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GIRDWOOD, Alaska -- Daron Rahlves is plenty familiar with
the skier that finished just ahead of him in the World Cup
standings. After all, they're teammates. Bode Miller got the most attention as the top U.S. skier on the
World Cup circuit with a fourth-place finish in the overall.
Rahlves was only 130 points behind in fifth. "I'm stoked for him, but I want the two of us to be fighting it
out for the overall title next year," Rahlves said. Rahlves took fifth in the overall World Cup points race this
season with 1104 points, just behind No. 4 Miller. Both will
compete this week at the U.S. Alpine Championships, which open
Friday with the downhill -- one of Rahlves' specialties. And as Miller competes and scores in all five categories --
slalom, giant slalom, super G, downhill and the combined -- Rahlves
has been doing it primarily in just the downhill and super G. He
won two Wold Cup golds in both speed disciplines this season,
including the downhill last week at the World Cup finals in
Sestriere, Italy. Sestriere will be the Alpine site in the 2006 Winter Olympics,
and Rahlves hopes to have at least himself and Miller among the
contenders. "It's nice to go into the start gate or into a race where
everybody's kind of watching you too. They know they have to wait
for us to come down," Rahlves said. "We want to put that fear
into everybody." Alyeska Resort is the host for the national championships for
the first time since 1981. It was supposed to be the site last
year, but was moved across the continent to Lake Placid, N.Y.,
because of warm weather here that caused poor racing conditions. Getting to the resort about 40 miles southeast of Anchorage was
a bit of an adventure for Rahlves, who won a prelude race to the
nationals Thursday afternoon. He was still trying to adjust after
spending a day and a half getting from Italy. Miller was still en
route Thursday afternoon but was expected to compete. Miller was in contention to become the first American to win an
overall title since 1983 but couldn't catch Austria's Hermann
Maier. Still, Miller finished as the top skier in the combined and
GS, an event Rahlves has been trying to improve on and will need to
in order to catch Miller. "If I pull myself together in GS, I could really be a factor
for next year. That's my goal. I've never really thought about the
overall too much, I've always thought about the downhill title,"
Rahlves said. "That is No. 1, but I have a good chance I think of
nailing the overall and that's a big goal now. In my career, I
finally see it's more reality than just a dream." Rahlves, who turns 31 in June, hasn't competed in the last two
national championships because of injuries. He is favored Friday
afternoon to win the downhill, where he is the all-time U.S.
leader. The women will open the championships with the downhill late
Friday morning, although some of the top members of the U.S. team
will not be competing. Kristin Koznick, Sarah Schleper and Kirsten
Clark, who was the top U.S. finisher in the women's overall
standings at No. 13 despite being out since the end of January,
will not ski because of injuries. The field does include Julia Macuson, who won national titles
last year in the downhill, super G and GS, and Jonna Mendes, the
winner of Thursday's prelude downhill. ^------= On the Net: www.usskiteam.com
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