Vail Junior Cycling teams sharpen up for Colorado High School Cycling league state championships

The Vail Junior Cycling team continued its winning ways at the last two Colorado High School Cycling League events and looks sharp going into the state championship in a couple weeks.

Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy and Eagle Valley High School went 1-2 in the Yampa region Division 3 race at the Haymaker Classic on Sept. 21 and swapped positions at the North Fruita Desert Classic on Oct. 6. The squads — which are both under the Vail Junior Cycling Club umbrella — replicated the team title swaps they secured at the first two meets of the season. Heading into the state championships in Glenwood Springs Oct. 19-20, VSSA holds a slim margin in the overall team race, with 10,199 points to Eagle Valley’s 10,112.

The Colorado High School Cycling League is divided into four regions, with VSSA and Eagle Valley competing in the Yampa region. While team scores are differentiated by division, athletes in D1, D2 and D3 all compete in the same race at each of the four regular season meets.

The top 25 varsity and the top 40 junior varsity, sophomore and freshman riders from each region (determined by finishes at the four regular-season events) qualify for the state championships. VSSA won the D3 title last year and Eagle Valley placed third.

Eric Asselin, who also runs cross-country for the Devils, placed third overall in the boys varsity race at his home course last month and won the event in Fruita on Oct. 6. After covering the trio of 5.9-mile loops on the 18 Road Trail network in 1 hour, 8 minutes, 11.47 seconds — 1 minute and 44 seconds faster than runner-up Dylan Lewis of Boulder — the Eagle Valley junior became the current overall individual points leader.

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Peter Kan won the freshman boys race at the Haymaker Classic, topping the 76-biker field after a tight dual with Centaurus’ Charlie Andersen. Eagle Valley’s Heidi Treichel and Eva Klesner just missed the podium with fourth-place finishes in the respective junior varsity girls and freshman girls races. In Fruita, Klesner claimed silver while junior varsity points leader Freedom Bennett took the division win for VSSA by 1.69 seconds over Boulder’s Karl Bryan.

Full results can be found at ColoradoMTB.org.