UNM Cycling puts on first race of regional collegiate season

The long-time promoter says a new organizer will be needed for the event to be held again next year

by CHRISTOPHER DOWNS and JACK JACKSON

New Mexico isn’t known for its predictable weather in early March. So when Nina Baum schedules the first race of the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference series, she doesn’t plan for ideal weather.

Nevertheless the Lobo Classic bicycle race starts off the season for collegiate racers from New Mexico to Wyoming, and Baum has been the lead organizer and promoter of the race for the past five years. This year the event was held March 1-2.

Baum began helping promoting this race as a way to raise funds for the Lobo mountain bike team in 2002.

“I really like the collegiate scene,” Baum said. “It’s really different than the local scene, it’s a lot more encouraging.”

The International Balloon Fiesta Park hosted the second day of the race. The first day was in Bernalillo. That race was an individual effort and a team effort. It was race against the clock. Teams of four rode the course, using each other to block the wind, and many of the racers rode the course again by themselves, for individual results.

The time trials weren’t very spectator friendly, but the second day provided more entertainment.

Saturday, the day of the time trial, was windy but warm. It was a cold, windy and cloudy on the second day which was a challenge for the racers. Racers and spectators huddled in their cars and vans.

Team vans from Colorado dominated the parking lot. Colorado State, the University of Colorado, Colorado College, Colorado School of Mines, University of Denver, Fort Lewis College and the Air Force Academy all competed. Some may have come for the weather only to be surprised by the near freezing temperatures.

Sunday’s event had mass starts, meaning all racers of the same category start at the same time. Unlike the previous day’s race when riders went off one at a time in 30-second intervals, the day’s races start from least experienced racers to most experienced racers.

Sunday’s race format was known as a criterium. Criteriums are on a short -- less than one mile -- circuit and is raced for a specific amount of time, generally 30 minutes to an hour. Since the courses are short and there are many laps to be done, it is the most spectator friendly of road bike races.

The first race of the day saw the day’s first casualty: a crash caused by track conditions. A pothole on the backside sent a rider off his bike.

“He wasn’t injured, only a few scrapes,” said Baum, who happens to be the on-site medical person.

“It’s a good example of the way people are stretched in the jobs in this sport,” Baum said. “I’m so busy. I’m going in like 10 different directions.”

Baum raced for UNM from 2002 to 2004, the most successful era for the Lobo Cycling team. The team won the Mountain Bike Collegiate Nationals in 2004 and brought national recognition to the program.

But the last four years haven’t seen the UNM program grow.

“The UNM team is a victim of attrition,” Baum said.

As she and the other successful UNM racers graduated and moved on, the legacy wasn’t carried on by other riders.

When teams like Fort Lewis in Durango, Colo. bring 16 racers down and UNM can barely get four racers, it’s hard to compete, Baum said. Cycling in Colorado has a longer history and is a destination for many prospering cyclist.

Jesse Giordano, a UNM architecture graduate student, has been racing for the past five years, and only this year did he race for UNM at the Lobo Classic. He and Matt Beck were the only two UNM racers in the final collegiate race of the day.

“The [UNM] team just isn’t talked about that much, so it’s not something I’ve sought out,” Giordano said.

Beck said he has been trying to get the team organized but between school and his own training, it’s been difficult.

Baum notes that it’s hard to get into bicycling, especially for young college students. “It’s cost prohibitive for a college freshman to get into cycling,” Baum said.

But as the sport gains in popularity more young racers are getting involved.

Stephen Williamson runs a team specifically organized for cyclists under 18. Williams wants to build a system so that young riders can start with his New Mexico Multisports Junior and Espoir Development Team and progress to the collegiate scene and, hopefully, on to the professional circuit, he said. Currently Williamson has around 20 juniors on the team.

Every year Baum has organized the event she has had junior specific categories. This year junior racers came from as far away as Amarillo, Texas. Baum cites Williamson’s promotion of junior racing as the reason for the 17 juniors who showed up to race.

Although Baum didn’t start racing as a junior, she did use her experience on the UNM team as a springboard into professional racing. She said that that was how she was exposed to the professional team she’s riding for now.

Collegiate cycling is not an NCAA sport, so many of the regulations that football, basketball and other major sports have don’t apply to collegiate cyclists. The biggest difference may be that cyclists can ride for a professional team as well as a college team. This is the case for many of the strong racers coming from Colorado.

“Collegiate cycling is a mellower atmosphere where the professionals can mix with the people who are just picking it up,” Baum said.

The comradery was evident. Cyclists from different schools chatted with each another and caught up on the season past.

For many of them it was the first time they had seen each other since the end of the season last May.

The conversation, that day, was about the weather and as the day went on it stayed cold and windy. Even as afternoon came racers and spectators watched from the comfort of their cars. The crowds gathered around the start line and then headed back to their cars once the racers were off. They gathered again for the finish of each race.

The competitiveness stays on the road. Once the race is over everyone congratulates each other, acknowledging each other’s efforts.

This year’s Lobo Classic saw 40 more racers than last year and nearly 100 more than the year before that. Even with the growth, Baum said she doesn’t know how much longer she can continue to organize and promote the event.

“I think it’s probably going to die, unfortunately,” Baum said. “If someone is interested in bringing it back to life in a few years or even next year, if any one contacts me, I’ll help.”

But for now most of the racers are looking toward their next race -- and warmer weather.

Written March 13, 2008

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