Cycling and Skiing News and Stories from the Gunnison Valley

Cycling and skiing news and stories from the Gunnison Valley

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

WSC Cycling Wins DII Conference Championships

The sixth and final weekend of racing in the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Conference took place this past weekend in Durango, CO, home of Fort Lewis College.  Even without the majority of the teams downhillers, due to the lack of a downhill and only a dual slalom, the team came out with one of the largest groups of the season.  


 For the first time in WSC Cycling history, the team was able to field a full squad of four for the women's A race and two for the women's B.  Angela V, Jen S, Alexis K, and Madi S all rode strong in both Saturday morning's STXC race and Sundays XC.  Gabby and Erin rode to high finishes in the women's B fields in both races as well.


For Saturday morning, Owen and Ben represented in the huge men's A field.  Cody came out for the men's B race before jetting down the hill for a 3rd place finish in the Men's B dual slalom.  He plans to upgrade next year and take on the role of the team's dual slalom specialist.  Caleb and Ansel held their own against a men's A field that was stacked with FLC riders who'd been riding the track all week.  They were given an hour practice.


Ansel had the ride of the weekend on Saturday morning winning the Men's B XC on Brae's singlespeed.  He'd get dropped like a bad habit on the flats and power past everyone on the climbs.  Luckily, the bike was built to handle the abuse that Brae gives it, so it survived a race with Ansel on board.  Ben was also riding strong till an encounter with a narrow gate and a fence.  He finished, but went to visit the EMT's to clean the blood off his knee and leg, even though it made him look pretty hard-core.





Max threw down in the men's C race, getting the hole shot off the line.  Gabby did the same for the women's B race and she and Erin ended up 3rd and 4th.  



The A women showed how far they had progressed from a group that either hadn't ridden at all before the beginning of the season or very little.  Angela nearly cracked the top-10 after picking off riders one by one.  Alexis and Jen had strong rides finishing together, bidding farewell to Alexis' old bike, complete with V-brakes and suspension that doesn't really do a whole lot.  Madi finished off the race to become conference champion.


The team won several individual conference titles.  Madi won both Women's A endurance and B gravity, Cody won the B's gravity, Caleb and Ansel were 2nd and 3rd in A's gravity, Graham was 2nd in B's endurance, Erin was 2nd (?) in B's endurance, Gabby took home medals in both gravity and endurance for B's, Jen was 2nd in A's endurance...and there were more, but I can't remember, there were so many.




The team also won the overall which tallies the points of all the riders.  Winning the overall really shows the depth, speed, and dedication of the team.  The best part is, nearly no one is graduating this year.  The A riders are headed to Angel Fire, NM for nationals in two weeks.  Barring bad luck, the team of 12 should be bringing home some hardware.  


Wish them luck.

No comments:

Post a Comment