DURANGO, Colo. (3/25/11) - The University of Colorado cycling team finished third in the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference Division-I season after the conference’s road finals last weekend.
The Buffaloes finished second in the conference's division-I team time trial and criterium races and third in the road race behind first place Fort Lewis and second place Colorado State. Fort Lewis College won all three conference events and ran away with the overall conference title while CSU finished second in the RMCCC.
Colorado had a solid showing at Saturday morning's team time trial as they had teams finish fourth and seventh in the Men's-A race, third in the Men's-C race and second in the Women's-A race.
In the criterium race on Saturday afternoon, Christa Ghent and Claire Bensard were the highest CU finishers in the Women's-A race, ending up seventh and eighth respectively. In the Men's-A criterium, CU placed two riders in the top five, Josh Yeaton in fourth and Jesse Goodrich in fifth. Colorado's Danny Hiller won the Men's-B race while teammate Peter Anderson finished fifth.
Entering the final race of the weekend on Sunday morning, the road race, Yeaton was leading Colorado State's Zack Allison in the conference's Men's-A individual competition by only one point. However luck was not on the CU rider’s side as Yeaton experienced two flat tires in the road race and was unable to finish, allowing Allison to finish the event uncontested and take the individual conference championship.
"It was a disappointing end to the conference season for Josh, but he showed great sportsmanship after the event by congratulating his teammates on their strong rides in the road race," said CU coach Colby Pearce of Yeaton. "Josh will be out for revenge at the road race at nationals. Last year, he place seventh and his legs are even better this season. The uphill finish suits him perfectly."
Bill Golembieski was the highest placed CU rider in the Men's-A road race as he finished fifth. In the Men's-B road race, Anderson finished second while teammates Hiller and Sean Haney finished eighth and ninth. Macklin Scheldrup and Corey Maxon finished seventh and eighth in the Men's-C race while CU had two riders who finished in the top five in the Women's-A event, Lucianne Conklin in second and Ghent in fourth. Also in the Women's-A race, Bensard finished ninth while Abigail Mickey finished 11th.
Colorado will have four or five spots for both the men's and women's teams when the Buffs head to the Collegiate National Championships in Madison, Wis., on May 6-8.
Overall conference team results: http://www.collegiatecycling.org/rmccc/uploads/Main/Team04242011.pdf
Overall conference individual results: http://collegiatecycling.org/rmccc/uploads/Calendar/Individual04242011.pdf
Team Time Trial results: http://collegiatecycling.org/rmccc/uploads/Calendar/FLCTTT.pdf
Criterium results: https://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?year=2011&id=765&info_id=36320
Road Race results: https://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?year=2011&id=765&info_id=36318
CU Cycling website: http://www.cucycling.com/
