	+5.14	67.23
34	39	515997	FEIERABEND Denise	1989	SUI	1:41.05	+5.48	71.68
35	33	375018	COLETTI Alexandra	1983	MON	1:41.10	+5.53	72.33
36	45	155763	LEDECKA Ester	1995	CZE	1:41.27	+5.70	74.55
37	42	155563	KRIZOVA Klara	1989	CZE	1:41.48	+5.91	77.30
38	41	197615	BESSY Anouk	1995	FRA	1:41.90	+6.33	82.79
39	46	206520	DORSCH Patrizia	1994	GER	1:41.97	+6.40	83.71
40	40	197665	LARROUY Noemie	1995	FRA	1:42.16	+6.59	86.19
41	43	516219	NUFER Priska	1992	SUI	1:42.65	+7.08	92.60
Did not finish 1st run
	38	197295	PIOT Jennifer	1992	FRA
	34	55913	MOSER Stefanie	1988	AUT
	32	298323	GOGGIA Sofia	1992	ITA
	27	516185	HAEHLEN Joana	1992	SUI
	22	537544	VONN Lindsey	1984	USA
	12	505886	KLING Kajsa	1988	SWE