Time to dust off the cowbells, cycling season has arrived in Durango.
The spring race season officially will kick off this weekend with the return of the Fort Lewis College Squawker Road Classic.
At 8 a.m. Saturday, collegiate riders will take to the La Posta Team Time Trial course on County Road 213. Beginning at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, riders will race through downtown for the Neighborhood Criterium with the start and finish line on East 4th Avenue and 8th Street. Downtown racing will go until after 5 p.m., with collegiate A women set to race for 45 minutes at 1:35 p.m., collegiate A men for 60 minutes at 2:30 p.m. and an open/pro men’s race capping off the action for 50 minutes beginning at 4:30 p.m.
The weekend of racing will conclude Sunday morning. Collegiate A men will hit the 5-mile road race course at 8 a.m. for nine laps around 8th Avenue, College Drive and Rim Drive. Open/pro men will hit the road course three minutes later for eight laps. The collegiate A women will start at 10:33 a.m. for six laps.
“I’m looking forward to a good weekend of racing,” said FLC cycling director Dave Hagen. “We are getting ready for collegiate road nationals in Grand Junction in a few weeks. In our A races, we will have 12 riders on our long list who have a chance to make that nationals team. We can send 10 to nationals, and we want to see them all racing together. We also have a handful of mountain bikers and solid road racers doing the open categories this weekend against our fairly legendary and strong community of cyclists.”
Along with the collegiate road races, there are USA Cycling sanctioned events for open/pro and masters category riders.
FLC won’t be able to showcase the talent of top men’s road racer Cormac McGeough, who is at Tour of the Gila with the Jelly Bell pro cycling team in New Mexico. He finished third on the second stage Thursday. But, unlike in some recent years, the lure of the Sea Otter Classic mountain bike races this weekend in California won’t hurt the FLC road team as much, as the Skyhawks have some dedicated road racers on the roster.
On the men’s side, Hagen is excited about senior Emmanuel Gagne, especially in the neighborhood criterium.
“He’s graduating this year and been on the nationals team now for his fourth year,” Hagen said. “He really wants to try to make something special happen, so this weekend is a perfect time to try to do that.”
In the men’s road race, Hagen said James Hilyer will be a rider to watch.
“He’s really stepped it up this year and turned out to be one of the strongest riders on the road team all around,” Hagen said.
Charlotte Backus is a leader on the women’s team who Hagen said has been impressive this season. Emily Abraham could also win the criterium or road race, and Tristen Musselman has been a unifying force for the roster.
“The whole team, they’re all best friends and very strong student-athletes,” Hagen said of the women. “There’s some good competition in our conference, and we have the team to help Charlotte or Emily win races. Tristen has stepped up as a leader of the women’s squad and set a good culture for everyone.”
Hagen is perhaps most excited to see the women’s team time trial this weekend. On a group ride this week, he and road coach Ian Burnett were dropped by the women’s team and were impressed by the team’s cohesion and speed.
Fingers are crossed for warm weather after recent events at University of Colorado and Air Force Academy were affected by cold and wet conditions. It’s a weekend all of the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference teams need to prepare for national championships coming up May 4-6 in Grand Junction.
“It’s been hard to see everything we’d like to going into this weekend,” Hagen said. “We’ve had great training here in town and on some of the weekends, but we need an actual race from our time trials. We’ve had enough practices, but it’s different when you’re against the clock and other teams.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
If you go
Squawker Road Classic
Team Time Trial:
8 a.m. Saturday, County Road 213 (La Posta Highway)
Neighborhood Criterium:
11:30 a.m.-5:20 p.m. Saturday, East 4th Avenue at 8th Street
Road Race:
8 a.m.-noon Sunday, 8th Avenue, College Drive, Rim Drive
Volunteers Needed
Sunday’s road race is still in need of volunteers. Two course marshals are needed from 7:30-10 a.m., and five are needed from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. To help, contact Dave Hagen at hagen_d@fortlewis.edu.
