USA Cycling Collegiate Nationals: Congratulations Marian University and Whitman College

At this year's USA Cycling Collegiate National Championships in Wisconsin, Marian University of Indianapolis, Indiana took home the Division I title, and Whitman College of Walla Walla, Washington got the Division II title! Robert Bush of Marian also brought home the individual national champion jersey for Division One. Congrats to both teams, who each use TrainingPeaks and WKO+ software as part of their training strategy. All the hard work seems to have paid off in these recent victories!

For both Marian and Whitman, the results came down to the final event of the weekend, a four-person team time trial. Only ten points separated the top two Division 1 schools, but both the men and women at Marian posted the fastest team times to pull into the overall lead. Whitman also managed to stay ahead in the final event, overcoming a close competition with Mesa State from Grand Junction, Colorado.

Marian's time trial team included Robert Bush, Zach McBride, Adam Leibovitz, and David Williams, who worked together to post the fastest time of the day of 36:23, over a minute faster than their rival team from Lees-McRae. The women's race was much closer, with Marian's ladies coming in just ten seconds ahead of the Lees-McRae girls.

In Whitman's case, somewhat of the opposite occurred, with the women's team winning the time trial over Mesa State's fifth place finish to claim the overall victory, while the men had a more difficult battle with Mesa State. Although the men did not beat Mesa State in the team time trial, they managed to hold on for the overall victory by limiting their losses in the omnium and posting strong performances all of the weekend's events.

Congratulations again to Marian University and Whitman College! Read more on Velonews