Olympic champ Rebensburg wins World Cup giant slalom race

OFTERSCHWANG, Germany (AP) -- Olympic champion Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany mastered a melting course Friday to win a World Cup giant slalom and take the standings lead in the discipline.

Lindsey Vonn finished 10th and retained a massive lead in the overall standings. U.S. teammate Julia Mancuso was ninth.

Rebensburg led after the first run and held on to win ahead of Tina Maze of Slovenia. It was her second victory of the season and fifth of her career. Elizabeth Goergl of Austria and Irene Curtoni of Italy shared third place.

"It was really tough," Rebensburg said. "It was warm, the snow was melting. I really had to step on it. I had to fight hard to remain on my line."

Under a cloudless sky and in spring temperatures, Vonn made errors in both runs and was never in contention. Before the start of the second run, she tried to cool her body with snow. She lost some of her margin over Maze in the overall standings but is still 474 points ahead.

Rebensburg went into the race trailing Tessa Worley of France by 20 points in the giant slalom standings. But she finished the day 44 points ahead. Worley placed seventh. A win is worth 100 points and there are three giant slaloms to go.

Rebensburg and Maze were among those who took advantage of an early starting number. Maze was first and Rebensburg second.

Maze was also second after the first run and the Slovenian finished 0.06 behind Rebensburg in the combined time for the two heats. The German finished in 2 minutes, 33.30 seconds. Goergl and Curtoni were 0.74 seconds behind.

Jessica Lindell-Vikarby of Sweden was fifth and Nadia Fanchini of Italy, who started 57th, had a sensational second run to finish sixth. She was 16th after the first heat.

Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany, Anna Fenninger of Austria, Marie-Michelle Gagnon of Canada and Andrea Fischbacher of Austria were among those who failed to finish the first run.

Another giant slalom is scheduled for Saturday, with a slalom to follow Sunday.