GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — The Piedmont cycling team roared into Colorado and captured two individual national championships by way of Erica Allar and one team championship.
The Lions sent six riders to the championships (May 4-6), including Allar and Megan Heath on the women's side and Dylan Cantrell, Andrew Guelzo, Conley Wilhelm and Lachlan Holliday on the men's side. The Lions competed in the all three events of the omnium (road racing, team time trials and criterium).
Allar earned the women's criterium (crit) and individual omnium titles while Piedmont captured the varsity Division II omnium team title.
The racing kicked off with the women's road race which consisted of three laps around a 17-mile loop outside of Grand Junction. The altitude and climbing proved to be too challenging as Allar was unable to defend her national championship and finished ninth.
Heath finished 13th in her first national championship event for Piedmont.
The four-lap men's race began with two riders breaking away from the pack for nearly half the race and despite many chase attempts, the break-away stayed. Facing the heat and altitude, Holliday led the Lions with a 15th place finish while Cantrell, who was taken out of contention with a crash, managed to resume racing and finished 34th.
Guelzo rounded out the day with a 36th place finish.
The following day, the men took to the 19-mile team time trial event and rode to a seventh place finish.
Piedmont entered the final day of racing in second place in the varsity Division II omnium and looked to finish the day as national champions. The crit race was all that stood in the way of the that chance.
The crit race took place in downtown Grand Junction on an L-shaped, 0.8 mile flat course. The women raced for 70 minutes while the men rode for 80 minutes.
Allar defended her national championship in the race despite many attempts from Marian University and Colorado Mesa University. With the win, Allar totaled enough points to take the individual women's varsity omnium title, giving her two national championships for the weekend.
Heath raced to an eighth place finish and ended up in eighth in the individual omnium.
Piedmont still trailed in the team omnium by 15 points entering the men's crit. The men's race began in the midday heat and within the first half of the race, close to one-third of the riders had dropped out of the race.
The Lions gained several points during the race and despite several break-away efforts, the race finished in a bunch sprint. Holliday led the Lions with an eighth place finish while Cantrell finished 11th and Guelzo finished 14th.
The mid-race points and points from the crit results were enough to give Piedmont the varsity Division II team omnium championship.
The Lions will take a short break from racing and the cyclists will switch their focus to track racing over the summer.
