Hey all!
So, last week I was at UC Santa Cruz for the annual NICA (National Interscholastic Cycling Association) Invitational training Camp. NICA is the huge organization that runs all the high school racing leagues in the country.
Their goal is to have high school racing leagues in every state in the continental US by 2020. They have done so much in the past few years for high school racing, especially in Northern California, where organized high school racing (NorCal), and NICA itself started.
Anyway, this camp is a training camp where you learn skills, nutrition, training for racing and riding, as well as the physiology involved. One of the main points of the camp is the competition to qualify for the NICA travel team for Nationals.
We raced a series of time trials (2.5 mile hill TT, 4.7 mile road TT, best of two short hill repeats, and a short-track TT), and the directors picked a certain number of riders out of each category based on the group size and GC (combined event times). It sounds complicated, but basically the fastest riders get to go.
In between rides/races, there was time to eat, socialize with riders from all over the country (There were 42 top level high school racers) and then we usually had a presentation by a pro racer, or a pro coach.
I had just gotten my brand new Grammo 29er for the camp, and I was super stoked to ride/race on it. I had it set up fully rigid, mostly because I had no time to procure a fork, but also because I was confident that I wouldn’t need a suspension fork for the riding, and that it would be faster for the races.
It was my perfect setup for the hill TT, the road TT (which we did on mountain bikes), and the hill repeats. It was also pretty good for the short-track. In my category, Cat 2 men 15-16, I was 3rd in the hill TT, 3rd in the road TT, and 6th in the hill repeats. The hill repeats were rough, because we raced the road TT that same morning.
The top 4 riders in my category qualified for the travel team, and at this point I was in 6th in the GC, with a chance of catching the other guys.
I was so d
isappointed with my short-track race , because I wrecked through a corner and lost a bunch of time, ending up 16th in the short-track and 10th overall, out of 20 something guys.
I was disappointed, but then a little less disappointed when I realized that I was racing some of the top guys in the country, and crashes happen in racing. I absolutely love this bike, especially now that I have ridden it a bunch, it's super responsive, but also very smooth and stable through corners.
I had such an amazing time at the camp, for so many reasons.
We had extremely knowledgeable and fun coaches/mentors. I personally learned some very useful information from the lessons with the pros. One of the biggest things for me was having 42 top high school racers in one dorm building for 5 days.
Let me tell you, as a 9 year junior racer, this NEVER HAPPENS! It was a great bunch of people too. Yeah, we were basically racing a MTB stage race against one another, for a big reward, but there was an awesome feeling of brotherhood among the guys. We all got along awesome, became great friends, and had an incredible experience.
It was also way cool to have about 10 top level GIRL MTB racers in one place, there is a devastating shortage of junior women in mountain bike racing.
You can ask my sister, she has raced many races where her only competition is herself. I got a kick out of scaring them with stories of my sister racing some of the JV girls at local events, and then mentioning that, oh yeah, she’s in 7th grade.
I got a lot of, “Holy $#!#, I’m glad I won’t have to race her when she’s in NorCal!”
Ha-ha, Go Ave Go!!
Anyway, I had a blast and made some great friends at the NICA camp, and I love my new Grammo mountain bike.
Life is pretty crazy right now, but as usual, I'll keep you posted!
We raced a series of time trials (2.5 mile hill TT, 4.7 mile road TT, best of two short hill repeats, and a short-track TT), and the directors picked a certain number of riders out of each category based on the group size and GC (combined event times). It sounds complicated, but basically the fastest riders get to go.
isappointed with my short-track race , because I wrecked through a corner and lost a bunch of time, ending up 16th in the short-track and 10th overall, out of 20 something guys.
It was also way cool to have about 10 top level GIRL MTB racers in one place, there is a devastating shortage of junior women in mountain bike racing.