High school bike team stomps on the pedals at Snow Mountain

Breakout performance by Lizzie Curvin

The Crested Butte Alpine Orthopaedics mountain bike team headed to Snow Mountain Ranch in Granby on Sunday, September 23 for the second race of the high school racing season.
The Snow Mountain Ranch course was tweaked, offering racers more singletrack this year. Unfortunately, a lot of the singletrack was just put in this summer, making for challenging conditions.
“A lot of the singletrack was brand new so it was bumpy, soft on the edges and is really tiring to race on,” says coach Torrey Carroll.
Carroll and 12 Titans made the trip, with Lizzie Curvin posting the top performance for the team.
Curvin cut her teeth on mountain bike racing two weeks ago and picked up a few tricks of the trade. After starting at the back of the pack and battling her way to a ninth-place finish in her first race, she started out closer to front at Snow Mountain to finish in second place in her class.
“She rode a smart race,” says Carroll. “She rode her own pace and her second lap was faster than her first. She’s really competitive and pushed herself really, really hard.”
Josh Gallen represented the Titans in the varsity boys’ race, posting an 11th-place finish. While the varsity class is extremely competitive, Carroll believes Gallen may have felt some residual effects from his Alpine Odyssey experience the weekend before.
“He might have still been feeling the 63 miles of the Alpine Odyssey,” says Carroll.
Cristo Church was on the same plan as Curvin. After placing 42nd two weeks ago, Church made an early move at Snow Mountain and sustained his pace to finish 16th out of 72 riders.
“I told him to pass as many people as he could on the first lap and he had a good second and third lap,” says Carroll.
Despite waking up Sunday under the weather, Tristan Kraatz jumped into his race and put up an admirable result, and Oz Scott placed fifth out of 48 riders in his group.
Ben Swift, Liam Rose and Kai Sherman maintained their consistency, with Swift posting a fifth-place finish.
Colton Schnaitter kept plugging away at his race technique, Emerson Wohlers rolled to an eighth-place finish and Derek Schomler moved up 10 spots from 22nd two weeks ago to 12th place last Sunday.
“That was good to see,” says Carroll. “He wants to do well and he pushes himself really hard.”
Patrick Curvin was coming off an illness all week but still managed to post a faster time on his second lap to break into the top 20.
The team will continue workouts the next two weeks, mixing in some spin training at the gym when the weather’s bad as they prepare for the third race of the series in Elbert on Sunday, October 7.