The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Every rider qualifies for state championships
By Than Acuff
The CB Devo high school bike team closed out the regular season of racing winning their fourth of four total races when they took the Division 3 team title at the Chalk Creek Stampede in Nathrop on Sunday, October 6.
The win secured the Division 3 points series team title for CB Devo and all 10 riders on the team qualified for the state championships at Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs on Saturday and Sunday, October 19-20. But it wasn’t easy as some of the top riders for CB Devo found themselves in tight battles in their individual races.
Finn Veit has been in the mix at the top of the varsity leaderboard all season long and was in yet another battle at the front of the pack in Nathrop. Veit was in the lead group through the first two laps of the three-lap race but fell back during an attack on the first climb on the third lap. Rather than letting them get away for good, Veit dug deep to fight back into the mix on the initial climb attack and ended up finishing in third place, and second place in the overall season points standings.
“Finn suspected that his podium chances were over, but he settled into time trial mode and ended up catching the leaders at the top of the climb,” says coach Morgan Weinberg.
Varsity teammates Sam Bullock, Ebbett Weinberg and Kenny Bullock put in strong efforts as well with Sam placing 19th and qualifying for the state championships for the fourth time in his high school racing career. Weinberg and Kenny worked off each other throughout the three laps as one final push from Weinberg putting him in 31st place on the day with Kenny crossing the line in 33rd place and both making the cut for the state championships at the varsity level.
The JV athletes for CB Devo have been laying down top results all season long and the race in Nathrop was no different. Brie Bender rode her way to a third-place finish in the race to close out the season in third place overall for another trip to the state championships.
Temple Robertson, Ethan Armbrecht and Ben Geisler fought their way through the two-lap JV race. Robertson has been at the top of the leaderboard all season long but a push from his biggest competition left Robertson just 1.1 seconds behind in second place finishing the season in second place overall.
“Temple is a strong contender for the state championship,” says Morgan.
Armbrecht appears to be saving his best for last as he posted his top result of the season coming in sixth place building momentum for the state championships and Geisler overcame a foot injury to place 28th and punch his ticket to the big show as well.
Freshman rider Jack Holsteen has been the icing on the team win cake all season and he did it again in Nathrop as he placed sixth while Nate Taylor got the initial hole shot and held on to come in just behind Holsteen in seventh place bringing the total of CB Devo riders headed to the state championships to 10. Holsteen, Taylor, Robertson, Armbrecht, Geisler and Bender will all race on Saturday at Colorado Mountain College in Glenwood Springs. Veit, Sam, Weinberg and Kenny will then line up for the varsity race on Sunday.
