Our CSU Rams Cycling Team took 2nd in the Omnium Overall at Collegiate Mountain Bike Nationals this past weekend. The team competed in Short Track, Cross Country, Dual Slalom, Downhill, and the Team Relay at Purgatory Ski Resort outside Durango, CO. Ross Soriano came home with a stars and stripes jersey after winning the Dual Slalom with teammate George Poggmeyer just behind him in second.
Tayne Andrade, Co-Team President, submitted the following report.
The team came into nationals having won the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Conference, with Quentin Loxtercamp (sophomore) outright winning the xc conference overall. Most of our riders attending nationals had also been consistently in the top 10 club riders at each race weekend before nationals.
This year brought a little bit of uncertainty since the racing last year was done in snow and mud, and this year was bone dry. Unlike last year, the courses were pristine, with everyone agreeing they were the best tracks we’ve seen all year.
The competition kicked off on Thursday with Dual Slalom Seeding. Ross Soriano (senior) came in as the pre-race favorite, having finished 2nd last year, and finished on the podium in the previous two editions of the event in 2018 and 2019. Despite crashing hard (check out the video on his Instagram page) on his 2nd run, Ross still managed to seed 4th. Philip Roland (senior), George Poggemeyer (senior), Eric Weers (sophomore), and Susannah Shaub (senior) all qualified and were set up well for finals on Friday.
Come Friday, the XC men kicked off the event, with Quentin taking the holeshot, while the rest of our riders fought hard to move up from 4th and 6th row call ups. Tayne Andrade (masters student) was able to move up from a 38th callup to 5th place by the top of the course, with Quentin sitting in 4th. Their positions didn’t change, as both riders kept up the pressure to secure their podium spots. We, unfortunately, had 2 riders affected by crashes and mechanicals, with Jack Hemmlegarn (senior) being accidentally pulled out of the race.
XC men results:
Quentin: 4th
Tayne: 5th
Luke Eddington: 30th
Lucas Huesman: 39th
The XC women were up next, fired up by the success of the Men’s team. Isa Naschold (freshman) quickly established herself at the front of the race, where she stayed in the fight for 4th all day. She would end the day in 5th with a comfortable margin over the rest of the top 10. Riders Jillian Lukez (junior) and Macayla Schiedt (senior) finished their first Nationals in 24th and 27th respectively, after a strong season moving up from the C category to A this season.
We had DS to cap off the day, where we had the best chance for a nationals win. Eric was eliminated early in the tournament after clipping a gate. Philip made it to the round of 16, where he just missed out on the top 10. Susannah wouldn’t make it past the first round, but finished 14th in a discipline she hadn’t tried until this year! Ross would continue to dominate the tournament, beating last year’s winner to move on to the finals. George battled hard to the semi-finals, where his opponent Luc Roux (CU Boulder) crashed in both runs, securing his spot in the final. In a show of camaraderie, Ross let Luc borrow his spare bike to finish the competition. George and Ross faced off in the final, knowing they had secured the Nationals jersey, raced just as hard as if they weren’t teammates. Ross came out on top, getting his first win in a gravity event since he started racing 9 years ago.
DS Results:
Ross: 1st
George: 2nd
Philp: 11th
Eric: 19th
Susannah Shaub: 14th
Day Two brought DH seeding and Short Track. Weers, unfortunately, had to go home after seeding due to a cold, but the rest of the DH team qualified well with Shaub, Roland and Poggemeyer all seeding in the top 10. Short Track presented the best chance for Loxtercamp and Andrade to win a championship, as it was the discipline they performed best in throughout the season. Once again, Loxtercamp took the hole shot, and set the 2nd fastest lap time for the whole weekend. Andrade moved up into the top 5 by the close of the first lap, with Lucas Huesman moving into the top 20 off of an amazing start. Andrade was able to follow the attacks of the leaders, but would be taken out of the fight for the top spot after a crash. He would spend the rest of the race fighting for 3rd with Grant Ellwood (CU Boulder), while Loxtercamp spent the majority of the race fighting for 5th place. In the end, Ellwood was able to just hold off Andrade, while Loxtercamp finished 6th.
In the women’s race, Naschold once again was in the fight for the podium, spending most of the race in the fight for 5th. After intense fighting lap to lap, with riders blowing up and recovering each lap, Naschold would finish 8th. Lukez would manage to improve on her performance from the day before with a 23rd place finish, with Scheidt coming in 33rd, capping off a season of strong performances in the B and C categories.
STXC Results:
-Men
Andrade: 4th
Loxtercamp: 6th
Huesman: 25th
Eddington: 31st
Hemmelgarn: 44th
-Women
Naschold: 8th
Lukez: 23rd
Scheidt: 33rd
The Team ended the day 2nd behind CU in the Team Omnium, knowing that the final podium would be determined by the Team Relay on the last day.
In DH, Shaub kicked off our racing, coming in with a time of 6:39.84, 7th overall for the day. Soriano would come back from a poor seeding time to sit in the hot seat for much of the day with a time of 4:06.82 that would be good for 6th. Poggemeyer would have a clean run to come in at a time of 4:04.02, which would be good for 4th place on the day. Roland would suffer a crash on the course but still managed to finish 10th.
The pressure was on for the team relay, knowing that CU would have to have an uncharacteristically bad day for us to win the omnium. However, with a team of Loxtercamp, Lukez, Nachold, and Andrade, we were ready to give it our all. Loxtercamp would establish a nearly 20-second gap over the rest of the field on the first lap, providing a crucial buffer for Lukez and Naschold to keep us in the fight for the podium. By the last lap, we were ~30 seconds off of the podium, with 3rd through 5th still in sight. Andrade would bring the team back into the fight for the podium, making the last crucial pass to secure 4th on the final climb, and only just running out of course to bring back 3rd.
This secured the team’s spot in 2nd in the Team Omnium and capped off the most successful nationals for the team in many years (1 win, 6 individual podiums).
We were supported by August Kreutz (student and mechanic at Drake Cycles) as a mechanic, which was invaluable this week.
We are excited for a bit of a break before we ramp up for CX season in December!
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