Will she repeat? Rivera taking the 17-18 title in 2008 in Kansas City. © Joe Sales.
by Dave Sheek
After racing for only six years how does one earn 24 national titles? Coryn Rivera has accomplished more at seventeen years of age than most of us dream of in a lifetime. She is a fulltime student in her junior year at Pacific Coast High School and does not get any slack as her teachers expect the work done online with all her training and racing travels. With her main focus is racing the road with the Proman Hit Squad, she gathered some impressive results this year racing at the Elite level at bigger road races…all while pushing junior gears.
As the reigning National Champion, Rivera knows she is going to have a tough time going into Nationals this weekend. Last week in Portland she went up against her main competition, Kaitie Antonneau (see our previous interview with Antonneau), and came up short on day one, but came back day two to beat her rival on Sunday and get 10th overall in the Elite Women’s field. People thought Coryn was out for revenge on day two as race announcer Richard Freeze exclaimed that Coryn had destroyed her hotel room after her finishing behind Antonneau on day one.
I had to ask her about this event. “Are you kidding me? It’s totally true!” she explained. “I trashed my hotel room into bits and pieces.”
But then she laughs. “No…it was a total joke! I didn’t even stay in a hotel room. I had a wonderful host house a couple miles away and I had no intentions of trashing my room. I think Richard was trying to get the crowd fired up about me…ha!”
After finishing 20th last year in the Elite women Coryn said she ideally is shooting for a top ten finish but she says she’ll just see what happens. The first goal is to capture her 25th National title. And, looking further ahead, she has lofty ambitions.. “I really want to take this sport [of cycling] as far as humanly possible,” she reveals. “In the future I have one more year of Junior World Championships, and if I continue to progress then there is Elite World Cups, World Championships, and ultimately Olympics. For this season the goal is Cyclocross Nationals and that will finish up the year for me.”
Well, I have to admit I wanted to hear of this rock star living a rock stare-like life by actually destroying that hotel room, but this mild mannered dominator on two wheels seems to be doing just fine behaving the way she does now. Look for Coryn on the podium and cheer her on for her 25th National title. And if she doesn’t win? I suspect her host housing will be safe.
Team: Proman/Fuji
Hometown: Tustin, CA
Date of Birth: August 26, 1992 (Racing age: 18)
Highlights: 24 National Titles and 10th in the Elite at day two of the USGP: Portland
