USA Cycling’s College Nats Go To Angel Fire

The 2011 and 2012 Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships have found a home for the next two years — New Mexico’s Angel Fire Resort.

After unanticipated difficulties forced the Timberline Resort in Davis, West Virginia to step down as host of collegiate nats this spring, USA Cycling started a search for a new venue. Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort in Truckee, California had hosted the event the last two years.
Now Angel Fire will host racing in 2011 and 2012 on their originally scheduled weekends of October 28-30, 2011 and October 26-28, 2012.

Nestled in northern New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains, just 25 miles from Taos, the Angel Fire Resort is known as a hot spot for mountain biking. The resort’s bike park has played host to the UCI mountain bike World Cup in 2005 and the USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships in 2006. It also annually puts on the popular Chile Challenge Mountain States Cup event.

Now, the venue is fresh off of a major expansion that saw it add 29 miles of new and enhanced trails this spring. It will offer a wide variety of technical terrain for coeds to compete on for national titles in the cross-country, short-track cross-country, downhill, and dual slalom events.

“Angel Fire is the perfect backdrop for the Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships,” explains Hogan Koesis, director of the mountain bike park at Angel Fire Resort. “Our extensive trail network and rugged terrain will offer the riders the best location and conditions. Bringing this caliber of a race to New Mexico is great for our state and we are thrilled to be working closely again with USA Cycling.”