School is out and that means it’s time for summer camp.
This week, the Fort Lewis College cycling staff hosted a high school mountain biking camp. The camp started on Sunday and finished on Saturday. There will be another camp from June 30 to July 5.
“It is a high school mountain bike camp for any high schooler throughout the country,” FLC women’s cycling head coach Brittany Cowan said. “People fly in sometimes, a lot of people drive in … We wake up, they eat breakfast. We do a stretching class with me in the morning, and then we go on our daily ride from 9-12 is our ride time. We get to ride and show them the beautiful scenery of Durango and all the different trail systems. Then lunch, some downtime and cleaning the bikes. Then we bring in a ton of guest speakers every day, which is really cool.”
The FLC mountain bike camp has been going on for 20 years and has featured guest speakers like Travis Brown, Sarah Sturm, Ned Overend, Christopher Blevins, Savilia Blunk, Ellen Campbell, Cole Paton and more.
Cowan described the camp as a “well-oiled machine,” with her, Chad Cheeney and Ian Burnett helping lead the way. Cowan shadowed former women’s cycling coach Elke Brutsaert at last year’s camp before Cowan took over as head coach of FLC women’s cycling.
Some of FLC’s current cycling team members also help lead the camp. Cowan said a lot of the current FLC cyclists who are camp hosts used to be campers in the past.
In addition to their daily rides, the campers play bike games, like Foot Down, a game that helps with bike handling skills. Campers roll around on their bikes and try and knock other campers off balance. If a camper puts their foot down, they’re out. There’s also bike tag; campers can have fun on the short track course or the slo-mo course.
There are about 40 campers each week. A lot of campers come from the Front Range, but they are some who come from Texas, Arizona and Minnesota.
Campers can choose what level of difficulty ride they want to do and then they’re split up into groups. Campers stay at the Fort Lewis College dorms and have plenty of time to hang out by the river and eat dinner with each other.
“Some of them have raced with each other before, with the high school league,” Cowan said. “This year, I learned that some of them met each other last year at this camp and they stayed in touch. They became great friends and they decided to do the camp together again this year. It's a great way for kids to be immersed in the Durango cycling world and to give them that college experience up here at Fort Lewis College as well.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
