The stage keeps getting bigger for one Durango native, but the podium stays the same height.
It couldn’t get any higher.
As the starting setter on her Durango High School volleyball team, Carmen Small won her first championship – a CHSAA girls volleyball championship.
Now, she’s got a USA Cycling national championship title to go with it.
On May 25, Small won her first national time trial title, narrowly taking the top spot on the 19-mile Chattanooga, Tenn., course in 42 minutes, 38 seconds and edging Kristin McGrath by just one second in the inaugural U.S. Women’s Professional Time Trial Championships.
Small, a Specialized-lululemon rider, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
“You know I didn’t have, like, stellar preparation,” the 33-year-old told VeloNews after the win. “I certainly didn’t come here with an attitude like, ‘Hey, I’m going to win nationals.’ I wanted to do well and definitely thought I might be able to podium, but this is really amazing.”
She also took sixth in the pro road race field, 17 seconds behind Jade Wilcoxson’s 2-hour, 46-minute, 39-second winning time.
Small earned her time trial national title about a year after winning her first-ever time trial, a 12.4-kilometer course at the 2012 Nature Valley Grand Prix in Minnesota.
She parlayed that win into an overall crown at the Nature Valley, then into podium finishes at the 2012 USA Cycling elite women’s road nationals in Augusta, Ga. There, Small finished third in the road race, third in the criterium and fourth in the time trial last June.
The daughter of Alan Small of Durango and Donna Nazario of Hesperus also was a Durango Nordic ski racer before she started competing in triathlons and successfully transitioned into professional cycling.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
