Ryan Cochran-Siegle gains speed during a super-G run during the U.S. Alpine Speed Championships on Wednesday at Sugarloaf. Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn

CARRABASSETT VALLEY — Winning the men’s downhill race at the U.S. Alpine speed championships Tuesday upped Ryan Cochran-Siegle’s confidence heading into Wednesday’s super-G competition at Sugarloaf.

So much so that he earned his second national title in as many days by skiing a time of 1:10.79, and winning by 0.69 of a second.

“Obviously, there are a lot of us who come to these races with a goal of winning,” Cochran-Siegle said. “After being able to do that yesterday, I think today I could focus a little bit more on my skiing with less pressure on myself to perform well. I obviously knew that there are a lot of good skiers here, that I again needed to ski well in order to perform. I focused a lot on my skiing, put a lot on the line and just trusted what I’ve done all year.”

While Cochran-Siegle could focus on just skiing, he still had to wait for many talented skiers to go down the icy course.

The first skier of the race was River Radamus, who finished third in the super-G in last year’s U.S. championships at Sun Valley Resort in Idaho.

On Wednesday, the 21-year-old Radamus set the bar for the rest of the competition by laying down a strong 1:11.48.

“I love running first just because you get a clean slate to do whatever you want on it,” Radamus said. “The course was awesome, it was a quick-tempo course. It paid off if you were attacking it and really trying to charge.”

The conditions of the course were such that taking aggressive lines into turns at the right spots led to fast times. Radamus said he tried to attack as much as he could to put the pressure on everyone else.

River Radamus came in second in the super-G at the U.S. Alpine Speed Championships at Sugarloaf on Wednesday afternoon. Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn

“I felt like I executed my line pretty well, didn’t make any huge mistakes,” Radamus said. “I’m satisfied with it and glad to be duking it out with the big boys. … I was going to do everything I could to chase it, put my best run down and see what he does. I knew who was going to be the fast guys and so I wanted to go out and send it as hard as I could because nothing less was going to do it.”

Cochran-Siegle, the two-time defending champion coming into Wednesday’s super-G, watched Radamus’ run and realized that to top that race-opening time he needed to attack the course.

“There were some sections here where you could put it a little bit more on the line to try to get more reward, and I definitely thought I skied with a good amount of risk and I thought I was appreciative,” Cochran-Siegle said. “I was maybe on the line of maybe not enough respect, but I think I pulled enough speed out of every section I wanted to and I was happy with that.”

Radamus finished second to Cochran-Siegle.

There were 10 “Did Not Finish” results Wednesday, much more than for Tuesday’s downhill, in part because of the slick conditions. That made perfecting the lines taken into turns even more critical.

“It seemed the mentality today, relative to yesterday, was more of an attacking mentality,” Cochran-Siegle said. “It was a faster set, especially coming into headwall, there was less offset in the turn shape of the gates. … It definitely came at you and there was a second where it definitely felt rushed coming into headwall. And that’s the most important part of the course, just carrying all that speed out, kind of adjusting that mentality to be more aggressive and making sure you’re diving in and hitting that line.”

Thomas Biesemeyer finished in third place in a time of 1:11.68, Jared Goldberg in fourth at 1:11.70 and Wiley Maple and Canadian Jeffrey Read tied for fifth at 1:11.71.

Every hundredth of a second counted Wednesday. Carrabassett Valley native Sam Morse, who was feeling ill, finished 19th with a time of 1:12.98. From Cochran-Siegle to Morse, there was only a 2.19-second difference.

Thursday’s third and final day of the U.S. Alpine speed championships will include both legs (super-G and slalom) of the men’s Alpine combined, as well as the slalom leg of the women’s combined, weather pending. If the weather doesn’t hold up, then Wednesday’s men’s super-G will count toward the Alpine combined and only the men’s and women’s slalom runs will take place.