The defending national champion and No. 2-ranked University of Colorado ski team was tied for fifth place after Wednesday’s first day of the NCAA championships in Bozeman, Mont. The big surprise was that No. 4 Dartmouth took the lead after the nordic classical races at Bohart Ranch. The Mean Green had 214 points, CU had 154, and the University of Denver was seventh with 118.
CU’s best results were a fifth by Rune Oedegaard in the men’s 10-kilometer freestyle and a sixth by Joanne Reid in the women’s 5K freestyle. DU did not place anyone in the top 10 in either race.
Phinney misses stage. Boulder’s Taylor Phinney was forced out of the Paris-Nice race before Stage 4 started by the same ailment, gastroenteritis, that knocked out one of cycling’s biggest names — Andy Schleck — the day before. Phinney tweeted that he woke up at 2:30 a.m. and got ill.
Heinrich Haussler of Australia finished 13th in the stage for Boulder-based Team Garmin-Barracuda. Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain led the overall standings by six seconds over Levi Leipheimer of the United States and by 11 seconds over American and Phinney’s BMC teammate Tejay Van Garderen.
Denver Post staff
