The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Two races, one team podium so far
By Than Acuff
The Crested Butte Devo high school mountain bike team is two races into its season and has a second place and a fourth-place finish on the resume already.
Head coach Alex Ellmer is new to the scene on the high school team but not new to CB Devo or coaching as he helped with summer programs last year as well as coaching the middle school aged racers. He has Mallory Zimmerman and John Landreth helping coach as well assisting with the three workouts each week.
Ellmer has 10 kids out for the team this year from juniors to freshmen and while it’s been difficult getting girls involved, they did double their numbers this year from one to two with junior Brie Bender returning and freshman Tilly Rinderle joining the mix.
They opened training way back on August 5 focused on building the team dynamic while riding to get ready for the season.
“The first couple of weeks were about getting out and riding as a group,” says Ellmer. “Get to know each other and get as many base miles as we could.”
Once the meet and greet was done, Ellmer and the coaches started getting the riders race ready.
“Two weeks into it, we really kicked into intervals and race specific training,” says Ellmer.
The team enjoyed the fruits of their labor in the opening race of the season taking second place in Division III at the Frisco Bay Invitational on Saturday, August 23.
Junior Temple Robertson led the way for the team scoring points in the varsity race. Robertson’s first two seasons on the team racing in the freshmen and JV classes were chock full of podium finishes. But the jump into the varsity class, especially for a junior, is a big step.
“You go from two laps to three and so everything changes for them,” says Ellmer.
Robertson took to the new format rather seamlessly in his first race as he started in 18th place and made his way up into 10th place by the time he hit the finish line.
The young guns then stepped up to the challenge for their first high school race which is a time trial to determine seedings for them at the start of the season. Robert Spencer rode to a first-place finish while Rinderle placed third among the freshmen girls. Sophomore class rider Jackson Holsteen took fourth in his race and junior Brie Bender, also made the jump to varsity and finished 15th to round out the team points and push them into second place.
“We had a sense going in that we’d have some podiums,” says Ellmer. “Always nice to see in person their training in action.”
Two weeks later the team lined up for the Haymaker Classic in Eagle on Saturday, September 7 and they were looking forward to a similar result provided things went well.
“Our eyes were on the team podium once again,” says Ellmer. “For the freshmen riders after their first time trial, it was a chance to see how they would do in a group setting.”
Robertson finished his race 13th while Nate Taylor jumped up 10 spots from his first race to take fourth in the sophomore race to add in big team points. Rinderle had no trouble in the group setting placing third in the freshman race while Holsteen and Dylan Treadwell (great name) finished seventh and 11th in their races respectively.
The downside came in a crash from Spencer as he approached the finish line and two other CB Devo riders that did not finish. But with the efforts of those that did finish the team still managed a fourth-place finish. Not only that but the team is determined to get back on the podium as they prepare for their next race, the Cloud City Challenge in Leadville on Saturday, September 20.
“The kids have a fire burning to get back on the podium this weekend,” says Ellmer.
