(Lienz) Tessa Worley won the World Cup giant from Lienz (Austria) on Tuesday, the 15e victory of her career, ahead of the Slovakian Petra Vlhova and the Swedish Sara Hector.
Just over a month before the Beijing Olympics (February 4-20), Worley (32) clinched her first victory of the season, in the absence of two of the discipline’s top names, the American Mikaela. Shiffrin and the Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami, positive for COVID-19.
Best time of the first round, the Frenchwoman was able to overcome the pitfalls of the second route (4e time) disputed between light and shadow to keep 30/100 ahead of Vlhova and 38/100 ahead of Hector.
Eighth in Sölden (Austria) at the end of October, 5e then 4e in Courchevel last week, Bornandine is gaining momentum this season as a giant and has made its science of the discipline speak to win its first race since Kronplatz in January.
Double world champion in the specialty, Worley is in great shape before competing in a priori in a little over a month for her 3es Olympic Games, where she never won a medal.
With 15 World Cup giant successes, Worley is the 3e most successful skier in the history of the discipline behind the Swiss Vreni Schneider (20) and the Austrian Annemarie Moser-Pröll (16).
The women’s circuit has been affected for several weeks by several cases of COVID-19, among skiers and followers. The reigning giant world champion Lara Gut-Behrami has been absent since the Val d’Isère stage, and the American Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin announced on Monday that she had tested positive.
Shiffrin retains the lead in the general classification 93 points ahead of Italy’s Sofia Goggia, 12e Tuesday.