Dhe two-time ski world champion Tessa Worley has reported back as a winning driver at the World Cup dress rehearsal in giant slalom. The 31-year-old prevailed on Tuesday on the difficult slope on Kronplatz in South Tyrol ahead of Lara Gut-Behrami from Switzerland (+0.27 seconds) and the Italian Marta Bassino (+0.73).
On the steep and treacherous track, Worley fought his way up from fifth after the first round to first. The three leaders of the first run, Michelle Gisin (Switzerland), Mikaela Shiffrin (USA) and Federica Brignone (Italy), slipped back behind the podium to fourth (Shiffrin), six (Gisin) and seven (Brignone) in the final .
A good one and a half weeks before the start of the World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo (February 8-21), the 2013 and 2017 title holder celebrated her first World Cup victory since October 2018. Worley kissed the camera in the finish area, that of her partner Julien Lizeraux, who wants to drive his last race in Schladming that evening.
With her third place, Bassino, who had won four of the six races of the season, consolidated the lead in the discipline standings. In the overall standings, the Slovakian Petra Vlhova, who was only twelfth as world champion at Kronplatz after a restless ride, now has a 100 point lead over Gisin.
Again no points for the Germans
As in the whole winter, the German starters were well behind in the discipline on the demanding Erta slope. None of the four starters of the DSV made it into the second round: Andrea Filser as 36th and Jessica Hilzinger as 44th were each clearly too slow for the best 30, Lisa Marie Loipetssperger and Leonie Flötgen were eliminated.
After the retirement of Vice World Champion Viktoria Rebensburg, the German team lacks a top rider in the discipline: in the sixth giant slalom, no World Cup points jumped for the fourth time.
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