The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Building toward a faster tomorrow
The Crested Butte high school mountain bike team is entering its fifth year of existence and looks to build even further on what has been created over the past four years.
It only makes sense that here in Crested Butte, considered the birthplace of mountain biking, the local high school has a team.
Torrey Carroll is back as the head coach once again and has called upon a slew of coaches to help out with the team. Jason Stubbe, Mark Robbins, Pete Curvin, Dale Kramer, Liz Sampey and Janae Pritchett all stepped in to offer coaching assistance on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, BetterRide coach Andy Shabo will help out throughout the season with improving the young riders skill set.
“Some of the coaches will work as ride leaders once a week and some will be there more than that,” explains Carroll. “We’re splitting the team up on training rides into to two or three groups because we have quite a variation in speed. Also, we’re hoping to individualize the training programs more this year to accommodate each rider.”
The team has 12 riders and is a mix of veteran racers and several young guns testing the waters of mountain bike racing. Seniors Oz Scott, Colton Schnaitter, Derek Shomler and Emerson Wohlers lead the team with each of them bringing 3-4 years of racing experience apiece.
The juniors include two-year veteran Patrick Curvin and mountain bike racing rookie and the only girl on the team Jamie Spahn. Will Johnson is the lone sophomore and Ian Eldridge, James Bivens, Story Crossett, Finn Wilson and Owen Forrest represent the freshman class.
“They’re getting strong quick and are super gung-ho,” says Carroll.
The varsity racing class is an incredibly stacked field year-in and year-out and riders must qualify based on the JV results to earn a spot in the varsity line up.
“There’s 30 riders in the varsity field and a couple probably already have pro contracts,” says Carroll. “One rider who used to race varsity just competed in the USA Pro Cycling challenge as a 19-year-old.”
For the first time in the teams history, Carroll will have not one but two riders, Scott and Curvin, racing in the elite varsity class. Bike team alums Josh Gallen and Ian Kelly raced varsity in their time but two riders in one season is a first for the Crested Butte team.
“Oz will have his hands full but he should do pretty well,” says Carroll. “Patrick is working hard and is motivated. He’ll get there but his first race might be a bit of an eye-opener.”
Both Schnaitter and Shomler finished their JV seasons’ strong last year and should be able to build on that success this year. Johnson will be racing in the sophomore class. While he came close to qualifying for JV races this year, Carroll believes it’s a good thing for him to race the sophomore races.
“He’d get lost in the middle of the pack in JV so I think it’s a good thing he’s racing in the sophomore class,” says Carroll. “He should be near the front of the pack.”
The team hit the trails together as a unit starting on August 11 and spent a majority of the first two weeks of training putting in some base miles.
“We’ve been riding three times a week and riding solid for two hours each time,” says Carroll. “Trying to get as many base miles in our legs as possible. Not ride hard, but longer.”
Now into their third week, Carroll will up the intensity some and move into a more rigorous training schedule with four days of practice per week making sure to include some down days for recovery.
“We’ll continue to build the base and start to increase the intensity,” says Carroll. “Once we move out of our base miles workout, we have a pattern where we’ll have a hard day, a recovery day and then hit it hard again the next day.”
The racing season starts on Sunday, September 7 with the Snow Mountain Ranch Stampede in Granby. After that, the team will race every two weeks until the state championships in Eagle on Sunday, October 19.
