Same Stuff, Different Day

It isn’t that Alberto Tomba is tired of winning. But as long as he continues, little will change afterward.

“Always the same press conference,” the Italian superstar wrote on the board at the media center after winning at Kitzbuehel, Austria, his sixth straight World Cup slalom race this season. “Can we make something new this time ?”

Why?

Tomba, who beat Slovenian Jure Kosir by .82 seconds, has won eight races this season and 41 in his career. Dating to the end of last season, his run of slalom victories is eight.

Girardelli of Luxembourg won the combined event based on the results of the downhill and the slalom.

Tomba had the best time on both runs for a total of 1 minute, 37.26 seconds. He had a 49.32-second first run to lead by .06 seconds over Kosir before extending his margin with a second run of 47.94.

Tomba leads in the overall standings with 850 points. Kosir, whose time for the two runs totaled 1:38.08, moved into second place with 430 points.

In Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, Martina Ertl used her daredevil style and mistakes by top rivals to give Germany its first women’s World Cup slalom victory in more than seven years.

Ertl made a mistake on the upper part of the Gudiberg course, but regained her balance and made it to the end with a combined time of 1 minute, 22.54 seconds for two runs.