Hometown Girl Wins One, Almost Wins Another

By Cate Huisman, 10-23-09

Sandpoint native daughter Emma Millar gained a new national title and barely missed defending a second one at this past weekend’s Collegiate Mountain Bike National Championships at Northstar at Tahoe in Truckee, California.

Emma, a junior at Fort Lewis College, captured the four-cross championship after easily winning all her heats but then falling behind in the final. Four-cross is an event not for the faint of heart in which four riders compete on the same course at the same time. She captured the title by pulling to the inside of a steep, sharp switchback in a move that gave new gray hairs to her proud parents, Karen and Alan Millar, who had traveled from Sandpoint for a weekend of torture by observation.

After winning the title of national collegiate downhill championship at last year’s event in Banner Elk, North Carolina, Emma crashed in the final of this year’s contest. She hopped back on her bike and continued her desperate descent, but ended up seven seconds behind the leader for a second-place finish. Fortunately, only her thumb was injured in the crash—all that body armor really did pay off.

Emma’s first- and second-place finishes also contributed to Fort Lewis College’s win of the overall title for the fourth straight year.