Ford Top 10 in Adelboden; Career-Best GS Finish for Radamus
Tommy Ford led the way for the Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team men on a stunning day in Adelboden, Switzerland, finishing 10th in the FIS World Cup giant slalom. Ryan Cochran-Siegle was right on Tommy’s tails in 12th, with River Radamus collecting his best GS finish in 18th.
While hard snow and sunshine made for a picture-perfect ski racing day, Adelboden felt a bit strange and quiet without the usually raucous 30,000-40,000-person fanbase hollering at the finish due to COVID-19 restrictions. But that didn’t stop Alexis Pinturault of France from putting on a master class in the tricky second run set and taking the win by over a second. Filip Zubcic of Croatia was second and Marco Odermatt third.
Both Tommy and Ryan threatened the podium after their first runs, sitting in fourth and sixth place respectively, but a few errors in the difficult second run tripped them up and set them back a few places. However, both were still happy to put another good result under their belts. This was Tommy’s fourth top-10 GS finish in a row, with his second-place podium finish in Santa Caterina yet to be bested in 2020-21 season.
Ryan, who was once nicknamed a giant slalom specialist, has been cleaning up in the speed events this season—winning the Bormio super-G and podiuming in the Val Gardena downhill to wrap up 2020. Adelboden was Ryan’s best giant slalom result since he was 11th in Soelden last season.
But the most exciting story of the day was River Radamus, who missed the flip in the Adelboden GS by .01 seconds in 2020 and used that disappointing result to propel him to his best GS result in his career in Friday’s race.
“The day after the race last year, I took a screenshot of the results page and had it as my phone background for the last year,” said River. “It was probably one of the toughest days of my skiing career and so I used it as motivation all summer and coming into this season. To get in and find some points and have my personal best here a year later means a lot to me… Not feeling like I had my best skiing and having a personal best means I’m on the right track and the things I’ve been doing all summer are paying off.”
Having won two World Juniors gold medals in 2019, River has had the pressure on him to show that he could be competitive on the World Cup—and he’s been succeeding, scoring points in three races so far this season. His 18th place finish bested his 20th place finish in Alta Badia at the end of December, but he’s hungry for more.
“I feel like I left a lot on the table today,” added River. “So having the confidence to know that I can do it—taking it for everything that it’s worth and pushing the line, pushing the pace and skiing more aggressively tomorrow is my goal.”
Rounding out the U.S. men, Ted Ligety, Bridger Gile and George Steffey did not qualify for a second run.
The men get a second go at giant slalom in Adelboden on Saturday, before finishing the weekend with a slalom on Sunday.
RESULTS
Men’s giant slalom
HOW TO WATCH
Jan. 6-13, 2021
Saturday, Jan 9
4:30 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Men's Giant Slalom, run 1 - LIVE, Adelboden, SUI, Streaming Peacock
5:45 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Women's Downhill - LIVE, St. Anton, AUT, Streaming Peacock
7:30 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Men's Giant Slalom, run 2 - LIVE, Adelboden, SUI, Broadcast Olympic Channel
7:30 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Men's Giant Slalom, run 2 - LIVE, Adelboden, SUI, Streaming Peacock
8:00 p.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Men's Giant Slalom - same-day broadcast, Adelboden, SUI, Broadcast NBCSN
Sunday, Jan. 10
4:30 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Men's Slalom, run 1 - LIVE, Adelboden, SUI, Streaming Peacock
5:30 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Women's Super-G - LIVE, St. Anton, AUT, Streaming Peacock
7:30 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Men's Slalom, run 2 - LIVE, Adelboden, SUI, Broadcast Olympic Channel
7:30 a.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Men's Slalom, run 2 - LIVE, Adelboden, SUI, Streaming Peacock
2:00 p.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Men's Slalom - same-day broadcast, Adelboden, SUI, Broadcast NBCSN
Tuesday, Jan. 12
12:00 p.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Women's Slalom, run 1 - LIVE, Flachau, AUT, Streaming Peacock
2:45 p.m. FIS Alpine World Cup Women's Slalom, run 2 - LIVE, Flachau, AUT, Streaming Peacock
All streams will be available via desktop as well as mobile, tablet, and connected television platforms. The NBC Sports, Peacock TV, and Olympic Channel app are available on the Apple App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire.
