Tessa Worley wins GS after Mikaela Shiffrin loses 1st-run lead

​Tessa Worley of France won her third women's World Cup giant slalom of the season on Saturday in Maribor, Slovenia, after Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States failed to hold on to a first-run lead.

Worley had the fastest second-run time to beat Sofia Goggia of Italy by 0.16 seconds, while defending overall champion Lara Gut of Switzerland came 0.25 behind in third.

Canada's Marie-Michele Gagnon finished 1.34 back of Worley, snagging ninth-place.

Shiffrin, who had beaten Worley to win the previous two GS races, still led by 0.13 seconds at the final split time but finished 0.42 off the lead in fourth.

"It feels better for sure," said Worley, the 2013 world GS champion, about winning again after being beaten by Shiffrin twice. "I can't say I was disappointed as second places are awesome. But to be able to fight back to the top feels great."

Worley's 11th career GS win made her the most successful French woman in the discipline, overtaking Carole Merle who had 10 wins in the 1980s and '90s.

In the GS standings, Worley extended her lead over Shiffrin to 85 points, with Gut 190 points back in third.

Shiffrin, however, remained on top of the overall standings, 205 points clear of Gut. Worley climbed to third, 285 points behind the American.

Shiffrin, who held a slim 0.07-second lead over Goggia after the first run, was aiming to become the first American woman to win three straight races in the discipline since Tamara McKinney in 1983.

In what was likely her last race, former overall champion Tina Maze of Slovenia started her opening run in race style and was only 0.69 off Shiffrin's time at the first split.

But 46 seconds into her run she stopped to hug her coach and boyfriend, Andrea Massi. She then skied on at a leisurely pace and clicked out of her skis just before finishing.

Maze walked over the line, threw her goggles, gloves and poles into the stands with thousands of cheering Slovenian fans.

The two-time Olympic champion hadn't competed since March 2015 after taking last season off to consider her future. In October, she announced her retirement after doing one more event, Saturday's race in her home country.

However, in an interview with The Associated Press two days ago, Maze didn't rule out a return next season, which includes the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics in South Korea.

"The most important thing is to live in the moment, not in the past and not in the future," Maze said Saturday.

Sabrina Simader became the first skier from Kenya to compete in a World Cup race. Simader, who moved to Austria with her mother as a three-year-old, finished 8.14 seconds behind Shiffrin and failed to qualify for the final run.

A slalom on the same course is scheduled for Sunday.