Gut wins WCup downhill race in Val d’Isere, Vonn crashes

01 seconds behind Swiss skier Gut in a thrilling race and missed out on a fifth straight win. It’s faster than a blink of an eye and enough to win a race.

Lindsey Vonn posted the fastest time in the downhill leg of a World Cup super-combined, putting her in the lead ahead of the slalom later Friday.

“Everything can go so fast”, Gut said. “This year is different”.

On the top, I definitely felt the aggressive snow. “I want to focus on the events Im best at. “So it’s nice to ski like that”.

It was Gut’s second race victory of the season after winning a giant slalom in Aspen last month and she moves up to second in the standings, 102 behind Vonn’s mark of 480 points.

In Friday’s combined, she predictably led after the downhill but could not hold off Gut, who made up the difference in the slalom. “I was going quite a bit faster and didn’t realize that would have as much effect as it did”. But it was solid. “Usually if I’m on the same page as the men I have a good season”.

Fourth after the downhill, Slovenian Ilka Stuhec had high hopes but straddled a gate and went out.

“Sometimes it can actually give you confidence that you can crash so hard and actually still be fine”, she said. “Reminded me of how fast I can be”.

“I remember the weather being really bad and Janica (Kostelic) was trying to make me nervous”, Vonn said.

It was definitely painful today. “It’s tough to get my arm up”.

Between runs, the goal was to conserve energy and get some slalom turns in. “Its a long day.

“I am pretty happy because it was a good downhill”, the Austrian said. But it was a good one for me … “And maybe next time in the combined, it’s better”.

Vonn showed her quality in the opening discipline of Friday as she surged to the top of the timesheets in one minute 44.13 seconds.

“I needed this result because in the last three seasons, I was two seasons out because of injury. But that’s not a gamble I’ll take”, she said.

While she was not thrilled with her downhill run, she was more than pleased with the slalom.

However, her slalom run of 53.79 secs was well off the pace and she was agonisingly denied the win as Gut left her to settle for second.

“It’s more exciting when I have a bigger lead and I don’t have to be stressed out in slalom”.

When Vonn first won a downhill race here 10 years ago, she was awarded the unusual gift of a cow, and when she won another cow after last year’s downhill win she called it Winnie. Shiffrin is not sure when she’ll be able to return to the World Cup circuit. Austria’s Michaela Kirchgasser rounded out the podium in third.

“We kind of give each other s- all the time”, Vonn said.

“I worked a lot on the video yesterday and it worked well for today”, the 24-year-old Gut said.