High school bike team shifting into high gear

Josh Gallen and Ian Kelly climb ranks

The local high school bike team, Alpine Orthopaedics, returned to action at the Snow Mountain Ranch Stampede on Sunday, October 2.
With one race under their belt, senior Ian Kelly and junior Josh Gallen knew exactly what to do when racers were called to the line for the start this time around.
Miscommunication prior to the start of the season’s first race left both Gallen and Kelly at the back of the pack heading out.
This time around, the two riders made sure they were up front.
Organizers brought in the top five from the previous race to line up. From there it was up to the rest of the field to figure it out, and Gallen and Kelly jumped right in.
“This time they were the first two guys there behind the top five,” explains head coach Torrey Carroll.
But that’s just the start and it’s easy to get caught up in the frantic pace of the start and blow up.
Neither Kelly nor Gallen fell for it though, and maintained a steady pace, leaving gas in the tank for all four laps of the 18-mile race.
“The start was a long uphill and they both rode that smart,” says Carroll. “It was too long of a hill to stand up and sprint. You would just redline and then have to recover.”
Halfway through the first lap, Kelly had settled into fifth place and Gallen was riding in sixth. By the time they came around on the final lap, Kelly made up two spots to finish in third and Gallen crossed the line in fifth place.
“After the first race they figured out they could ride with the top five,” says Carroll. “They knew they could do better and were motivated.”
Sophomore Michael Ryan posted a similar result to his first race in the sophomore division, taking 18th place, but did it in a bigger field of riders. Meanwhile, sophomore Tristan Kraatz did what he could after coming off a nasty bug, to place 23rd.
Freshman Emerson Wohlers led his classmates in the freshman race in just his second competition. Wohlers placed 14th two weeks ago and moved up to 11th place last weekend.
“He had some confidence that he could move up and he did, which was cool,” says Carroll. “I think he has the potential to move up again.”
Freshmen Derek Shomler finished 12th, an ailing Oz Scott battled to take 13th place and Brooks Haddaway finished his first mountain bike race ever in 17th place.
While current weather patterns threaten to stall the team’s training regimen, Carroll has a back-up plan as they prepare for their next race.
“We’ll head out to the Gym in Riverland when it rains,” says Carroll. “Get on the stationary bikes.”
The team returns to race pace this Sunday, October 16 for the Peaceful Valley Invitational in Elbert, Colo.