On their home course in Vail, River Radamus and Bridger Gile go 1-2 in giant slalom at U.S. Alpine Championships
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily
With the U.S. Alpine Championships in Vail for the first time, River Radamus and Bridger Gile both made the most of home snow advantage in Monday’s giant slalom. The former Ski and Snowboard Club Vail athletes went 1-2 — for the second-straight national championship GS — on Monday at Golden Peak.
“One of these years I’m going to beat him,” a smiling Gile said after finishing one second behind Radamus’ two-run time of 2 minutes, 25.40 seconds. “Honestly, I have more runs here than River — it’s more of a home race for me.”
“This mountain means a lot to me,” Radamus added. “Having U.S. nationals here, I knew I wanted to put on a performance I was proud of. These guys pushed me hard today, as they have all season, so it was awesome to share the podium with them and I’m grateful to take the win home today.”
Fellow U.S. Ski Team athlete Isaiah Nelson rounded out the podium after setting the run 1 standard. Gile trailed by 0.08 seconds and Radamus was in third, 0.10 off of Nelson’s 1:11.40.
“First run was a little bit too safe,” Radamus admitted. “I don’t think I was pushing my limit enough. The snow was so good that you really could attack it — and I didn’t.”
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With warming spring temperatures deteriorating the course, Radamus said he went into his second run “knowing it wasn’t going to feel good.”
“It felt like a mess,” he said. “But I tried to keep it rolling, keep the skis pointed down the hill.”
Stewie Bruce and Carson Hume took advantage of their early second run start. The Ski and Snowboard Club Vail U21 skiers both jumped up a whopping 15 places, with Bruce finishing 13th and Hume slotting into 14th.
“That’s been their M.O.,” Brad Wall, Ski and Snowboard Club Vail’s Alpine director, said of the pair’s tendency to pour out sensational second runs. “It just shows when they have an equal opportunity on a clean track they’re really fast.”
“We always go out with such high intensity and sometimes the intensity isn’t in the right place,” Hume said. “First run (I) had a lot of little bobbles, cross-blocked a gate; (it) wasn’t exactly what I wanted. But second run, I put that good skiing back in my mind, tried to have some fun and go rip on a fresh course.”
Nelson spoiled a Vail sweep of the podium, knocking Vail’s Jacob Dilling into fourth by just 0.28 seconds. The soon-to-be CU Buff graduate was unfazed by what he described as “peely” snow, especially on the Main Arena face, where he put down the second-best fourth sector split. Even carrying the proverbial wooden medal away from his childhood stomping grounds, Dilling left with a smile.
“It’s amazing. No place I’d rather be to finish off the season,” the 25-year-old said. “Hard to see the groove, but super fast and you could really let the skis run. It helps that I’ve skied this hill 10,000 times.”
For Gile, the silver medal is a nice capstone to a breakout season that saw him place 19th in the GS at the FIS World Championships on Feb. 14 and 24 in the event at the Kranjska Gora, Slovenia World Cup two weeks later.
“I feel like a different person, a different skier. Confidence is a lot higher now,” he said. “Just those two races back-to-back, having good results was a feeling like no other. Definitely a high. Pretty addicting — I want to keep doing it.”
The win is Radamus’ fifth national title (fourth for GS) and eighth national championships podium. The 27-year-old Edwards skier recently concluded one of his most successful World Cup seasons, posting four top-10s — including two at Birds of Prey in December — en route to a 12th-place finish in the GS standings. He said Monday that as a youngster, he found inspiration watching and competing against World Cup athletes at previous U.S. Alpine Championships.
“I feel like it’s my responsibility now to carry that torch forward,” he said. “I’m not going to take it easy, I’m not going to give it to them, but I know they can take it. So, I was gunning for it and hopefully if I keep pushing, they keep pushing and we raise the level of skiing in the U.S.”
