Courtesy Photo

This week, CMU’s cycling team will head to Colorado Springs to compete in the Collegiate Track National Championships. While a lot of the team has been preparing for the upcoming RMAC Mountain Bike Championships in Grand Junction, head coach Patric Rostel has been working diligently in Colorado Springs the last three weekends with cyclists that will be competing at nationals.

“Last year we got second,” Rostel said. “This year, with the people we have, I am confident we can win it.”

The team will send four women and seven men, including freshman Zack Lavergne, to compete against teams from all over the country. Lavergne, who was originally recruited by Rick Crawford, a former CMU coach, has been practicing with Rostel and won the Points Race in a prep competition two weeks ago.

“This is my first year on the track,” Lavergne said. “I began training for it as soon as my non-collegiate nationals were over. I stayed with Rick Crawford in Durango to get acclimated to altitude before I came here.”

Although it has been a struggle to practice since the nearest track is in Colorado Springs, Rostel believes their experience with the altitude will give them an advantage against teams that practice at lower elevation.

CMU’s The Mountain Bike team has been training in the Colorado National Monument twice a week to prepare for the RMAC Championship, which will be hosted in Grand Junction Oct 5 and 6. While a portion of the competition will be held on the Monument, the short track segment will be on campus and will even go through the University Center.

“This year with the support of the president and all of the people working behind the scenes, the race on campus will be really awesome,” Rostel said. “We have to build some structures and we will try to promote it as much as possible, but I think when people come in on Saturday to get lunch they will be surprised because people will be flying through the University Center.”

Since their successful season last year the team has grown and gotten nothing but positive feedback. Lavergne and Rostel both believe that team chemistry is spot on and they are getting ready to have another successful year.

“The win last year really helped us, not only to recruit a lot of guys, like Zack, but also I think it put us in a special position now,” Rostel said. “We know now, with all that happened last year, we still pulled off the win. I think people on the team are more confident now that we have a set environment and the athletic department helping us out more than ever. So I think that we can take all that, put it into this season and be even better.”

cheykoop@mavs.coloradomesa.edu