The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“I’d love to grow it into a bigger program”
By Than Acuff
For the third summer in a row, the Crested Butte Mountain Sports Team (CBMST) has a team of downhill bike racers training and competing on the Downhill Rockies Series. They have their first races of the series this Sunday, July 13 with the younger kids in Cat II starting at 10 a.m. on Avery and then their teammates racing in Cat I on Captain Jack’s starting around noon.
Head coach Cal Hill and his assistant coach Ben Thompson have eight kids, five boys and three girls, between the ages of seven and 12 years old on the team this year. While the team has included older riders in the past, Hill finds this make up much more conducive to development, camaraderie and attentive to developing more than just shredders.
“It makes for a tight-knit development program,” says Hill. “It’s not just about results, it’s about youth development and growing as humans. We see them all summer so we can help them develop a positive mental attitude. We do have some kids who really love racing and want to get better, and we can accommodate that, and others that just like riding and having fun. At the end of the day, they all just want to have fun.”
The program started on June 13 as soon as the CBMR bike park opened and they have been meeting three days a week since then to ride. While some participated in the Junior Bike Week downhill races a week ago, all of them will be lining up for the races this weekend as a team.
While Hill focuses more on the Cat I level riders and those who want to further develop their race craft and Thompson’s focus is the Cat II level riders, they both spend time with all of the kids throughout each week.
“I think it’s important we both see all of the kids so we know when some kids are ready to hit certain features,” says Hill. “No one goes unseen. We’re all about safety first, fun second.”
Hill also touts the effort of the trail building crew, specifically Jesse East, as he has committed to tweaking the current slate of trails to develop more variety and creating types of trails that are growing in popularity as the sport progresses.
“He’s been making the trails much better for training with the kids and even attracting the attention of folks from out of town,” says Hill. “More flowy, jump stuff. It’s cool to see where he’s going with it and seeing it all come to fruition.”
In addition to the kids races on Sunday, there will also be plenty of older kids competing, categories for adults 35+ and 50+ and pro men’s and pro women’s categories.
Following this weekend, the CBMST riders will then jump into the CBMR summer race series starting on July 18 with five local downhill races offered as well as three cross-country style races. The team will also continue to compete on the Downhill Rockies Series with a stop in Telluride August 9-10, Keystone August 16-17 and then finishing up at Angel Fire September 6-7.
