{"id":2449015,"date":"2019-09-22T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=313259"},"modified":"2019-09-23T08:26:27","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T14:26:27","slug":"high-school-cycling-league-holds-race-in-snowmass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/high-school-cycling-league-holds-race-in-snowmass\/","title":{"rendered":"High school cycling league holds race in Snowmass"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dozens of high school cyclists pedal up the Discovery Trail during the Snowmassive Chase on Sunday, Sept. 22. The race was the third of the Colorado High School Cycling League season and the first the league has every held in Snowmass.<\/strong>
Maddie Vincent\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

On the switchbacks of the Discovery Trail in Snowmass early Sunday morning, dozens of people were shouting, whistling and shaking cowbells at hundreds of high school mountain bikers.<\/p>\n

First it was in support of the junior varsity, freshmen and sophomore girls, then the freshmen boys and varsity teams. Five waves and over 700 student athletes later, families and officials celebrated the first-ever Colorado High School Cycling League race in Snowmass and the third competition of the league\u2019s 10th anniversary season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had rave reviews from the community and participants so far,\u201d said Kate Rau, executive director of the Colorado High School Cycling League, about the Snowmassive Chase race.<\/p>\n

Rau said she\u2019s been exploring Snowmass as a race venue for the state\u2019s high school mountain biking league since 2012. When the Discovery Trail, a beginner path that winds up Fanny Hill near Zeigler Reservoir, was completed in 2017, Rau said she was able to turn the potential race venue into a reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the longest courtship I\u2019ve had with any venue. \u2026 We are hugely grateful for the Discovery Trail,\u201d Rau said.<\/p>\n

Because the Discovery Trail is one of the more difficult league courses, Rau said the Snowmassive Chase was slated as the third of this year\u2019s five-race season.<\/p>\n

The first Colorado High School Cycling League race season was in 2010. A \u201cdecade of dirt\u201d later, the National Interscholastic Cycling Association affiliate is celebrating its growing community and mission to build strong minds, bodies and character through cycling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is such a cool sport because there is no bench. If you\u2019re on the team, you\u2019re in the game,\u201d said Tyler Durham, managing director of Roaring Fork Cycling. \u201cThere is the camaraderie of the team but a lot of self-action and individual empowerment that makes (cycling) so unique.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Durham could be found bouncing around the 4.8-mile Snowmassive Chase loop cheering on his student athletes and pumping his arms in excitement after they finished their two, three or four required laps, depending on their age group.<\/p>\n

Durham explained that Roaring Fork Cycling supports the Glenwood Springs High School team and Aspen-Basalt combined high school team through coaching and other resources. He said the 3-year-old nonprofit is pushing to bring younger kids into the cycling community, hosting summer programming for middle school students out of the Snowmass Recreation Center and even strider, or pushbike, races for kids 2 and younger.<\/p>\n

The group also is trying to make the sport more accessible and more inclusive by providing loaner helmets and mountain bikes to kids interested in competing and by hosting girls-only rides each week, Durham said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is to empower youth through cycling,\u201d Durham said. \u201cWe want them to feel supported and encouraged and are lucky to have some of the best people helping us make that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

And according to Durham and Ben Gottlieb, lead coach and director of operations for Roaring Fork Cycling, the summer programming and team culture focused on enthusiasm, stewardship, adaptation, commitment and teamwork is starting to pay off for the young athletes.<\/p>\n

The Roaring Fork Valley area high school cyclers had a strong showing Sunday, with Aspen, Basalt and Glenwood Springs athletes stepping onto the podium in nearly every age group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe athletes who finish in the top five in Colorado could also place top five in the world. That\u2019s what the level of riding is here,\u201d Gottlieb said.<\/p>\n

In the boys varsity race, George Beck of Aspen placed fourth after a sprint to the finish with George Poggemeyer of Chatfield, who placed fifth.<\/p>\n

At the sophomore girls level, Emma Borchers of Basalt placed fourth and, at the freshmen girls level, Megan Heath of Basalt placed fifth. \u201cIt felt really good to be home for a race, hills are my strongest,\u201d Borchers said after her race.<\/p>\n

Both Borchers and Heath said that although they participate in other high school sports, mountain biking is different because of the family-like culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone just wants everyone to do their best,\u201d Borchers said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven when you get passed by someone they tell you you\u2019re doing great. It\u2019s just a very supportive community,\u201d Heath added.<\/p>\n

Finn Johnson, a 14-year-old from Aspen who placed first in the freshmen race, expressed similar thoughts.<\/p>\n

Johnson said he felt strong and confident going into Sunday\u2019s competition, and that he likes being pushed by the upperclassmen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really cool sport because even though you race as an individual you\u2019re a part of a team,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cAnd our team dynamic is really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for Durham, Gottlieb and the other Roaring Fork Cycling coaches, it\u2019s not just about the race results. The coaches said it\u2019s more about watching their freshmen through senior cyclers grow as people and become passionate about a sport they can continue to participate in for most of the rest of their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something truly magical about mountain biking that helps kids find their power,\u201d Gottlieb said. \u201cWe (coaches) aren\u2019t just seeing them become better cyclists, we truly see them becoming better people by doing what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

mvincent@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dozens of high school cyclists pedal up the Discovery Trail during the Snowmassive Chase on Sunday, Sept. 22. The race was the third of the Colorado High School Cycling League season and the first the league has every held in Snowmass.Maddie Vincent\/The Aspen Times On the switchbacks of the Discovery Trail in Snowmass early Sunday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2449015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 04:47:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449015"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2449028,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449015\/revisions\/2449028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}