Crested Butte bike team spins through first two races

Battling elements and posting solid results

The Crested Butte high school bike team is midway through their season and gaining ground with each week. The team opened the racing season on Sunday, September 8 with the Snow Mountain Ranch Stampede outside of Granby.
The race started under unsettled skies that turned for the worse as the day continued, forcing organizers to call the race after two of a planned three laps.
Kai Sherman was leading the way for Crested Butte, moving into second place in a JV field of 85 racers. Oz Scott was in sixth place when they called the race, Patrick Curvin in 12th and Cristo Church ended up in 18th.
Colton Schnaitter and Tristan Kraatz had battled their way up into 50th and 51st place by the time the race was called but Derek Shomler was out on course for his third lap and punching it when the course punched back. A greasy bridge spelled Shomler’s demise as he lost his bike out from under him and gained some stitches. Liam Rose placed 31st in the sophomore race and Will Johnson came charging out of the gates to place 11th in his first race ever in the freshman class.
Brennan O’Hagen represented Crested Butte in the girls’ JV race, finishing 18th out of 50 racers.
“It was a pretty successful race for the team,” says coach Torrey Carroll. “We had some good results across the board.”
After two more weeks of training, the team lined up again on Sunday, September 22 for the Cloud City Challenge in Leadville.
Skies threatened once again but tapered in time for O’Hagen to finish 17th in the girls’ JV race.
Rose moved up six spots in his second race of the season and Johnson finished 13th.
The JV boys’ race was where all the excitement happened though, with every Crested Butte racer gaining spots from the prior race before organizers were forced, once again, to call it early.
This time Sherman was in the lead to give Crested Butte its first victory in its four-year existence. The win also moved Sherman into the lead overall. He’ll be wearing the leader’s jersey for the next event.
“He’ll be a marked man at the next race,” says Carroll.
Curvin improved as well, finishing in ninth place. Church finished in 13th place, with Scott battling an illness to take 14th place.
Schnaitter and Kraatz were on a furious pace when the race was called, having moved into 34th and 44th place with plenty of gas left in the tank, but the big move came from Emerson Wohlers.
Wohlers broke his chain in the first race so with no overall ranking had to start in the back of a field of 92 racers. After just one lap he had already moved up the 20th place and finished there due to the shortened race.
The Crested Butte team is now fifth out of 20 teams in the overall standings, with the podium well within reach.
The team will continue to hit the trails for the next two weeks before they line up for the third race of the season, the Peaceful Valley Invitational in Elbert, Colo.