Super G and Combi tomorrow!

GARMISCH AND ST. MORITZ. SUPER G AND COMBI TOMORROW

St. Moritz showed its teeth today. It is a tough hill when the light is flat like that. There are no trees, no landmarks and no vision. It is tough to even know where you are on the hill, so easy to get lost. But Lindsey put the smack-down and it was obvious that, once again, she is better than all the others. Riesch was second best, but really she was first-worst. No one was even close. One of the things I really like about her skiing these days is her ability to move to the new ski early and line up her turn with great position, allowing her to time almost every turn perfectly. Did you see when the outside ski was bouncing late in the turn? What did she do? She knew she had all the direction she needed so she just went to the new ski. You can call it the inside ski all you want, but really it is the new turning ski or outside ski. It was very nice execution of a move that most of the girls are not comfortable doing.

With Maria, you could see a very defensive position from the start. Maybe it was the light, maybe the rough track, maybe both. But no matter how you call it, her position was defensive and her tuck position was awful. Hands low, shoulders catching air. It was not World Cup skiing. But that’s the way it goes sometimes and Lins put another C Note in her Overall and DH globe column.

Tomorrow they are competing in a SG/Super Combi. And Lins should win this one too.

Lindsey, Maze and Riesch will be the podium.

GARMISCH

At least there is a Super G tomorrow. Today was disappointing. I know it’s an outdoor, winter sport held on mountains. Any weather can happen anytime. Garmisch had the seemingly ever-present fog and the start was lowered. But lowering the start to the Alte Schneise in Kitz is one thing. Lowering the start in Garmisch without even using the Frei Falle is really dull. I am as big a fan as there is of World Cup skiing but that just lost my interest. I watched about 4 or 5 guys and I just could not get into it. Sorry. It was no fun to watch.

Super G is tomorrow. And with his penchant for great skiing in Garmisch, I have to think Erik Guay is going to bring it and pull in a win. I really do. His SG has been mostly solid this season and he has always been very good in Garmisch. Innerhofer won the World Champs last year and Kostelic has been in there in SG in the past in Garmisch. But Kostelic has been off the pace in speed this year and I am not sure that is something that is easily fixed. It could be a set up deal and if that’s the case I doubt he has the time to go out and test SG glide turns to figure it out. He skis 4 disciplines and there is little time for speed testing.  I just don’t see it because he has been nothing short of awful in SG this year. Svindal was good last year and has been good in SG this year. He leads in the SG standings and he is likely pulling his motivation from this one discipline because the others seem to have abandoned him.  But he can do well here. I seem to be talking myself into Svindal and Reichelt as the 2 and 3 spots on the podium.

GUAY, SVINDAL AND REICHELT but I could see someone like CUCHE challenging for the steps.