University of Arizona Cycling Team Well Represented at MTB Nationals

The University of Arizona Cycling Club Team took Angel Fire, New Mexico by storm this past weekend as they accumulated four podium results in the Women’s Division I field. I was pleased to attend this Collegiate National Championship event with the club and to see them perform at such outstanding levels.  Freshman, Chloe Forsman won both the Short Track Cross Country (STXC) and the Cross Country (XC) events while her senior teammate, Melanie Meyers, finished third in STXC and second in the XC event.

In Friday’s STXC competition Forsman led from the start and never looked back. She maintained a sizable 30+ second gap over the chasing duo of teammate Melanie Meyers and Heather Holmes (University of Utah). Meyers fought hard in the late stages and finished third place on the day. In Saturday morning’s XC event it was Meyers who controlled the pace from the start. Meyers would only be surpassed by her teammate Forsman late in the race.   The University of Arizona Duo claimed the top two podium spots in this, the most prestigious of all weekend competitions. The best riders from all across were country were there to compete, but could not touch these Wildcat riders.

Two Wildcats competed in the Men’s B STXC on Friday. Arthur Breme’s finished eleventh in his first ever mountain bike race while teammate Brian Meyer finished strong for twelfth following a crash that took skin from his chin and tore the sole from his cycling shoe. Both Men’s riders were exhausted, but ready for the XC event the following day. They had surely survived the Hurricane of Pain.  For the Men’s B XC competition they were joined by teammate Colby Moeller. Moeller rode strong to finish fourth, Meyer finished an impressive eleventh after snapping his seatpost early on, and Breme completed his first ever XC event in twelfth place.

On Sunday Forsman and Meyers joined their downhill (DH) teammate, Nolan Mayer, for the DH competition. All three riders took on the gnarly World Cup course that snaked its way down the mountain from high above.  The two XC women held their own in this their first ever attempts at DH racing. Forsman placed 18th and Meyers was 33rd.  Mayer competed in the Men’s B field and placed 17th despite crashing on one of the challenging sections of the course.  All three came out alive which was success enough in the opinion of many!

This was quite a showing for the University of Arizona. They plan to return in 2007 to defend their titles, bringing more racers along with them so that they can compete for the team omnium which is traditionally won by a Colorado school.  This year it was the team from Fort Lewis College of Durango, Colorado who successfully repeated as Division I Omnium champions.