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Talker of the Squawker

While wind lets up, the hill doesn’t relent

The infamous front hill off Durango’s 8th Avenue leading up to Fort Lewis College is a notorious climb by anyone’s standards, and on Saturday, racers in the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference 2015 Squawker Classic Road Race lapped it over and over and over again.

Day two of the races brought the longest and most challenging test – a 5-mile course that wrapped around Rim Drive, dropped down Goeglein Gulch and punched up the front hill. While Saturday’s energy-draining winds lifted, on Sunday the front-hill grind never flinched.

The men’s A group rode nine laps – 45 miles – with University of Colorado’s Bill Golembieski prevailing. Fort Lewis College junior Dean Haas took third.

Haas has been racing for 12 years and said he loves the climb, but after three races, and the relentless winds, his legs just weren’t there for the win.

“It’s definitely one of the harder races,” Haas said. “You go up that hill so many times. And you come into it with so much speed. I think I should have positioned myself a little further back, and maybe I could have won the race. I was fourth last year, so I moved up one spot.”

Women’s ‘A’ racers rode six laps for a total of 30 miles. Lexie Millard from Colorado Mesa took first. She and her teammates had a plan that worked.

“We wanted to speed it up right away and drop some of the other girls,” she said. “So in the beginning, we picked it up a little bit. It was hard. That hill is really tough.”

FLC road coach Ian Burnett said his team, a blend of seasoned racers and younger riders, is developing. As a coach, he helps them manage their student life with training

“The hardest part is the balance of school and social life, racing and training,” he said. “Those are the challenges these kids face.”

He said Haas is coming into his own and stepping up over the weekend.

“Dean is definitely showing his colors right now,” he said. “It’s his time.

Burnett cheered his riders as they cruised by.

“We’re getting a lot of road kids that are here just to race road,” he said. “That’s their focus They’re kind of raw but they’re growing each weekend.”

FLC’s Sydney Edmonson placed seventh in the women’s ‘A’ class.

“It wasn’t my best race,” said the 19-year-old, in her second year of racing. “It was pretty hard. Especially that hill. It’s so steep.”

bmathis@durangoherald.com



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