After two years without national championship road races, the Fort Lewis College road cycling team has started the 2022 season with renewed energy.
The 2020 season was canceled because of the pandemic, and although the team competed in a conference season last year, there wasn’t a national event at the end for them to work toward.
This year, the national championships are back and will be contested at the beginning of May in Augusta, Georgia.
“We’re just excited for it,” said FLC Cycling director Dave Hagen. “There’s a lot of good energy.”
The Skyhawks began their season in Fountain last week, and the FLC men won the team time trial by 1.6 seconds ahead of Colorado Mesa, despite only lining up three men at the start. In team time trials, four cyclists can compete for each team, and it’s the time of the third cyclist that counts.
Ian Williams, Sam Riess and Nate Colavolpe rode on the winning team.
“They had some good racing and worked well together as a team,” Hagen said.
The FLC women, meanwhile, finished second to Mesa but were without team leader Ava Hachmann.
In addition to Hachmann, other top women racing for FLC include Michaela Thompson, Madelyn Roberson, Natalie Quinn, Danika Brabec and Sabrina Hayes.
“Road racing is very different,” Hagen said. “You have to learn tactics, be efficient and work as a team. I think with Ava’s leadership, the team will be strong this year.”
In criteriums, Hagan said the team will be working for Hachmann.
The boys have senior leaders in Kobi Gyetvan, Sam Brown and Riess, Hagen said. The varsity squad also includes Guy Leshem, Luca Haines, Colavolpe, Kellen Caldwell and Williams.
Hagen called freshman Williams a road and criterium specialist who will be the go-to cyclist in every race that comes down to a sprint.
In addition to team time trials and criteriums, the team also will compete in road races. There also is an individual time trial at nationals, but because it doesn’t contribute toward the team title, FLC won’t waste any energy in it.
“We’re really focusing on the team time trials,” Hagen said. “It’s the only race you can truly control, with four riders out there working together.”
FLC also hired alumni and former criterium national champion James Hilyer to help coach the team. “He’s really trying to help us whip our boys into shape with his tactics and team work,” Hagen said.
Ian Burnett is the team’s head road coach and will be assisted by returning coaches Chad Cheney and Elke Brutsaert.
The Skyhawks will race at Colorado Mesa’s Maverick Classic this weekend in Grand Junction, with a criterium downtown on Saturday and a road race Sunday. The criterium for the collegiate A men and women will be 70 minutes.
In Sunday’s road race, the top collegiate men will race 85 miles; and the top college women, 51 miles. Hagen said the road course has lots of twists and turns, plus a big, steep climb.
After the Grand Junction competition, the team will race in Fort Collins, Boulder, at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and then at the conference finals in Pueblo before heading to Georgia.
“Everything we do is in preparation for nationals,” Hagen said. “We hope to use these conference races; if we don’t win, it’s OK if we learn from our mistakes.”
