Rick Crawford and his Fort Lewis College mountain-bike team rolled into the 2007 USA Cycling mountain-bike national championships toting a secret weapon — German mountain biker Ben Sonntag. When they left the race, held October 26-28 at Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina, the Skyhawks had their second-consecutive Division I team title, and Sonntag had the individual championship.

Sonntag is a former Nordic skiing ace and two-time world champion in the sport of winter triathlon. After racing mountain bikes professionally during the summer of 2007, he decided to return to school in the United States and picked Fort Lewis. At the beginning of the school year he showed up at Crawford’s office inquiring about the team.

Crawford, who helped Todd Wells and Tom Danielson transition from the collegiate to the pro ranks, believes Sonntag has more than enough talent to forge a career as a cyclist. VeloNews caught up with Crawford to talk about the German prodigy.

VeloNews.com: How did you learn about Ben Sonntag?

Rick Crawford: I heard about him before I met him — people were talking about this German kid who was kicking everybody’s butt on the local club ride. I mean, the Durango ride is fast, you have Todd [Wells] and Ned [Overend] and [Matt] Shriver out there and I guess he was having his way with them. I was like ‘Wow — is he in school?’

He started coming to the team meetings — he was this super nice kid with the thick heavy German accent. You’d never guess he’s 27 — he looks 17. He looks like a young Jens Voigt.

VN:As a coach, what do you think his potential is?

RC: Ben is a huge talent — I’m talking huge on a monumental scale. I’m intrigued by him — he is a Tom Danielson-like enigma. He is older and has all of this talent and is open to being developed, like Danielson. His physiology is already developed from skiing, but he’s 27 and still undeveloped as a cyclist for such an old guy. I’m excited – it’s a very unconventional approach. How do you get a 27-year-old with a ton of talent to race at a high level? My knee-jerk response is that if he is receptive he can bash the door down.

VN: What are his strengths?

RC: He is definitely a climber, no question about that. That’s where his raw power shows itself. I haven’t seen a weak point on him so far. He won races on flat and hilly courses, and he’s also the fastest runner in Durango, period.

VN: The Fort Lewis team is always strong, and I understand Ben was injured for much of the season. Was it ever a question of whether he would make the nationals team?

RC: At the beginning of the season there was no question that he was going. He can win anything. But when he broke his wrist he was questionable because he missed almost all of the season. A bunch of guys wanted to go to nationals. We have a really competitive team here. We could have had the best team at nationals, probably without Ben Sonntag.

But I looked at the criteria for making the team and told him he basically needed to win the last two races of the year to go. He said okay. We had a selection race in Durango for the guys on the bubble of making the team — it was a technical, greasy muddy course like what we’d see in North Carolina and Ben killed it easily even with the cast on his hand. Then he did the conference finals in Gunnison and won the cross-country and short track out there and that confirmed what I already knew.

We base seniority on the team off of results, participation and club activities, but when you win everything you start, you should definitely go.

VN: It sounds like he’s going to ride on the road with the team in the spring.

RC: Yeah, it will be a gentle introduction to the road for him. I’m already ready to take him to the Tour of the Gila and send him up the Mogollon. A hard, selective race will show what he can do. On his power alone, if you put him on a TT bike he’d be fine. If you tell him to go uphill, boy, watch out. But if he’s on a flat road and it’s a tactical [road] race, well it’s just a matter of teaching him how to hide from the wind and how to be savvy and stuff. He already has such a developed physiology, now its just about teaching him how to ride with it. A lot of work has to be done, but he has the talent to be on a very steep trajectory toward success.

He’s 27, so if he wants the cycling community to recognize his talent he needs to knock the door down. I’m just happy he came to Fort Lewis. He’s a gift, a treasure of genetics.

You can read more about Ben Sonntag in VeloNews issue No. 21.

