Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy wins state mountain bike title

Vail Ski and Snowboard Academy claimed the team title and Eagle Valley placed third in the D3 category at the Colorado High School Cycling League state mountain bike championships last weekend in Glenwood Springs. Both teams train together as part of the Vail Junior Cycling club, but split into separate squads at league competitions.

“Everyone was super happy,” Eagle Valley senior Aiden Brown said after finishing eighth in the varsity boys race. “There were definitely some tears because it was the seniors’ last race.”

Brown, who won two of the four regular-season races this fall and placed second in two others, came into the weekend hoping to vie for the individual win. “I went in with high expectations,” he said.

---

---

Unfortunately, the Eagle Valley student wound up catching a respiratory virus before the event. “I definitely felt it on the first lap,” he admitted. “It held me back, lost a lot of spots. On the second lap I was able to settle down, found my groove, and I was just able to push to the end.”

Brown completed three 5.5-mile laps, each of which included 646 feet of ascent, in 1 hour, 16 minutes, 12:05 seconds. Fairview’s Leif Bryan (1:11:50.06) took the win. Steamboat Springs won the D2 title and Colorado Rocky Mountain School claimed the D1 title.

---

---

“It was a solid end to the season,” Brown continued. “I finished with a smile on my face and I worked hard, so it was pretty good.”

Laura Carlin of Mountain Vista (1:24:34.61) was the varsity girls champion, and Leadville’s Rose Horning — a Nordic skier for Ski and Snowboard Club Vail — used the fastest third lap in the field to climb into the silver position, guiding Leadville to a second-place D3 team finish. VSSA’s Keely Hendricks (1:36:09.05) was the top local finisher in the girls varsity race, placing 19th.

VSSA’s Jolene Edelmann earned the league’s most improved award after a slew of top-10 finishes this season. Edelmann placed 53rd in the varsity race at state, a year after coming in 33rd in the junior varsity event. The Devils saw massive improvement from Vespera Steiner as well. The sophomore finished 18th in the sophomore girls race in 1:11:14.17, shaving 17 minutes off her freshman-year time on the same course.

“I wanted to leave it all on the course and have no regrets — go as fast as I could and pass as many people,” Steiner said of her objectives. Steiner credited her improvement to the team’s ramped up training this fall.

“We did a lot more intervals this year to improve speed and endurance,” she said. “Specifically for me, I worked on cornering so I can go through the switchbacks with more speed and lose less momentum.”

Before the state meet, Steiner said 15 of the VJC riders went to Moab for four days to train during fall break.

---

Want the news to come to you? Get the top stories in your inbox every morning. Sign up here: VailDaily.com/newsletter

---

“It was really fun,” she said. “We just got to spend a week riding fun, technical trails before state.”

“I do think that camaraderie and team-building we had this past week definitely showed at the states and it definitely encouraged a lot of riders,” Brown added.

The CHSCL splits its 90 teams — and over 2,000 riders — into four regions: Yampa, Platte, Piedra and Crystal. The top 25 varsity riders, as well as the top 40 junior varsity, sophomore and freshman riders from each region (determined by finishes at the four regular-season events) qualified for the state championships.

Schools are placed in D1, D2 or D3 based on team size. D3 team scores are compiled using a school’s top-5 point earners (with a maximum of four boys) regardless of gender or category (freshman, sophomore, junior varsity, varsity), meaning every athlete’s race matters.

Last year, VSSA took fourth and Eagle Valley was seventh at state. Both Brown and Steiner were thrilled to slide into third on Sunday.

“That was pretty cool, especially because we have a lot of seniors on the team,” Steiner said.

Brown said his teammate Eric Asselin, who was seventh (52:12.49) out of 150 junior varsity riders in the two-lap distance, was particularly impressive.

“He always goes out, he does the work, he gets to the start line, he’s calm, cool and collected. And he goes out (to race) and he’s ruthless — he just puts it all out there,” Brown said of Asselin, who ‘tapered’ for the meet by running at the 4A Region 1 cross-country championships for the No. 4-ranked Devils.

“That just to me is mind-blowing,” Brown said of the dual-sport athlete’s busy weekend.

Asselin spent the second lap tracking down VSSA rider Alex Current, who finished in sixth, less than a second in front of his VJC teammate. Freedom Bennett (54:45.50) finished fourth in the freshmen boys race for VSSA, while Katie Lombardi (1:06:18:32) placed 14th in the freshmen girls event.

Having raced since February, Brown said he’s ready to fill the next two-weeks with more XBox than singletrack. He said he’ll start ramping up his hours pretty soon in preparation for a race in Puerto Rico next February.

“I’m just excited to get back on that grind,” he said. “That’s my happy place — on the bike.”