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acolbert@aspentimes.com
Bridger Gile had every reason to skip Monday’s Audi Ajax Cup, the most important annual fundraiser and ski race for the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club. The Aspen ski racer is in the middle of a World Cup season, and the risk isn’t always worth the reward for the professionals.
But Gile views it a bit differently, seeing it as a chance to hit refresh on a grinding winter schedule.
“We’ve had three, four weeks of intense training. Four races in four weeks, so a lot of travel and racing. It’s really nice to come back here for a week and be able to freeski and be at home and decompress a little bit,” he said. “It’s a break. It’s remembering why I started ski racing — make it fun again.”
In its 15th year, the Ajax Cup has become integral to the club reaching around 3,000 skiers and snowboarders in the Roaring Fork Valley, and beyond. Last winter, the event raised a record $1.3 million for the club. How Monday’s event fared wasn’t yet known.
Gile didn’t reach the top of the podium on Monday — that went to fellow Aspenite Tristan Lane and the “Aspen Vikings” team, who beat Stanley Buzek’s team “Vlad and the Impalers” in the final — but he plans on chasing plenty more in the coming weeks.
“The prep period was really good. I was skiing really well in training leading to Soelden, and after Soelden, and leading up to Beaver Creek, skiing really well,” Gile said of his early season. “And then in the races, it’s been tough. I guess it’s the top 30 in the world. You are the best 30 in the world that day, so it’s hard to be in that top 30. But the skiing is really good. It’s better than I think it’s ever been, so it’s just trying to put the pieces together and figure out what I’m missing and put it all together on race day.”
Gile, 25, hasn’t fared well in races this season. He recorded DNF’s — did not finish — in both the Soelden and Beaver Creek giant slaloms. He did complete both opening runs at GS’s in Val d’Isere and Alta Badia, but it wasn’t enough to qualify for a second run.
Olympian and coach Casey Puckett, right, and AVSC Board President Ryan Smalls after just finishing their run.
Madison Osberger-Low/The Aspen Times
The bottom of the race course at the Ajax Cup on a cold Monday afternoon.
Madison Osberger-Low/The Aspen Times
Former U.S. ski team athlete Alice Merryweather, left, smiles with her teammate after racing on Monday, Dec. 30, 2024 at the Ajax Cup on Aspen Mountain.
Madison Osberger-Low/The Aspen Times
AVSC athletes, retired World Cup skier Julia Mancuso, right, and AVSC Alpine Program Director Jeff Lackie, middle, chat at the bottom of the course during the Audi Ajax Cup on Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, on Aspen Mountain.
Madison Osberger-Low/The Aspen Times
AVSC athletes hang out at the bottom watching fellow teammates on Monday, Dec. 30, 2024, at the Audi Ajax Cup on Aspen Mountain.
Madison Osberger-Low/The Aspen Times
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“Getting multiple runs in World Cups, getting top 20s is really the goal,” Gile said of what he wants to accomplish the rest of this season. “Going back to Europe and continue racing and try to keep skiing at this high level. Really just continue to give my best and I think it will be good enough.”
Gile does have tentative plans to compete in every World Cup race the rest of the way, but also plans to get to as many Europa Cup races as possible. Those results could directly help him on the World Cup by improving his starting position in races.
But before he addresses that, Gile found it just as important to represent in front of the home audience Monday on Aspen Mountain.
“To be able to do the Ajax Cup and ski in a more fun way, not as intense as World Cups, and be able to give the skills that I’ve acquired, to give back to the community, and to people who want to get better at skiing. So that’s why I’m doing it,” he said. “It’s a super fun event and helps out the ski club, which was integral to get where I am now.”
acolbert@aspentimes.com
Bridger Gile had every reason to skip Monday’s Audi Ajax Cup, the most important annual fundraiser and ski race for the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club.
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