Durango High School senior Emmett McManus has a bright future ahead of him in cycling. Before he could get to that future, he had one last race to win.
After a disappointing fourth place at last year’s high school mountain bike state championship race in Glenwood Springs, McManus bounced back on Saturday to win his first varsity state championship.
McManus was victorious on Saturday on the same Glenwood Springs course he finished fourth at last year. On Saturday, he finished the three-lap course in 1 hour, 8 minutes and 25.45 seconds.
“It feels great,” McManus said. “That was a goal that I've had since I was a freshman. I've really wanted to get it done this year. I hadn't pulled off a state championship before. Even though it's just a high school league race, it meant a lot to me to do it before I graduated, so I'm really happy to have done it.”
The difference for McManus this year was his training. Last fall, he came into the season super strong, but he faded in October. This summer, McManus unfortunately broke his thumb so he didn’t come into the season super strong. This motivated him to keep building throughout the season so he peaked right after the state championship.
McManus enjoyed the Glenwood Springs course because it had more climbing than other high school courses. He said the Glenwood Springs course was slightly more technical on the descents, which he enjoyed.
The race on Saturday started off with a bang for McManus. The wrong kind of bang. McManus planned to gap the field immediately but 10 minutes in on one of the faster descents on the course, he banged into something that flipped him over his handlebars and onto the ground.
Luckily, McManus gathered himself, got his bike in order and was back on his bike in around 20-25 seconds.
McManus quickly got back onto the front group of Durango senior Kai Lokey and Air Academy’s Austin Leigh. He knew he was strong on the climbs, so he rode his own pace. At the top of a climb on the third lap, McManus got a gap on Lokey and then put his head down to hold it until the end.
Lokey ended up finishing about 37 seconds behind McManus in 1:09:02.83. Leigh was third in 1:10:42.88.
“It was definitely awesome to go one-two with Kai,” McManus said. “We've trained together a lot and I think neither of us would be close to the level we're at now without each other. It's really a good to have someone to compete against that's on a high level as well. If you're training with someone that's fast, that's the standard you hold yourself to, so you just have to beat that. It helps both of us so much.”
After graduating from high school, McManus plans to go college. Even with college approaching, McManus is focusing on his future career.
“My main focus is definitely cycling,” McManus said. “I'm just going to try to be a pro, if I can. Getting a contract would be awesome. I’m going to keep racing as hard as I can, keep training as best I can, finish out high school and then from there see what happens.”
In the girls varsity race, Durango junior Tilia Clausen finished fifth in 1:27:20.10. Demons senior Riley Hudson was seventh and finished in 1:28:04.47. Chatfield’s Delaney Meegan won the race in 1:24:11.76.
Durango took the team state championship title in Division 2 ahead of Steamboat in second and Lake County in third.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
