Dirt, grass, concrete, cobble stones and some metal stairs through Purgatory Resort’s base village comprised the course for Saturday’s short-track cross-country finals at USA Cycling’s collegiate mountain bike nationals.
“I loved it through the stairs, that was a great idea,” said Durangoan Lauren Aggeler. “It was super-fun.”
Aggeler pedaled away from her competition to win her second national title for Northern Arizona University on the short-track. The freshman also won the club women’s cross-country title on Friday.
“Two for two! I’m stoked,” she said.
In both races, Aggeler took early leads and never let them go.
“I knew I had a front-row call up and I knew I wanted a good start,” she said about the short-track race. “I was second behind Natasha (Visnack of the University of Colorado) and sat in for a bit, then I attacked on the hill because I know she’s stronger on downhills.”
Aggeler said Visnack kept pushing her, but Aggeler attacked again on the fourth lap to put some distance between them and ended up winning the nine-lap race by more than one minute in 30:28.
The win was similar to her cross-country victory Friday, where she blasted out the gate and had a five-second lead before she got to the singletrack and extended it to 20 seconds at the top of the first climb.
“In cross-country I had a super-good start,” Aggeler said.
She said eventually she started passing some varsity riders, but the gap between her and Visnack and the rest of the field continued to grow and Aggeler finished first by 2:00 in 1:38:59. Visnack finished second in both races.
“It was a good confidence boost,” Aggeler said. “I went into today more confident, and the pressure was off today. My goal was to win one.”
Aggeler also won the USAC national cross-country mountain bike title this summer in the 17-18 division at Winter Park, giving her three stars-and-stripes jerseys this year.
Several other former Durango DEVO riders also returned to Durango for nationals. Ben Mackenzie, riding for the Colrado School of Mines, placed third in the club downhill race, finishing just 3.7 seconds behind the winner, Andrew Driscoll of the University of Vermont (3:57.15).
Ivan Sippy, meanwhile, helped Colorado Mesa University win the varsity team omnium title. Sippy finished fifth in the cross-country race to reach the podium, placed seventh on the short track and also competed on the relay team that finished second behind FLC.
“Purgatory did a great job putting on the event – it seemed to run so smooth and they did a great job building (the courses),” Aggeler said. “It was so fun to be in Durango with my friends and family again, and also my new team.”
