High School Mountain Biking Championships descend on CMC Spring Valley
The scene at Colorado Mountain College Spring Valley on Saturday, 10/22, resembled a mix between a World Cup ski race and a soccer match. More than 840 mountain bikers competed on the campus's new trails while fans lined the course, all part of the Colorado High School Cycling League Mountain Bike State Championships.
Athletes representing 86 teams from across Colorado, as well as from Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming, Spearfish, S.D. and Taos, N.M. took part in boys and girls categories for freshmen, sophomores, junior varsity and varsity races. Locally, six varsity racers cracked the top 20 in their respective events.
Colorado High School Cycling League Executive Director Kate Rau from Boulder said Spring Valley was an ideal venue for the state championships. “It couldn’t have gone better,” Rau said. “We’re so grateful for Colorado Mountain College to put this whole venue together and really rallying around our needs.”
During the post-race banquet, CMC President Carrie Hauser announced that the Spring Valley campus plans to host a collegiate-level club mountain biking team starting next year. The team would participate in the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference, and is another opportunity for high school athletes to continue their sport into college, Hauser said. “We’ve hosted events at the Leadville campus, and Spring Valley with its natural terrain and the work we’ve put into the trail system, it just makes a lot of sense,” she said.
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