Smart and Fast: The D1 Collegiate omnium podium. © Matt Lasala
When the collegiate racers battled it out in the relay on Friday, they weren’t just battling for school pride. Nor were they when Kaitie Antonneau and Kerry Werner took the D1 wins on Saturday and Sunday, respectively; and the same went for Christina Birch and Lewis Gaffney as they took the D2 wins.
Their schools were fighting for the overall collegiate title, and Marian won the D1 Division, while Brevard took the D2 overall win.
This year, it was about more than just individual race performances in the omnium scoring, as the 2014 Cyclocross National Championships featured a first-ever cyclocross team relay that required at least two racers, one male, one female, from a school to race the four-lap race. It was a nice, flexible format that allowed smaller schools to compete, while larger teams could enter two male and two female racers to do one lap each. See the full rules here.
Marian University won the collegiate relay, helping it build a lead over its rivals heading into the weekend’s individual races.
The interesting aspect of the relay was that it was not broken into D1 or D2 races, giving a small school a great chance to gather valuable point gaps over their D2 rivals heading into the weekend, and it showed. Brevard, finishing third in the relay behind two D1 schools in Marian University and Fort Lewis College, with the next D2 school in Rippon finishing sixth, would go on to win the D2 title.
With such scoring importance put on the relay, we’re excited to see the event return to Austin in 2015 with new strategies and more entrants.
Many of us believe the key to healthy growth in our sport is junior cycling, and while it certainly is an channel of new racers, collegiate cycling is an invaluable ecosystem to bring more people into cycling and cyclocross. Because of the built-in peer support of collegiate teams, and the continuous influx of new potential racers and team leadership, it’s undervalued and under-recognized in terms of its importance.
Collegiate racing falls under the radar of most at the Cyclocross National Championships, but for many of these athletes, it’s the highlight of the year. With the new relay and a suspense-filled scoring system, perhaps it will become the highlight for more fans as well.
2014 Collegiate Cyclocross Omnium Results - Division 1
2014 Collegiate Cyclocross Omnium Results - Division 2
For more 2014 Cyclocross National Championships coverage, please visit our 2014 Nationals page.
