The Fort Lewis College cycling team returned from the 2023 Collegiate Road National Championships last week in Albuquerque with two national titles and a third-place team omnium award.
“We were all pretty excited,” said coach Chad Cheeney, noting the team exceeded expectations. “Practice makes perfect; the more your practice with your teammates, the better you tend to do. And we did that good this year.”
Kellen Caldwell won the men’s varsity road race for FLC by almost a minute in 2 hours, 20 minutes and 33 seconds.
The FLC women combined forces and pulled a huge upset over Milligan University to win the team time trial. Ava Hachman, Natalie Quinn, Sabrina Hayes and Ella Grier rode on the winning team.
The road race featured a super-steep climb called “The Wall” that many expected to be the deciding factor, Cheeney said. Caldwell was the fastest rider up the climb on each lap, but then the peloton was able to catch him. When it caught him a second time, Caldwell decided to attack and was able to ride solo for the victory.
“It was a gamble to go solo with 10K to go into a headwind, but he attacked again and held it,” Cheeney said. “It was a pretty cool way to win a race.”
The coach also gave the other Skyhawks in the men’s road race credit for messing with the flow of the group and helping Caldwell keep his lead.
“We’ve had a good number of guys that have won the road race,” Cheeney said. “It’s cool to see Kellen’s name going on that list. We’re pretty proud of him.”
In the women’s team time trial, World Tour pro rider Megan Jastrab pulled Milligan to a victory last year, and the Buffs were the favorites again. Fort Lewis, however, ended up scoring a dominant victory by over 47 seconds in 41:15.02.
“They were just focused,” Cheeney said. “You could tell it was the event they wanted to win.” The coach also gave Hachmann and Quinn credit for guiding their underclassmen teammates.
“They took them under their wings and showed them how to ride as a team,” the coach said.
In the criterium, Hachmann nearly beat Jastrab again, but finished one second behind her in second place. Cheeney said Hachmann countered an attack about 20 minutes into the 70-minute race and went to the front. Jastrab went with her and the two riders held off the rest of the field.
“They did a really good job being efficient and working together,” Cheeney said. “It was pretty sweet.”
In the men’s team time trial, Caldwell, Ian Williams, Adrian Magun and Becket Ledger finished just off the podium in fourth place.
“For how new they are to it, and how strong the other teams were, they did really good,” Cheeney said.
Williams led the FLC men with an eighth-place finish in the criterium.
“He didn’t have any teammates with him in the final break, so he had to do a ton of work,” Cheeney said.
Williams was also the men’s top finisher in the individual omnium standings, placing sixth.
In the women’s individual omnium, Hachman finished third to lead FLC. Jastrab also won the road race, giving her 10 national titles in her career, to take the omnium crown.
Quinn was FLC’s top finisher in the women’s road race with a ninth-place finish
In the team omnium competition, which combines all of the women’s and men’s events, Fort Lewis finished third. FLC beat Marion University, the road team with the most wins, by two points to reach the podium. Colorado Mesa won the team title, despite not winning any races, followed by Milligan and the Skyhawks.
