Summit County will be well represented at the Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championship in Angel Fire, N.M., as senior Katie Sodergren and junior Kevin Kane are set to race for the University of Colorado next weekend.

“It's been a great season,” Sodergren said. “I feel like I'm in some of the best shape that I've been in. The weather has been great at all of our races. My legs feel great and it's just a great group of kids to go out and race with every weekend. I'm out there having fun the whole time.”

Kane was busy studying in the library this week, but he sent a text message to the Summit Daily saying, “Yeah, Katie will be all humble about it, but she's riding like a boss. The hard work has been paying off for her. She has a good chance at Nats the way she's been riding.”

Kane also said he's not in tip-top form heading into the championship. He's taken a lot of time off since the Breck Epic and had a bit of an injury-plagued collegiate season, so Sodergren might be the local to watch.

Sodergren has been competing in the college races since school went back into session this fall. She's won a couple and most recently took second at the Ft. Lewis Squawker Mountain Bike Classic in Durango this past weekend. The finish was enough to earn the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference championship crown.

Nationals, of course, will be an even tougher level of competition, but Sodergren knows the routine having already competed at the event three times. For this, her final season of collegiate racing, she'd like a podium or better.

Sodergren joined the cycling club at CU as a way to simply keep playing sports after high school. She won her first couple races on the B squad and was quickly urged to join the A team for the club sport. She earned a trip to nationals in her first season, taking 24th, then improved to 14th her sophomore year and fourth in her junior year.

Asked whether she's the fastest at CU, Sodergren bashfully said, “I guess so. … There's a group of five or six of us girls (in the conference) that are in the same range and kind of battle it out.”

She said her favorite race of the season was hosted by Wyoming in Steamboat because it had a really long climb and a fast, technical descent, which plays to her strengths.

“The Angel Fire course — the Mountain States Cup Series hosts a race down there, and it's actually one of my favorite races overall. I'm really excited that the national championship is being held in a place that's kind of like my backyard. I would really like to podium and see where it takes me.”