River Radamus leads U.S. men in final regular season World Cup giant slalom race
Pier Marco Tacca/AP photo
River Radamus led three American men into the top-30 in the final regular-season World Cup giant slalom race before the World Cup Finals later this month.
The Edwards skier finished 20th in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia on Saturday morning. Radamus’ two-run time was 2 minutes, 14.63 seconds, 2.68 back from winner Lucas Pinheiro Braathen. Olympic slalom champion Loic Meillard finished second and Austrian Stefan Brennsteiner rounded out the podium in third.
Radamus sits in 10th in the GS cup standings with one event remaining. The top-25 skiers in each discipline plus the winner of the FIS Junior World Championships and athletes with over 500 points in the overall standings qualify for the World Cup Finals in Lillehammer, Norway from March 19-25.
Fellow Ski and Snowboard Club Vail alumnus Bridger Gile (2:16.12) scored World Cup points with a 27th-place finish on Saturday, one place back from fellow American Ryder Sarchett.
“I’m very happy with the skiing,” Gile stated. “I feel like I have been skiing well and fast for most of February and having good results in (the) Europa Cup so it was nice to be able to show the speed against the best competition in the world.”
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Gile took back-to-back NorAm runner-up finishes at Whiteface Mountain on Feb. 9-10 before placing second on the Europa Cup in Germany on Feb. 14. He was 10th in Norefjell, Norway on Feb. 23 and fourth the following day, all in giant slalom. On Saturday, the 26-year-old was 23rd after the first run.
“The course set for second run was very straight with a lot (of) distance in-between the gates,” Gile said. “My plan was to go as straight as I could, which is what I did but I had more ground speed than I was expecting to have, so the line I inspected over the roll was too straight for the ground speed. So, that was a bummer, but (I’m) happy with the skiing and it’s a good way to end the season.”
Braathen — who now trails Marco Odermatt by just 48 points in the cup discipline standings — shared Gile’s sentiment.
“It was really as different as it gets; it was borderline downhill the second run course,” Brazil’s first-ever Winter Olympic gold medalist told FIS media.
“On the flat it didn’t even turn for four or five consecutive gates. But this is what skiing is all about,” Pinheiro Braathen continued. “Skiing is about showing you’re fast on the straights and fast on the curvy and offset types of course and at the end of the day the guy that runs off with the globe — he’s the best overall.”
