Germany’s Hoelzl earns 1st World Cup victory at Aspen GS; Vonn fails to qualify for 2nd run

Hoelzl takes Aspen GS for 1st World Cup victory

ASPEN, Colo. — Kathrin Hoelzl’s 2008 world championship in the giant slalom was seen as something of a fluke, in part because she’d never won a World Cup race. The German took care of that gap on her resume Saturday.

With Lindsey Vonn failing to qualify for the second run, and other top racers also faltering, Hoelzl earned her first World Cup victory with two strong charges down an icy, bumpy course she found to her liking.

“Today, it was pretty icy — I think too icy for many of the girls,” Hoelzl said. “But my (equipment) is perfect on ice.”

She turned in the fastest first run by nearly a half-second and used that advantage to hold off runner-up Kathrin Zettel of Austria in the second run.

Federica Brignone of Italy was third, the first podium finish for the 19-year-old daughter of Maria Rosa Quario, who won four World Cup slaloms from 1979-83.

“She gives me advice about life,” Brignone said, “not about skiing.”

Hoelzl finished with a total time of 2 minutes, 9.63 seconds in the first North American stop on the circuit. Zettel was 0.24 back, the only competitor within a second of the winner.

Reigning Olympic giant slalom champion Julia Mancuso of Olympic Valley, Calif., was the top American finisher, placing 13th in 2:12.79. Mancuso is working her way back after nagging back problems hampered her last season, when she failed to get any top-three finishes.

After missing a gate in the season-opening giant slalom at Soelden, Austria, last month, Mancuso was pleased with Saturday’s effort.

“I’m psyched to get two solid runs in. Second run could’ve definitely been better, but I made it to the finish, and it feels pretty good,” Mancuso said. “Helps a lot, just to know that I can go charge again, go out of the gate and just go for it. It’s made a big difference, because I don’t want to be tentative when I’m leaving that start gate.”

Vonn, the two-time overall World Cup champion from Vail, Colo., hit a rock with her right ski and was 39th in the first run; only the top 30 advanced to the second run.

“I was just trying to make it down, and I was, like, laughing at myself,” Vonn said, “because I knew how big of a tool I looked like.”

She has yet to have a top-three finish in a giant slalom over her career, and things went awry Saturday when she wobbled after knocking the rock on the top half of the course and found her right ski sliding.

Vonn finished her run in 1:08.33, more than 4½ seconds behind Hoelzl.

“I just went onto my right ski and there was nothing. I spun out on the flats — that doesn’t normally happen,” she said. “I knew right then and there. I was like, ‘Oh, God, just from here on out, just make it down.’ And that’s all I was trying to do.”

Other racers talked about bouncing around on the slopes.

“There’s definitely a few rocks in the ice,” Mancuso said. “I guess it’s all about luck.”

Hoelzl’s previous best World Cup finishes both came in giant slaloms: a second place in March 2007, and a third in January 2009. But she did win the GS at last year’s world championships, a race Vonn skipped because she had cut her thumb on a champagne bottle during a victory celebration.

Vonn finished fourth in the giant slalom at Aspen last year, and she’s never fared better in this discipline while being dominant in others.

She gets another chance to perform in front of her large contingent of local supporters in Sunday’s slalom. Vonn was runner-up to Maria Riesch of Germany in the season’s first World Cup slalom at Levi, Finland, two weeks ago.

“Aspen is the toughest place for me. It’s got so much terrain. It’s like sheer pond ice,” Vonn said. “Hopefully tomorrow goes better.”

Other top racers who had problems Saturday included Riesch, who finished 14th, and Tanja Poutiainen of Finland, who wound up 26th of the 27 women who completed the second run.

Poutiainen won the season’s first World Cup giant slalom — edging second-place Zettel at Soelden — but had complained of a bad back heading into Aspen.