 Junior geography major Andrew E. Muller flies off a jump during the team's met in Truckee, Calif. The meet took place Oct. 16 through Oct. 19. Photo by Caroline Westray
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by MARC WALKER
Intern Sports Reporter
Four minutes and 13 seconds is not a lot of time—most people could complete simple tasks such as brushing their teeth or reading a page or two out of a textbook. Senior geography major Michael B. Thomas, however, can win a downhill mountain bike nationals race in the same amount of time.
With the USA cycling collegiate nationals held in Truckee, Calif. from Oct. 16 to Oct. 19, Thomas was the only one of the athletes from Appalachian State to claim a title. In fact, he was one of only four champions of 174 riders in the Division II races.
Steven M. Trottier, sophomore building sciences major, took seventh in the downhill race with a time of four minutes and thirty seconds. The downhill race is an individual race against the clock, one rider on a time trial.
“This is what we’ve been working up to all year and we made it count, we got one national champion,” he said.
A heavy
rainfall prior to the event soaked the ground in the Truckee courses,
giving Appalachian riders an advantage. Generally the land there is
dusty, but because of the rain, racing conditions were similar to
Boone’s soil.
The
price of a flight to California combined with the expense of staying in
a hotel restricted the amount of participants ASU could take to
nationals.
However, seven riders were able to attend: one female and
six males.
 Sophomore building science major Steven M. Trottier weaves in between rocks at the downhill course in Truckee, Calif. Photo by Caroline Westray
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Senior
recreation management major Daniel W. Sapp competed in both the cross
country and short track races; however, due to mechanical conditions he
was only able to complete the short track race.
Although
the mountain biking season is over, the cyclocross season is just
beginning, and Sapp is one of the few riders who race in both
categories.
“We’ve
trained all season, it’s a non-stop thing,” Sapp said. “It’s a huge
deal to able to go [to nationals] because you are competing with people
at the highest level of the sport.”
With
five different racing competitions—cross country, downhill, four cross,
omnium and short track—there are a wide variety of racers present at
nationals. Ranging from a BMX downhill style to lap-counted races, four
days were necessary for the national championship.
“It’s
pretty crazy,” Thomas said. “I won [the championship] in Banner Elk
last year; that was pretty crazy. [I’ve] been training for a whole year
and to do it on the East coast and the West coast it’s been awesome.
Being the reigning champion, I had to win or any other place I would
have been disappointed.”
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