CMU Cycling Team Revives Momentum

Photo courtesy of CMU Cycling

In 2019, the Colorado Mesa University (CMU) cycling team snagged a lifetime achievement when they won the national title. In 2014, CMU was approached by USA Cycling about moving out of the club cycling division and into the varsity division. Despite being a smaller school, they took the plunge and spent the next five seasons fighting towards (and making it to) the top. As CMU Cycling director Brian Flaherty puts it, “Everything was working. The recruiting cycle was going smoothly, athletes were stepping up and training was going well.” Then, COVID-19 happened. Race cancelations for the 2020-2021 season started rolling in. The university moved everything online. And, it all came to a grinding halt.

As a program, CMU Cycling supports all five disciplines under USA Cycling: road, track, mountain bike, cyclo-cross and BMX. For the past seven years, Flaherty has coached, recruited and helped manage all of the moving parts it takes to keep the program going and growing, but the pandemic presented new obstacles.

“It was challenging having so much momentum in earning awards, winning races, gaining community support and then watching that momentum fade away,” admits Flaherty.

With the entire race calendar canceled for 2021, the program had to do some rebranding. “We wanted to make sure our athletes were supported as students, too,” Flaherty says. “It’s just as important that they had help from us in getting their degree.” From letters of recommendation to flexible training plans, Flaherty strove to ensure that students were supported.

For athletes, the cancelations were especially bitter. Dalton Walters, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering at CMU and cyclist in road and track divisions, said the cancellations “brought on a lot of sadness.” Walters, who spent the summer “training like crazy,” in hopes that a race could still happen ultimately saw his collegiate cycling career cut short.

What wasn’t unusual was the team’s companionship. Walters says that the tight-knit and supportive environment of the CMU team are aspects that set it apart from other teams. “Biking is very much a team sport,” Walters says. “When we’re in training or we’re in a race situation, we take it very seriously and push each other, but we also hang out all the time. It’s been the foundation for some really strong friendships.”

Freshman Ruby Ryan, an exercise science major and biker for CMU in the cross-country and road disciplines, came all the way to CMU from New Zealand. Although she considered other schools in her college search, Ryan says, “CMU was the best fit. I could just tell.” She also attributes part of the team’s successes to its inclusiveness. “I love how close our team is. We eat, ride and study together. They are my best friends at college,” she adds.

Thankfully, as an outdoor sport, cycling was able to make a comeback for training, and with safety protocols in place, races started to make a comeback, too. With the university helping formulate ways to make travel and competition safe, and other universities operating with similarly strict protocols, the cycling team has been able to “keep one foot in the door” with competitions, ensuring that each cycling group has at least one weekend where they are able to travel and compete.

And, the future is looking bright. Recruiting was “surprisingly not that difficult,” laughs Flaherty. Even with no race schedule to sell, the volume of recruiting questionnaires submitted was the highest it has ever been. “It felt good to see that,” says Flaherty, “That people want to be here even without the racing element — want to be at CMU and in Grand Junction.”

Flaherty is optimistic that September will bring the track cycling national championships and championships in other disciplines in the following months. However, he points out “moving athletes and bikes across the country is no small task,” and the obstacles have only increased since COVID-19.

Although Walters will leave Grand Junction and head to California for an engineering internship this summer, there’s lots of biking left to be done. Walters will still be training full time with plans to contest the national title at the track cycling nationals and, ultimately, to be considered for the USA Cycling National Team.

Ryan is ready for “some pre-COVID normality to return” and says she’s looking forward to traveling with the team and racing a full schedule (especially nationals), as well as becoming more experienced and stronger.

“I’ve already noticed such a difference being under this team environment and coaching,” says Ryan.

Flaherty credits the support of the university, the biking community in Grand Junction and of course the resilient cyclists for the buoyancy of the program amid the chaos of this season. CMU Cycling looks forward to welcoming 25 incoming freshmen for the 2021-2022 school year — their largest recruitment class yet — and, hopefully, another national title.

Originally published in the Summer 2021 issue.