Cycling team ready to race at state
In the first year of competition in two years, Utah State cyclists hope to carry the momentum from strong performances at the Park City race to the state championship race Saturday at Wheeler Farm in Salt Lake.
Utah State will send six of the top racers to the state championships this weekend, including Brad Buccambuso, Ira Tibbitts, Nate Stowers, Spence Roper, Clay Christensen and Sean Lanan.
The state championship competitors are primarily the best cyclists in Wasatch Front and are generally unaffiliated with a school, but the University of Utah historically has a team represented in the race.
In their first year back in competition and competing against riders with scholarships, the USU team members are optimistic on the national level.
“I definitely think we could win nationals this year,” Buccambuso said.
In the team’s last competition at the Park City Cycle Cross race on Oct. 22, Stowers took first place, Tibbitts took second and Christensen took sixth place in the B classification.
Stowers took the lead in the race in the first lap and held it for the remainder of the race.
Although Tibbitts had a slow start, he almost caught Stowers at the end and finished a considerable amount ahead of the third place finisher, Buccambuso said.
However, Buccambuso, the team’s most experienced rider, who competed in the highest level – A+ division – was in third place in the race when mechanical problems with his bike prevented him from finishing the race, Stowers said.
Buccambuso is the team’s most experienced rider and has competed in Europe, as well as winning junior nationals in high school.
But for a lot of the other riders, including Christensen and Tibbitts, this is their first year of competitive cycling.
“Ira is really strong,” Stowers said. “This is really his first year in racing and he’s doing awesome.”
In addition to organizing a competitive team, Buccambuso and Tibbitts, the two USU students primarily responsible for reorganizing the club, said the main purpose of the club is to raise awareness about cycling in the university and the community.
“We’re just excited to get people together to ride and see how much fun cycling is,” Buccambuso said.
Buccambuso said the cycling club has both a club and a team element.
He said the club is primarily to promote awareness and interest in cycling, with Buccambuso as the club’s president.
However, the team is organized for competition with Tibbitts being the team president.
Tibbitts said he would like to see more involvement from both men and women, but the team has significantly fewer women and wants to let women know they are welcome to join the club or compete on the team.
For those interested in participating, the team has a weekly calendar for both competitive and club events as well as information on joining at the team Web site, http://www.usu.edu/cycling.
-cmoffit@cc.usu.edu