Povolny chats with Assistant Coach Alex Winnicki after Saturday's race.
Mountain bikers land on podium at first races of ACCC season in Roanoke, Blacksburg
8/29/2023 4:38:00 PM | Cycling
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James Povolny and Hadden Beykirch competed in Men's Class A while Christian 'Leif' Henriksen won both Men's B races.
For the first time in the nine years Liberty University has offered a Club Sports cycling team, the Flames have multiple men competing in this fall's Atlantic Collegiate Cycling Conference (ACCC) mountain bike series. A trio of off-road riders experienced auspicious starts by staging podium finishes in both Saturday's "Go Noke!" cross-country races at Explore Park near Roanoke, Va., and Sunday's short circuit event hosted by Virginia Tech near Blacksburg, Va.
Sophomore James Povolny, who won the ACCC road championships last spring, carried momentum from last season's success into Saturday's Collegiate Men's A race, which featured approximately 25 contestants from Appalachian State (N.C.), King University (Tenn.), Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia, the College of William & Mary, and host Roanoke College.
Povolny fended off App State's Paul Vrouwenvelder on a final climb and sprint to the finish line before Liberty freshman Hadden Beykirch placed third just over a minute behind on the 18-mile course (four 4.5-mile laps).
"I honestly surprised myself a little bit, but (Assistant Coach) Alex (Winnicki) has been helping me train all summer and we've been getting ready," Povolny said. "By the end of the second lap, I found out I was in third. I didn't know I was that far up. So, I just figured as long as I could pull away from the guys behind me, that would be fine. Then Alex told me I was close to first, so I thought, 'All right, I've got to make the push to catch them.' I tried to keep it steady and tried to be disciplined as far as how I used my energy."
Beykirch, who is from near Park City, Utah, has trained with USA Cycling Athlete Development Pathway (ADP) mountain bikers in Colorado Springs, Colo. Last March, at the age of 18, he and his teammate, Noah Warren, became the youngest to complete the ABSA Cape Epic, a grueling, eight-day off-road race in South Africa with nearly 50,000 feet of climbing over 424 miles.
Though he had trained in the mountains near Brevard, N.C., for the Cape Epic race, Beykirch said it still was an adjustment to ride along the East Coast terrain offered at Explore Park.
"I live in the desert where it is typically a lot steeper and sandier," he said. "This was not as steep. It's just a different style. (In Utah), it's single track, with bigger mountains. Here, it was a lot of single track and it's technical and the rocks and roots are different."
Beykirch, who has aspirations of competing on Team USA's mountain bike team, enrolled in Liberty's School of Aeronautics in early August, after meeting Winnicki, who served as the ADP's dietician this summer, at the July 5-9 USA Cycling Mountain Bike Cross-Country National Championships at Bear Creek Resort in Macungie, Pa. Beykirch raced in the U-23 professional division while Povolny placed fourth in the 19-24 men's category.
Christian Leif Henriksen won the Men's B race.
Christian Leif Henriksen, a freshman from Fredericksburg, Va., studying biomedical sciences (pre-med), won Saturday's Men's B race against a smaller field.
"This was my first collegiate race … and it was extremely successful," he said. "I passed a bunch of A riders and I just pushed my hardest. I was at a little disadvantage, because I was riding a hard-tail (mountain bike) whereas most of the other riders were on full-suspensions."
Henriksen won Sunday's short-track B race in Blacksburg, Va., and Povolny and Beykirch finished second and third, respectively, in the A race.
"I'm really excited," Henriksen said. "It should be a great season. We'll see if I can race A in the future … (and) I'm hoping to qualify for (USA Cycling Collegiate Mountain Bike) Nationals," set for Oct. 12-15 in Ride Rock Creek, N.C.
This Saturday and Sunday, the trio and Head Coach Timo Budarz and Winnicki will travel to Charlottesville for the Third Cavalier MTB Classic, hosted by the University of Virginia.
