{"id":97397,"date":"2018-10-19T11:28:56","date_gmt":"2018-10-19T17:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hundreds-of-high-school-mountain-bikers-to-roll-into-state-championships\/"},"modified":"2018-10-19T11:28:56","modified_gmt":"2018-10-19T17:28:56","slug":"hundreds-of-high-school-mountain-bikers-to-roll-into-state-championships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hundreds-of-high-school-mountain-bikers-to-roll-into-state-championships\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of high school mountain bikers to roll into state championships"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Durango
Durango High School\u2019s Cobe Freeburn and Animas High School\u2019s Riley Amos have been at the front of the Colorado Cycling League south conference varsity boys races all season, and Amos will look to win a state championship Sunday in Durango.<\/span>Linda Guerrette\/Colorado Cycling League<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A three-year effort will culminate this weekend when Durango hosts the high school mountain biking state championships. Along with the event comes high hopes for the town\u2019s economy, Fort Lewis College enrollment and the hundreds of athletes with podium aspirations.<\/p>\n

A total of 822 high school mountain bikers will make the trip to Durango this weekend to participate in the Colorado Cycling League\u2019s 2018 State Championship that was awarded to Durango last August. The previous five state meets have been held in Eagle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very excited to get to Durango after all these years,\u201d said Kate Rau, the league\u2019s executive director. \u201cI\u2019m sure Durango is very excited to see it come there, and we hope the community has a good time with us all. We hope to have state at Durango next year, too, if they\u2019ll have us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of the 67 teams in attendance, Southwest Colorado is represented by Animas and Durango high schools as well as the High Desert Composite team that features riders from Cortez, Dolores and Mancos.<\/p>\n

Out of the riders who qualified for state, 94 percent committed to racing in Durango, Rau said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited because there was some reservations that kids wouldn\u2019t sign up and come to Durango because it\u2019s too far away,\u201d said Iron Horse Bicycle Classic race director Gaige Sippy, who took the lead in Durango\u2019s bid effort. \u201cI think the early numbers are showing that\u2019s not going to be a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Durango was named the host, the bid committee had to find a venue. Marc Katz stepped up and provided the land for the 7 miles of trails needed on the newly re-branded Durango Mesa Park south of downtown Durango. The league has specific requirements for the course, and much of Durango\u2019s 300-plus miles of existing trail systems rate too difficult for the league\u2019s standards.<\/p>\n

\"Durango
Durango High School sophomore Ruth Holcomb has seized her opportunity as the Demons\u2019 top varsity girls\u2019 rider with four wins in four races during the Colorado Cycling League south conference season. Now, she will try to follow in the footsteps of her friend Maddie Jo Robbins and win a state championship this Sunday in Durango.<\/span>Linda Guerrette\/Colorado Cycling League<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Trails 2000 and Sippy worked hard on the new trails to produce a suitable course. The trails, which are still on Katz\u2019s private land, will not be open to the public after this weekend\u2019s races. Most of the trails were constructed last fall, but a dry winter and summer didn\u2019t help the conditions. Rain during the last two weeks has helped the course get into prime condition, Sippy said.<\/p>\n

While the athletes will enjoy the fun new trails during their pursuit for the podium, Durango and FLC hope they will be the real winners this weekend and in years to come.<\/p>\n

\u2018More than tourist heads in beds\u2019<\/div>\n

The city of Durango and the Business Improvement District were eager to bring a sporting event to town during the tourism shoulder season. After a tough summer for local businesses because of the 416 Fire, the local economy hopes to recover a bit with 822 athletes and their families making their way to Durango.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s more economic impact than just tourist heads in beds,\u201d BID Executive Director Tim Walsworth said. \u201cThis is going to be huge for us. We\u2019re estimating about 2,000 total people here. This time of year is typically pretty slow, so it\u2019s a nice little boost for local businesses, especially on the heels of what we dealt with this summer with the fire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walsworth said that BID paid an initial hosting fee to the Colorado Cycling League and said the contribution will be between $7,500 and $10,000. Sippy estimated a total community commitment of $60,000 to host the races, which is alleviated by massive volunteer efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of that is in-kind sponsorships with hotel rooms, equipment provided and things like that,\u201d Sippy said. \u201cThen there are some sponsors who have literally just written checks and said, \u2018Yes, we want this to be in Durango and we will help you do it.\u2019 We\u2019ve been able to generate all the money here locally, and part of that $60,000 will go right back into our economy with spending money on things like portable toilets and supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Durango will aim to host the event again next year, Walsworth hopes this is the first of many big events for Durango Mesa Park with Katz\u2019s land donation fueling many ideas on future possibilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to see how that venue performs,\u201d Walsworth said. \u201cIt just might lead to other things being up there. The hope for the mesa is not only for it to be a venue for these athletic events but other events. Like Telluride\u2019s Town park, it is a big area close to town for events of all shapes and sizes.<\/p>\n

\"Animas
Animas High School junior Riley Amos rode to a first-place finish in the Colorado Cycling League\u2019s south conference regular season. Now, he will try to win a state title on home soil Sunday.<\/span>Linda Guerrette\/Colorado Cycling League<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThis will be by far the biggest thing that\u2019s ever been up there. I know the Katz family purchased that and has ideas for how the city and county can use that. This event will be a proving ground to see how events work up there and how we can get people up and down. I\u2019m excited to see the potential after that.\u201d<\/p>\n

FLC \u2018frothing at the mouth\u2019<\/p>\n

Not only is this weekend\u2019s event a potential recruiting hotbed for the FLC cycling program, but for the college as a whole.<\/p>\n

Starting Friday, mountain bikers will have access to campus tours, and FLC will host the end-of-season awards banquet. The hope is to attract more high school kids to potentially enroll at FLC in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cFort Lewis recognizes the value of the high school league families,\u201d Sippy said. \u201cThis is a great way to get kids on campus. Fort Lewis has been integral from Day 1 when we started on this, and they\u2019re a contributor in many ways. A lot of the kids on the current FLC team are either NICA (National Interscholastic Cycling Association) kids from Colorado or other states, and this high school league really does have an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FLC mountain bike team has nearly 90 riders, and the program boasts roughly 150 cyclists across all disciplines. FLC cycling director Dave Hagen and members of his staff will also provide assistance to riders this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe school is frothing at the mouth for the recruiting potential,\u201d Hagen said. \u201cIt\u2019s a chance for the community and college to showcase itself as the great cycling community that it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

jlivingston@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Composite team to send competitors from Cortez, Dolores and Mancos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":97398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[657,132,13,977,2343],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-97397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-cycling","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-mountain-biking","tag-sports-group"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97397"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=97397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}