FULL CYCLE

By DAN WEST

Dan.West@gjsentinel.com

The collegiate road cycling national championship event will be returning to Grand Junction in 2027 and 2028 and Powderhorn Mountain Resort will host the collegiate mountain biking national championships for the first time in 2025 and 2026.

Grand Junction Sports Commission Executive Director Ben Snyder announced the national events at a press conference Tuesday evening and touted the economic impact of sports tourism for the Grand Valley.

“In 2024, we’re on track to produce over $60 million of local tourism dollars through sports tourism,” Snyder said. “We’re really excited about that and I think with some of the announcements we have coming in 2025 we’ll be well ahead of that.”

USA Cycling Director of National Events Kyle Knott touted the Grand Valley for its scenic beauty and challenging cycling courses. He said USA Cycling had a great experience hosting the national road championships in Grand Junction in 2017 and 2018 and he was happy to bring them back.

“We look into coming into communities and making sure that we can have a lasting impact here,” Knott said. “With our collegiate cycling we’ve been here before and were great hosts in

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A Piedmont College cyclist leads the pack just after the start of the men’s race during the USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships in this 2018 file photo. On Tuesday, the Grand Junction Sports Commission announced the USA Cycling Collegiate Road National Championships will return in 2027-28 and Powderhorn Mountain Resort will host the collegiate mountain biking national championships in 2025 and 2026.

CHRISTOPHER TOMLINSON/ The Daily Sentinel

The Grand Junction Sports Commission unveiled two National Championship sporting events that will take place in the Grand Valley in the next couple of years at the Double Tree Hotel on Tuesday. Among events announced include Imondi Wake Zone and Highline Lake State Park hosting the 2025 World Wake Association’s Wake Park, Wakesurf and Wakeboard Championships, as well as Powderhorn Mountain Resort hosting the 2025 and 2026 USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike Championships, and the city hosting the 2027 and 2028 Collegiate Road National Championships.

LARRY ROBINSON/ The Daily Sentinel

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2017 for the collegiate road nationals. We’re excited to get back.”

Colorado Mesa University has found success in both mountain biking and road biking, Snyder said. He said he was glad to bring the cycling events here for the CMU cyclists.

“We need to start letting you guys race on their own course,” Snyder said.

CMU Cycling was represented at the press conference by coaches Patric Rostel and Brian Flaherty, as well as three cyclists who just helped the Mavericks win their fifth straight mountain biking national championship in Bentonville, Arkansas, over the weekend.

The Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships will be held Oct. 9-12 in 2025 and Oct. 8-11 in 2026 at Powderhorn. The Collegiate Road National Championships will be held May 6-9 in 2027 and May 5-7 in 2028.

Rostel said USA Cycling saw a lot of potential at Powderhorn. “They have great downhill trails and you can make good courses for cross country and short track,” he said.

Flaherty said the one thing missing for nationals at Powderhorn is the dual slalom course, but he said Powderhorn agreed to construct a course to accommodate the races. The dual course will be outside of the trees on one of the ski runs.

One thing that Rostel said he’s looking forward to with the road nationals returning is racing at home.

”We had road (cycling nationals) here in 2017 and ’18 it was awesome,” he said.

But there was one downer to those two years of racing on the streets and roads of Mesa County. The Mavericks finished second both years.

“We were still building our team up then and you really want to win at home, so now that nationals are coming back, we have the chance to redeem ourselves,” he said.

CMU cycling won the USA Collegiate Road Cycling Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last May, and have now won four straight overall collegiate cycling national titles.

WAKEBOARDING

In addition to the cycling events, Snyder announced that three wakeboarding national championship events would be held in 2025 at Highline Lake State Park and Imondi Wake Zone — Wake Park National Championships, Wakesurf Championships and Wakeboard National Championships. All three events will take place from July 30 to Aug. 3.

Snyder highlighted the partnerships the Sports Commission has had with Imondi Wake Zone and Highline Lake State Park. He said the wakeboarding championships alone would have been a major win for the Grand Valley.

World Wakeboard Association President Shannon Starling said he was excited to bring the events to the Grand Valley. He said the WWA holds events around the world, including recently in Dubai and Australia.

“I fell in love with this place when I came here,” Starling said. “My youngest son wants to move here, and it’s because of what’s around the event. When our people come in, we encourage them to experience the community, experience hiking, experience cycling, and a lot of our community mountain bikes.”

Imondi Wake Zone in particular is a unique facility, Starling said, as one of the few cable driven wake parks in the United States. He said the competitions will bring in 600 to 700 riders who will be competing for the national championships.

“We want them to enjoy the water,” Starling said. “We want to have the highest level of competition — that’s what we provide. But you guys are the ones that provide the experience, and that’s what keeps us coming back.”

Jennifer Stoll, the founder of the Grand Junction Sports Commission, spoke at the event about the history of the organization and its future. She said bringing the community together through sports has always been the vision of the organization.

“People look at Grand Junction and its unique offerings and it really has been a catalyst putting it on the map,” Stoll said. “So sticking to the vision of doing something good through the power of sport and the community you love is really what it’s all about, and that gets carried forward.”

Colorado Mesa’s Torbjorn Roed soars over a bump in this 2022 during the cross country race at the USAC Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships at Purgatory Resort. In 2025 and 2026, the Mavericks will race at home when the championships are held at Powderhorn Mountain Resort, according to an announcement Tuesday for the Grand Junction Sports Commission.

JERRY MCBRIDE/ Durango Herald

Trent Target, 19, hits a trick while being pulled by a pull rope system at Imondi Wake Zone on June 19. Wakeboarders from around the nation will flood into the Grand Valley in 2025 for a trio of national championships — Wake Park National Championships, Wakesurf Championships and Wakeboard National Championships. The announcement of the national events coming to the Grand Valley were made Tuesday by the Grand Junction Sports Commission.

LARRY ROBINSON/ The Daily Sentinel