Kabush, Gould win Inaugural USA Cycling Cross-country Calendar titles
Canadian Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) and American Georgia Gould (Luna) have won the inaugural USA Cycling Mountain-bike National cross-country calendar titles. In its first year the series included 29 cross-country races from across the nation, including all six rounds of the National Mountain Bike Series.

Kabush won four of six NMBS rounds as well as the 2007 Sea Otter Classic to take the title ahead of American Todd Wells (GT), 500-455. In doing so he also grabbed his third-career NMBS cross-country title.

Gould took the title after sweeping the six rounds of the NMBS — the first person to do so since the great Juli Furtado did in 1993. The American also won the Sea Otter Classic en route to besting second-place Willow Koerber (Subaru-Gary Fisher), 650-361.

The USA Cycling Mountain-bike National Calendars debuted in 2007 as a way to organize the country’s best-organized mountain-bike races in a single series.

2007 USA Cycling Cross-country Calendar
Men
1. Geoff Kabush (Can), Maxxis, 500 points
2. Todd Wells, GT, 445
3. Jeremiah Bishop, Trek-Volkswagen, 400
4. Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Subaru-Gary Fisher, 399
5. Adam Craig, Giant, 365

Women
1. Georgia Gould, Luna, 650
2. Willow Koerber, Subaru-Gary Fisher, 361
3. Shonny Vanlandingham, Luna, 335
4. Katerina Nash (Cz), Luna, 325
5. Heather Irmiger, Subaru-Gary Fisher 305

BC Bike Race Registration 50 percent Sold Out
The second-annual BC Bike race has sold out half of its 400 slots.The 2008 race runs June 28-July 4 and includes competition between teamsof two and four. The seven-day race covers 600 kilometers in total distance.For more information check out www.bcbikerace.com.

Smith Third, Vanlandingham Fourth at Xterra World Championships
Luna professional women’s mountain-bike racer Shonny Vanlandinghamfinished fourth at the 2007 Xterra triathlon world championships, heldOctober 28 in Maui, Hawaii. The three-time NMBS cross-country champ crossedthe finish line in 3:12:44, 11 minutes down on race winner Julie Dibensof Great Britain.

Vanlandingham, who will split time between mountain-bike racing andXterra triathlons in 2008, had previously finished 7th place at the Xterrachampionships in 2006. This year the Durango, Colorado native posted thefastest bike split amongst professional women.

Former Ford Racing pro Dara Marks-Marino, who represented the UnitedStates at the 2006 UCI mountain-bike world championships in Rotorua, NewZealand, finished sixth.

Another Coloradan, Brian Smith of Gunnison, finished third place inthe men’s race. Smith splits his time between racing Xterra triathlonsand mountain-bike races with the Trek-Volkswagen rocky mountain regionalteam. Smith used the fastest men’s bike split of the day to roll to a finishingtime of 2:42:35, 1:41 down on winner Conrad Stoltz of South Africa.

Santa Cruz Syndicate Signs Bryceland
Santa Cruz Syndicate has added reigning UCI World Cup Junior DownhillChampion and British National Junior Downhill Champion Josh Bryceland toits roster for 2008. the 17-year-old Bryceland hails from Manchester, England,and has worked with Steve Peat over the past few years to refine his downhillskills.

“My goals for ’08 are to consistently place top 15 at World Cups andto podium at World Champs,” Bryceland said.

Peat said he is excited to have his protégé on board for2008 to ride alongside himself and teammate Nathan Rennie.

“I have been helping Josh out for a long time now and I like what Isee,” Peat said. “He is already an amazing rider at a young age and I thinkhe will flourish riding along side Rennie and myself.”

Trans Alps, TransGermany Announce 2008 Schedules
Organizers have pushed back the 2008 Jeantex TransAlp Challenge dueto a conflict with the UEFA Football tournament in Austria and Switzerland.The 11th running of the TransAlp will now take place from July 19-26 2008.For more information check www.bike-transalp.de.

The TransAlp’s sister race, the TransGermany, will run May 31 throughJune 6. For more information check www.bike-transgermany.de.