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CMU wins overall and road cycling national championships

Road nationals 2024.jpg

The Colorado Mesa University road cycling team pose for a team photo after winning the 2024 Collegiate Road Cycling Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Sunday.

The Colorado Mesa University cycling team has conquered the collegiate cycling realm again.

The Mavericks just wrapped up its fourth straight national championship with an impressive showing at the USA Collegiate Road Cycling Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, over the weekend.

CMU is one of 281 schools that make up Collegiate Cycling, which is broken into 11 conferences. After winning the national title in 2020, 2022, 2023 (COVID canceled the 2021 results), the Mavs were the team to beat this year too.

The overall omnium title was determined by the road championships, and CMU left no doubt, winning the road title, which included one individual and one team national champion, and three more top-three finishes.

The team championship is determined by finishes by both the men and women’s teams.

CMU won the road championship with 446 points. Fort Lewis was second with 430 and Marin University (Indiana) was third with 410 points.

By wrapping up the road championships, CMU secured the 2024 overall omnium title with 368 points, Marian University was second with 346 points and Lindenwood University (Missouri) was third with 287 points.

The overall omnium is decided by points accumulated through five national championship disciples over the season — track, mountain biking, cyclocross, BMX and road.

CMU won national titles in mountain bike and cyclocross and now on the road. CMU finished third at track nationals in the fall.

The road championships started last Friday with the time trial events.

The Mesa women’s time trial team of Katie Clouse, Olivia Cummins, Cassidy Hickey and Kate Seiler made a stirring comeback to win the event, averaging nearly 28 mph over 30.1 kilometers.

CMU Cassidy Hickey.jpg

Photos courtesy of Craig Huffman

Colorado Mesa University’s Cassidy Hickey celebrates as she crosses the finish line in first to win the Road Cycling National Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on Saturday. Hickey’s win helped the Mavericks claim the Road Cycling national title and that win also allowed CMU to win the overall omnium national title for the fourth time.

The team was trailing Marian and Fort Lewis by 30 seconds at the halfway mark, but made up the time to overtake Marian in the final meters to secure the win by less than one second.

Saturday was the grueling 65.2-mile road race that included a 16% incline on a climb fittingly named Heartbreak Hill. The race, outside Albuquerque, was two laps so riders had to take on the hill twice.

The women’s race came down to three riders sprinting to the finish with Hickey just edging in front of Lizzy Gunsalus of Marian and Fort Lewis rider Kylie Small for the victory in a time of 2 hours, 51.19 minutes.

It was Hickey’s first national championship.

Hickey had control of the race after establishing a lead of 1:30 after the first climb. But the other two riders closed the gap, turning the race into a final sprint to the line.

Clouse was part of the chase group, and she also sprinted to the line to claim fourth place. Ruby Ryan finished seventh for CMU. The entire CMU women’s team rode a strong race with Cummins in 10th, Seiler in 11th and Chloe Fraser in 15th.

In the men’s road race, CMU’s top finishers were Iver Skaarseth in ninth, Vaughn Veenendaal in 11th and Luke Elphingstone in 14th.

On Sunday, riders battled gusty winds on the 1.2-mile criterium race in Albuquerque.

The women had another close race with a group of 16 racing together for the final lap.

Stephanie Lawrence form Marian snagged the gold medal, beating Cummins to the line, with Clouse finishing in third in her final collegiate race for CMU. Hickey finished fourth in another strong race for the CMU women. The top seven riders in the criterium finished with basically the same time.

All drama in the men’s race was eliminated fairly early when Jonas Walton from Belmont Abbey College broke away from the pack after 25 minutes, holding his lead throughout and winning by more than a minute-and-a-half over the chase group.

Veenendaal and Keelen Caldwell from Fort Lewis broke away from the chase group and sprinted for the finish line with Caldwell just getting his wheel across first to claim second place over Veenendaal.

Elphingstone placed seventh and Aiden Lemorande finished 13th.

The championships wrapped up a stellar racing career for Clouse, who now has 10 national titles — making her the most successful CMU athlete in history.

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