Maze wins second straight giant slalom; Vonn takes 21st

• Hoefl-Riesch skis into gate, bruises arm
• Vonn will skip Sunday's slalom at Aspen to rest
• Maze finished runner-up to Vonn in World Cup overall race last season

ASPEN, Colorado (AP) — Tina Maze of Slovenia won her second consecutive World Cup giant slalom, while an exhausted Lindsey Vonn finished 21st in her return after missing time with an intestinal illness.

Maze had a combined two-run time of 1 minute, 59.39 seconds on Saturday to hold off Kathrin Zettel of Austria by nearly a second. Viktoria Rebensburg of Germany was third.

Maze also won the season-opening GS in Austria last month, with Zettel taking second there, too.

Vonn was 10th after the first run but didn't have anything left for the second pass through the challenging course.

On the first run, Vonn nearly made a costly mistake on the course, but she managed to recover. It required all the energy a weakened Vonn had left, causing her to lose time through the last 10 gates. Vonn recently returned to training after being hit by a stomach bug.

"I'm tired," Vonn said. "But I thought I actually skied really well. Considering everything, I thought it was a great run."

Vonn wasn't sure if she was even going to compete in Aspen this weekend. Her stamina and energy have been completely wiped out by the virus, which is finally responding to antibiotics. She has yet to even make it through a full GS run without pulling off to the side out of breath.

Until Saturday, that is.

"I'm definitely building a lot of confidence from that first run," said Vonn, who will skip the slalom Sunday to conserve energy. "Eventually, on a course like this, it's all going to catch up with you. Your whole body is going to shut down at some point. I just have to stay positive and keep building."

The day didn't go quite as well for Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany. She caught an edge that knocked her off balance and straight toward a gate. Just before crashing into the obstacle, she stuck up her left arm, saving her face but bruising her arm.

"It hurts pretty bad," said Hoefl-Riesch, whose day was done but still — arm willing, of course — plans to ski in the slalom race. "I'm really disappointed because I had good training the last two weeks. I was really fast in the training. Obviously, I can't bring it down in the race. It's really sad."

These days, it seems as though no one can catch Maze. She switched ski technicians before the season and they've instantly been in tune. Maze also finished fourth in a slalom race in Levi, Finland, two weeks ago.

Although Maze finished runner-up to Vonn in the overall standings last season, she still thought of it as a "hard" year.

"It was not a perfect season for me," Maze said. "Even though I was second in the end, I had many troubles and many mistakes. I wasn't happy at all. It was tough. I didn't win any races last year.

"For me, winning is the important thing. I like to win and being second all the time, you don't get 100% satisfied."

She may not have been No. 1 on the slopes, but Maze has occupied the top spot on the musical charts in Slovenia.

She sang on a music video, My Way Is My Decision, a catchy pop tune. The music video has already generated nearly 800,000 hits on YouTube.

Maze also plays a pretty mean air guitar in the video with her skis.

A budding singer?

"I'm a skier. I don't want to be a singer," Maze said. "But I do like to have fun besides skiing. It was fun to make the video. I'm proud of this."

Next up, trying to catch Vonn on the hill.

"It's just skiing that makes you catch another person — you need to ski well and fast," Maze said. "Skiing is the most important thing and I'm skiing well now."