The cycling team is now pumping…after a new pump track has found its way onto campus here at Colorado Mesa University.

To elaborate, a pump track is circuit of rollers and banked turns that are designed to be completely ridden by pumping. Pumping is the action of pushing your body up and down through the rollers to gain speed and avoid peddling completely.  

CMU has officially announced the construction of a fully functioning pump track right here in Grand Junction. This is the first time anything like this has been implemented into campus at CMU and is something that is very rarely found on college campuses across the country.  

The first pump track implemented into a college campus was built at Thaden School in Bentonville, AK. This makes CMU one of few schools in the county currently with such easy access to it.

 “It’s been in the process. We started talking about it in the summer and it was a collaborative effort between the University and the cycling team.” Head Cycling Coach Brian Flaherty said. “I would say mostly the university started the drive and the cycling team filled in on the back side and provided a lot of impute and some of the builders.”  

This track will have dual purposes. It will be rideable to the public as well as CMU students but will also be the home of private training sessions for the cycling team themselves.  

“The builder that we hired has built three Olympic level BMX tracks in his history and he nailed it,” Flaherty said.  

You can expect to see this track functioning in early December but will closed temporarily for some finishing touches in early March.  

“The park will be closed down again for two to three weeks and there will be an electronic gate installed, primarily for the team. The asphalt will be painted in school colors so there will be a marron lane and a gold lane,” Flaherty said. “The outer loop will still stay as soil and that’ll get some polymer applied to it to harden it up like glue.”  

CMU is glad to host this track for the public as well. With this in mind, vandalism and graffiti are not welcomed at the track. If these issues arise than the track will no longer be publicly accessible and will be for CMU students only. 

Something of this stature is a rarity and must be treated with respect.