The Steamboat Springs cycling community certainly made an impression last weekend at the Sol Survivor state mountain biking competition.

The event - part of the Mountain States Cup biking series - took place at the SolVista Basin near Granby and featured several members from the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club's elite cycling club, as well as cycling stalwarts from throughout the community.

All told, Steamboat brought home eight podium finishes.

Racing for the elite cycling club in the junior sport girls division, Linnea Dixson finished first, Jamie Gay finished second and Sarah Dixson finished third in the cross-country event. In the junior sport boys division, Sean Geisler finished second and Jeffrey Gay finished 12th.

Veteran racers Brad Bingham and Adam Spector each won their division in the cross-country races, while Adam Parke won the cross country in the junior expert men and finished third in the Super D event - a mass-start downhill race.

Barkley Robinson finished 10th in the pro men division.

"We're really starting to put Steamboat on the map as far as competitive cycling goes," said Ben Clark, program director for the Winter Sports Club cycling club.

Clark, who has helped lead the program for the past three years, said membership has continued to climb.

In addition to six members of the elite program, the cycling club has 14 racers in its developmental program and more than 65 in its youth program, which is designed for riders between the ages of 7 and 10.

The team already competed in a race at Winter Park earlier in the year - putting all its riders on the podium - and has races in Eldora at the end of August and Breckenridge the first week of September.

Clark said the course in SolVista played into the hands of the Steamboat riders, as it was relatively flatter and featured only one significant climb. He said going into the event, he was confident Steamboat would see several riders on the podium.

"It's amazing to me. It's really exciting," Clark said of the results. "I think we have world-class cycling here. People are definitely starting to take notice with how the kids are doing."

- To reach Luke Graham, call 871-4229 or e-mail lgraham@steamboatpilot.com