Colorado Mesa University Cycling is the reigning USA Cycling Varsity Overall Omnium National Champion. As collegiate cycling starts up again after a long COVID-19 break, the program’s success continued in Indianapolis, Indiana, at the USA Cycling collegiate track championships.
Since its inception in 1998, the CMU Cycling Team has won 44 individual National Championships, 8 Team Omnium National Championships and 4 Team Overall Omnium titles.
The CMU Cycling Team finished second overall in team omnium with 950 points just behind host school Marian University. Highlights from the championships include Ian Anderson winning the men’s individual omnium and individual pursuit, Evan Boone winning the men’s sprint and a first-place finish by the men’s team pursuit with Lance Abshire, Ian Anderson, Nathan Roberts and Torbjorn Roed.
“Competing at Track Nationals and winning 4 national titles, including an individual omnium, is phenomenal," said Cycling Manager of Operations Patric Rostel. “Given that we only had limited time to train on the track, as we currently don’t have access to a track in Colorado, the results are outstanding and that speaks volumes for the quality of our athletes.”
The Mavericks took gold, silver and bronze in the men 4km pursuit final, as Anderson finished first with a time of 4:39.820 breaking the Collegiate Track Record at Major Taylor Velodrome by more than 3 seconds. Roed and Abshire rounded up the podium for the CMU Cycling Team. Kate Seiler finished fourth in the women 3km pursuit and then went on to earn silver in the women team 4km pursuit with her teammates Alexis Bobbitt, Lauren Lackman and Vanessa Romano. Romano finished fourth in women scratch race while Mia Deye placed fourth in the women’s sprint race.
CMU’s co-ed team comprised of Mia Deye, Romano, Anderson, Roberts, Roed and Evan Boone finished second in the co-ed team sprint final.
CMU’s Mountain Bike team just hosted a mountain bike race at Powderhorn mountain Resort earlier this month.
“Our home mountain bike race weekend was the single largest collegiate race weekend in the RMCCC to date with 640 total registrants and 400+ unique riders. I think this is a great example of how Colorado and our neighboring states are trending more towards non-traditional sports every year,” said CMU Cycling Team Director Brian Flaherty.
CMU’s goal at collegiate mountain bike nationals is to pick up where they left off in 2019 and take home the national title. Simply, they are ready to earn the title of the best ranked mountain bike team in the country again. The team knows it's a big challenge to pull off back-to-back titles especially when competing at Purgatory Resort in Colorado, which is the home training venue for rival Fort Lewis College.
The team will look to add more national titles and build on the program’s success with Cyclocross, BMX and Road competitions later in the season.
