BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. -- Edmonton's Mike Riddle didn't have the best weather conditions to work with, but he still took second place in ski halfpipe at the U.S. Grand Prix.
Riddle scored 85.2 points, 3.8 points behind American David Wise who finished first on a snowy day that made the halfpipe a little slower than usual.
"The conditions were not ideal," said Riddle. "It was snowing pretty hard and the pipe was slow. But it was good enough to get a final run down."
The 27-year-old says the weather forced him to stick to his regular routine, which included a double 1260 upon entering the pipe, and a switch alley-oop 520 to cap the run.
"It's a stock run for me," said Riddle. "The run I'm working on for the Olympics has two more doubles in it. I wanted to do it today but conditions didn't allow it."
Justin Dorey of Calgary was sixth with 76.4 points while Vancouver's Simon d'Artois placed seventh with 74.4.
On the women's side, American Maddie Bowman had a solid first run to hold off Ayana Onozuka of Japan. Calgary's Megan Gunning was the top Canadian with 78.66 points, good for ninth place.
The event organizers were able to stage the ski halfpipe event despite the snowy conditions. High wind led officials to cancel snowboard slopestyle and halfpipe events on Saturday.
Riddle's next competition is another U.S. Grand Prix event in Park City, Utah on Jan. 14, followed by the X-Games in Colorado. Then it's off to Sochi.
"We're pretty much non stop right through to the Olympics," said Riddle. "After X-Games we get two days off and then over to Europe for a Team Canada camp."
