USA-Cycling awarded CMU their back-to-back National Championship trophy last weekend in Augusta, Georgia. Colorado Mesa University has had a cycling program dating back to 1998. During the past 23 years, the cycling team elevated from a club sport team to a D1 varsity powerhouse program. The transition came in 2009 and for good reason. The Cycling program has an outstanding history of 55 individual National Champions, 12 team discipline National Champions and five overall Team Omnium National Championships.
The governing body, USA-Cycling, breaks up Collegiate Cycling into five disciplines: track, mountain, cyclo-cross, BMX and road nationals that accumulate points toward an overall "Omnium" National Champion. The Mavericks locked up the omnium title with a total 448 points on the season. Close behind was Marian University (Indiana) with 424 and Milligan University (Tennessee) with 411.
The 63 cycling student-athletes currently hold a cumulative 3.3 GPA and received 22 of the 80 All-American Academic honors this year. The team has represented students from South Africa, Germany, New Zealand, Colombia, Norway, Sweden, Canada, Mexico and the USA.
USA Cycling is a stand-alone organization outside NCAA sports. USA Cycling's preview consists of Varsity Collegiate, Club Collegiate, Professional, Para, Masters and Junior Cycling events.
"When our CMU students are not racing at collegiate races, they represent their professional teams in races around the world" said Reese Kegans, assistant athletic director. Outside of the collegiate season, one-third of the CMU cyclists compete professionally. Something that stands out about the CMU program is the dedication these students have to ride bikes year-round.
"I am beyond proud of this program and the accomplishments of these student-athletes and coaches. CMU Cycling has established a tradition of excellence and is the premier university of choice for collegiate cyclists looking for an education and state-of-the-art training facilities", said Kegans.
The program is graduating five seniors and is looking forward to well earned break before they start back up in August.