The Fort Lewis College cycling team had a plan in Sunday’s Squawker Classic Carver Brewing Co. Road Race, and the experienced, tight-knit team worked it to perfection.
After nine laps around a five-mile loop that included a steep climb up the 8th Street hill, Skyhawks’ senior Payson McElveen kissed the FLC logo on his jersey as he won his final conference race, just as they all had planned.
The Skyhawks had three of the top four finishers in the grueling 8 a.m. Collegiate Men’s Group A race as Ian McPherson finished second and teammate Cormac McGeough came in fourth.
The two were instrumental in helping McElveen come away with the win.
“We had a really good plan today and my teammates did an amazing job making it happen,” McElveen said. “Cormac and Ian were challenging the other guys.”
“They just kept pulling hero moves and punishing the only guy up there with us so I could pull away. This one means a lot.”
The win capped off a very impressive Squawker Classic weekend for Fort Lewis College cycling.
The Skyhawks swept the time trials Saturday morning and had a dominant win by Ryan Standish in the afternoon’s Durango Performance Center Neighborhood Criterium.
“We have a really strong group and we learned how to work together the right way as the season went on,” McGeough said. “This race and the whole weekend was just a culmination of all the times we rode around this town thinking about this race and all the stoke we feel about being a part of the cycling scene here.”
Though known more for her mountain biking success, Fort Lewis’ Sofia Gomez-Villafañe nearly won the Collegiate Women’s Group A road race for the second consecutive day after finishing fourth Saturday.
The senior had plenty left in the tank in the final sprint, but was edged out by University of Colorado’s Samantha Lunsky.
Ariana Holbach, the winner of yesterday’s Criterium, finished third after Gomez-Villafañe passed her in the final seconds.
“My only incentive was to be in the lead group because every other year I’ve dropped back in the climb and I wanted to get past that,” Gomez-Villafañe said. “It’s a great course and we owe a lot to the volunteers and the community so we could make this happen. There were people outside having a barbecue and cheering us on and people on the golf course cheering as we went by. This is always so much fun.”
Next up for Fort Lewis is the U.S.A. Cycling Collegiate Road Nationals May 13-15 in Asheville, North Carolina.
jfries@durangoherald.com
