What a difference a year can make.
Fort Lewis College hosted USA Cycling’s Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships last year at Purgatory, but a snowstorm wreaked havoc on the courses and forced FLC to make numerous adjustments to hold the event.
The championships returned to the resort and awarded its first stars and stripes jerseys on Friday, but the competitors got to race in completely opposite conditions under a bluebird sky.
“Last year, we were just trying to get through it,” said FLC’s cycling director Ian Burnett. “To be able to showcase (the trails) with this community and weather is awesome.”
“It was definitely a polar opposite,” said FLC racer Michaela Thompson. “The snow was fun, but finishing the race was the goal. This year was definitely quicker. It was fast on good dirt.”
FLC showed its depth in the cross-country championships. In the men’s varsity cross-country race, Fort Lewis’ six riders all finished in the top-11. In the women’s varsity cross-country race, seven Skyhawks raced and they all placed in the top 20.
“Our positive is we’re so deep,” Burnett said. “I’m super-proud how people are riding. Everyone is having fun, and it’s less stressful.”
While the Skyhawks showed they had plenty of strong riders, Colorado Mesa University had the strongest fire power. CMU claimed the top two spots in the men’s race and top-three in the women’s to take the team omnium lead. Each team’s top three results in the disciplines count toward the team omnium championship.
In the men’s varsity race, Torbjorn Roed of CMU led pretty much the entire race and won in 1 hour, 18 minutes and 0 seconds.
The next two riders were freshmen twins who moved from Vermont to race in college in Colorado: Austin Beard of CMU crossed second (1:18:02), and his brother Carson Beard finished third for Fort Lewis (1:18:48).
“That was awesome to have him there,” Carson said. “I’m stoked with the podium. That was my main goal.”
Carson, who is 6-feet, 4 inches tall, said he’s a good climber, but he also races downhill. “That downhill speed really helps,” he said. ”(The climb) was absolutely brutal and unrelenting. It was really hard to pace. But the beauty of climbing 15 to 20 minutes is you get an awesome downhill that’s ripping.”
Toby Hassett of FLC also reached the podium with a fourth-place finish in 1:19:34.
“It feels good,” Hassett said. “I crashed really hard yesterday, but felt I pulled it together and rode well.”
Durango High graduate Ivan Sippy grabbed the final spot on the podium for CMU, crossing fifth in 1:19:43.
The Skyhawks then raced to the line. Kellen Caldwell finished seventh (1:20:32), Cobe Freeburn crossed eighth (1:21:19), Guy Leshem placed 10th (1:23:13) and Becket Ledger finished 11th (1:23:50).
“We have a pretty special team this year,” Hassett said.
“The biggest thing is we just have fun,” Carson said. “We don’t taking training extremely serious, and I have to credit Chad (Cheeney) and the other coaches for that.”
In the women’s varsity cross-country championship, Madigan Munro of CMU grabbed the lead right away and only extended it to win the title back-to-back years in 1:26:06. Her teammates Ruby Ryan (1:27:52) and Lauren Lackman (1:30:30) grabbed the next two spots, but Thompson nearly caught Lackman at the end and finished in fourth (1:30:41).
Thompson tried to stay with Munro on the initial climb, but had to adjust.
“I felt good. It was definitely one of the harder courses I’ve raced,” Thompson said. “I went too hard at first, but let up a bit and just decided to ride at my own pace and then pushed it at the end.”
Natalie Quinn also reached the podium for FLC, crossing fifth in 1:33:47.
“It was a very competitive field,” Thompson said. “The top six, everyone is mostly on a factory team or races a full UCI schedule.”
Aleah Austin was the next Skyhawk to finish, crossing 11th in 1:39:36. Teammates Madelyn Roberson finished 12th (1:39:49), Ruth Holcomb decided at the last minute to race cross-country and placed 16th (1:42:11), An-Mei Ellisor finished 18th (1:43:29) and Sabrina Hayes finished 19th in 1:45:58.
In the women’s club cross-country championship, Durango graduate Lauren Aggeler scored the national title for Northern Arizona University. Aggeler never trailed and won by two minutes in 1:38:59. Aggeler was the only biker not racing for a Colorado college team that made the cross-country podium out of 20.
Keegan Pelton of Colorado School of Mines won the men’s club title in 1:21:20.
The dual slalom finals also took place on Friday evening and Fiona Dougherty scored a national title for FLC.
The championships return Saturday with the short-track cross-country finals at 1 p.m. Downhill qualifying will also take place on World Cup beginning at 9:45 a.m. Saturday with the finals set for 10:30 a.m. on Sunday.
The team relay will be the final event of the championships on Sunday, with club racing at 2 p.m. and the varsity race following at 2:45 p.m.
