Anti Climax at Lenzerheide

The outcome of the close race between Lindsey Vonn and Maria Riesch for the overall World Cup crystal globe has been decided in Maria's favour, not on the slopes but by a combination of questionable federation rules and bad weather! What a sad way to end a great and exciting season. While I know that with outdoor sports the weather can always be a major factor, and that safety is paramount (so why fine Cuche for his concerns??), I have to question the federation rules which say that races cancelled because of the weather are not rescheduled. Possibly fair enough early in the season because of the logistic problems that would arise, but surely not for the last races in the series? Especially as this weekend there is still a slot available on Sunday for a team event, which is surely a much lower priority - although of course conditions may well be no better than! Very disappointing for Lindsey who lost the title by only 3 points, and probably also for Maria, although she's not alone - Didier Cuche and Ted Ligety have also won titles (admittedly discipline trophies, not the overall) this week without getting on the slopes! You can argue that Maria was the more consistent overall and I certainly think she deserves the title; as someone suggested on the FIS site - perhaps we should celebrate the fact that two women managed to get over 1700 points. Time to look forward to next year when perhaps we will see the two go head to head again, and may well see Tina Maze, Lara Gut etc in the mix too. Congratulations to Maria, and also Viktoria Rebensburg who wins the GS title this year! See also:http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/19032011/58/riesch-wins-women-world-cup.html
http://www.fisalpine.com/news/final-ladies-lenzerheide-canceled-men-slalom-delayed,1272.html

The team event on Sunday was, almost inevitably, run in great weather conditions on a parallel GS style course! Pity the US opted not to compete - not sure if that was the plan all along or it's just sour grapes, but I would have thought it would have shown a great sense of mischief to take part and ensure that in any US v Germany leg Lindsey Vonn raced against Maria Riesch. Anyway, in the event the Germans got through to the final where they beat Italy 3-1; Austria was third

The Overall Nations Cup, based on the total points from the season’s combined men’s and women’s results, was won by Austria with 10,644 total points . Switzerland came second (6,576) and Italy third (5,488). No great surprises there as Austria, Switzerland and Italy have taken the top threee places in this event every year since 2007!