Tessa Worley shook her head in an unsure manner as she came through the finish after her first run but she leads the way. Sara Hector, fresh from her win and runners up results in Courchevel is in second with Ragnhild Mowinckel in third. Petra Vlhova and Alice Robinson round out the top five finishers.
The big news in the run up to the race was the announcement that Mikaela Shiffrin would not be on the start list as she had returned a positive Covid-19 test result and so would be missing both races. With Alice Robinson and Katharina Liensberger back in the fray after missing Courchevel, Lara Gut-Behrami is still absent with Covid issues.
Worley started the race with bib 1 and skied a smooth line. Going one, she was not sure how good her run had been. A questioning shake of the head was evident in the finish area but her time stayed the course.
Lienz is a course that ducks and dives and twists around the hill and when the light is flat, it can be difficult to appreciate. With later runners benefiting from the sun coming out, the lack of a crowd due to strict Covid rules in Austria, meant that the suns benefit was welcome in pushing racers to the finish for faster times.
Hector and Mowinckel are within touch of Worley, just 0.12 and 0.29 respectively behind and with the second run run in reverse order, the ruts could play a big part in the outcome of this race.
Seven racers from outside the top thirty starters made it into the second run with Estelle Alphand the fastest of them in 13th from bib 40. Just 1.80 was the difference between Worley and 30th, Katharina Huber.
First run times