After Colorado High School Cycling League races were canceled last year because of the pandemic, local racers from the Durango Devo are excited to return to competition this year.
Athletes from both Durango and Animas high schools train together with Devo, but represent their own schools at races.
“It’s fun,” said senior Riley Jaber. “It’s a brand-new fresh scene. We have a lot of kids coming up that we’ve never met.”
The team has met a lot of success in recent years. At the most recent state championships, held in 2019, Durango won the Division 2 state title, and Animas placed 13th. In 2018, they finished first and second in Division 2.
Individually, Riley Amos of Animas High captured the boys varsity title in 2019. Ruth Holcomb placed fourth in the varsity girls race for Durango, and Maggie Holcomb won the JV girls title, just ahead of teammate Lauren Aggeler. Ivan Sippy captured the JV boys title, and Ian Groom placed fifth. Willow Lott won the freshman girls title, and Ellie McLean placed third. Mack Otter placed second in the freshman boys championship race.
All the races – freshman to varsity – are worth the same amount of points.
“It makes it really inclusive,” said Devo executive director and coach Levi Kurlander. “It gives everyone on the team a reason to race hard.”
While the team wins a lot, it places more of an emphasis on having fun together. Participants occasionally wear funny outfits and race in jean shorts.
“I love the fun part of Devo,” Jaber said. “We don’t always have the best equipment, but I guarantee Devo has the most fun.”
“It’s a serious attitude, but more calm than other bike teams,” said senior Jaden Kirk.
“I had a pretty intense year doing international stuff, so this is more about having fun with friends and enjoying it as much as possible, given that it’s my last year,” said senior Ivan Sippy.
After scoring national titles, Sippy and fellow senior Bailey Cioppa recently competed in the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole, Italy. Cioppa finished 15th out of 70 riders in the women’s junior cross-country Olympic race.
“I think she’ll be pretty hard to beat,” Kurlander said.
Sippy, meanwhile, placed 29th out of 97 riders in the men’s junior cross-country race at the world championships.
“I didn’t expect to make it, so it was already a cool thing,” Sippy said. “The racing was really aggressive, and it was definitely cool to continue the Durango legacy.”
Maggie Holcomb also won a national title this summer.
Hannah Garvey will be another athlete to watch, the coach said.
Between the two schools, 48 mountain bikers are registered this year, which is the most Devo has ever had. The coach also said it’s also the widest ability range they’ve had.
“It’s cool that a bunch of riders who have never raced before are giving it a try,” Kurlander said. “That’s a cool aspect of the sport; it’s easy for new kids to get involved.”
“It’s really good to see so much energy coming up after us, and it’s good to see so much stoke coming from the young (riders),” Jaber said.
Durango has enough kids to move up to Division 1 for the first time this year. Animas will compete in Division 3.
“It will be cool to race with the big Front Range teams,” Kurlander said. “I’m stoked to see how the kids do after a couple of weird years.”
With so many teams now competing the Colorado High School League, the league broke down into four regions this year, opposed to just North and South divisions like previous years.
Durango and Animas high schools will now compete in the Piedra region with Chatfield, Cherry Creek, High Desert Composite, Legend, Montrose, Pagosa Springs, Ponderosa, Taos and Telluride.
“It had grown so much in the last few years that it was getting to the point where 1,000 kids would all be racing at once,” Kurlander said. The coach said the regions are geographically based and divided so the drives will be a little shorter for each region.
“A lot of our competition at state comes from Boulder,” Kurlander said. “We won’t see any of those Front Range teams until state, but I think it will still be competitive.”
The season also will be a little different than past seasons. Because there was no season last year, and no way to seed riders with qualifying points, the first race will be a time trial. Waves of four will take off every 15 seconds and do two laps.
“Everyone will have a chance on an equal playing field,” Kurlander said.
Durango and Animas will start their season Saturday in Nathrop at the Chalk Creek Stampede. The team will then race in Snowmass on Sept. 26 and in Eagle Oct. 9.
The team will have three races before the state championships this year instead of four. “I think it will be harder to qualify for states,” Kurlander said. “I think having fewer races, there will be less margin for error.”
The bikers who finish in the top 40 in their regions can race in the state championships, again in Durango.
The championships will be held at the Durango Mesa on Oct. 23-24 on a course built for the championships.
“I want people to come to state and make it big,” Kirk said.
Sippy said a lot of Durango pros show up and watch as well as people who have never seen a bike race before.
“Cheering is big around here,” Jaber said. “If we can make it a good crowd, that would be cool.”
colivas@durangoherald.com
