It’s a 5 a.m. arrival for me. I roll into a completely dark park with nothing but fog looming about. After driving for what seemed to be too far, I was lucky enough to run into a camper headed to the bathroom. They pointed me in the right direction and off I went. Without the camper, I very possibly would have been lost for quite some time. It was nice to see all of the campers that lined the edges of the woods, knowing full well what they were waking to.
Well, this looks like a good spot I thought to myself, not knowing exactly what “this” spot was…It turned out to be directly in front of the athlete corral for lining up. PERFECT, NAILED IT!
The sun breaks and I head into the trails to see exactly what our athletes will be dealing with in a few hours. After I figure out the direction of the race I dive in and across the start line, into the grass and WHAM right into a tight left-right! Whoa, I think immediately that this could be a possible bottleneck and take note to talk to the athletes about it.
Off the grass and into the single track. Initial thoughts were “WOW! This is tight and dry, almost like hero dirt!” Hold that thought! Ha! Later in the track, the turns become a little slicker and can be problematic. After running two laps, I have enough ammo to talk to the athletes about what to expect. This is a course that will mostly challenge their turning skills and ability to throw down short bursts of power, all while maintaining traction in the slick sections.
It’s not yet 7a.m. and the team is filtering in and start assembling near the Team tent. I can see the anticipation and anxiety amongst them. I can’t wait to see the day unfold. A total of 14 athletes are there to represent R-Cubed NICA Composite.
There is a perfect split, 7 middle school athletes and 7 high school. Some have been here before and know exactly what to expect, while others have only been out in the woods on a bike maybe three or four times and this will be their first competition. Most are in between and I know them well enough to guess what must be going through their minds.
After the pre-ride we have a few discussions about what to expect and how to keep on the trail safely. All of the athletes did so well on the pre-ride, I could tell that there was going to be few issues if any.
The time has come and they are lining up. Some for the first time EVER! I can see they are excited, nervous and anxious. A quick good luck to each and off they go!
The freshman are on the course first, followed by the middle school athletes. Erin and Collin representing our freshman, they are out and look confident. By the first lap Erin had a commanding lead and had even moved herself up to fourth place overall among the boy’s freshman race! As she is about to go across the start/finish line I tell her to take a breath and just bring it in safely now. Without issue, Erin brought it in finishing first place freshman girls and even retained a fifth overall.
Collin is out there doing his thing and moving through the crowd swiftly. He was making it look easy with the confidence he was displaying. Collin bringing his race in for a solid 10th place finish!
Middle School Race recap:
Trinity Taylor led the Middle School in team points finishing third in the 8th grade Girls race. She began the race with a huge smile on her face, and stated “I'm smiling because I’m scared.” She had nothing to be scared of and raced strong.
Early morning, John taps me on the shoulder "Coach, my bike isn't shifting". Indeed, John's bike had seen better days. I do my best to bring the shifting back to life, even with this small myrical, John and I knew that this bike was on it's last leg. Determined as he is, this didn't stop him for one second and he set out for a big finish. John Had a really strong start to his season, bringing home a podium finish and second highest team points.
Placing third in team points was Ethan Higgins. Somewhere along Ethan's race he went down. This usually isn't all that much of an issue, but just as Ethan went down, he was quickly run over by the racer behind him. With some pretty good scrapes, Ethan got up, took inventory of his injuries and bike, and decided that going on was the only options. Despite getting run over and slightly injured, Ethan finished 14th in the 6th Grade Boys. That is true Mountain Bike Grit!
After being caught up in a sizable crash at the race start, Owen L. fought his way back to finish fourth in team points for the team. Mountain biking is one of those sports where even though all of your training was in place and went smoothly, anything can happen. Owen knew this, picked himself up, brushed it off and fired forward.
Charlie, Ryan and Michael all completed their first races looking strong.
The Middle School team finished 5th out of 22 teams after the first race.
Later in the day brought the sophomore, JV and Varsity athletes to the start line.
By now the conditions have dried out and the trails are riding much better! Lining up for our Sophomore JV and Varsity we had Connor, Rory, Simon, Maxim and Owen S.
Each athlete rode strong with great results. Simon, one of our team Captains rode side by side throiughout the entire race with Maxim, one of our newest athletes. Connor managed to secure a solid third place among some very strong competition and Rory worked the field and placed for the Varsity Girls. Owen S. had some misfortune during his race, after a short moment of dissapointment, Owen S. shook it off and finished with head high!
The outcome of the day realized R-Cubed NICA Composite in 5th overall out of 22 teams in the point standings for both Middle School and High School!
We could not be more proud of the team!
Race Photos courtesy of David Bennett