Colorado High School Cycling League

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From: The Ethnic
A bit of good news, for a change of pace.

http://www.denverpost.com/extremes/ci_16314083.

From the article:

Kate Rau hasn’t exactly reinvented the wheel. But she has taken a popular sport and created a new niche. It would seem the creation of a high school mountain bike racing league in a state such as Colorado is an idea long overdue. And Rau, a zealous believer in bikes and kids, couldn’t agree more.

Rau, from Boulder, is the catalyst behind the Colorado High School Cycling League, which brings together budding mountain bikers from across the state to ride and race, and represent their schools. Modeled after a successful program launched a decade ago in California (where bike team rosters sometimes outnumber those of the football teams), the Colorado league is the first outside California and sets the table for a national program.

“It’s a no-brainer for Colorado,” Rau said. “It’s going off. We’ve had more than 180 kids register and 144 competitors at both of our first two races. I can pretty confidently say our high school races in Colorado are historic in that it’s the first that many kids between ages 14 and 18 have raced at one time.”

We could all use some good news once in a while.

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About big jonny

The man, the legend. The guy who started it all back in the Year of Our Lord Beer, 2000, with a couple of pages worth of idiotic ranting hardcoded on some random porn site that would host anything you uploaded, a book called HTML for Dummies (which was completely appropriate), a bad attitude (which hasn’t much changed), and a Dell desktop running Win95 with 64 mgs of ram and a six gig hard drive. Those were the days. Then he went to law school. Go figure. Flagstaff, Arizona, USA

7 Replies to “Colorado High School Cycling League”

  1. …too kool for (high) skool…

    …what a great alternative for the ‘individual’ types who aren’t football team kinda material…an introduction to a vastly more reasonable & healthy sport that can be enjoyed for a lifetime…

    …it’s also an opportunity to get the younger generation hip to land access & environmental issues as well as imparting a little cycling/motor vehicular awareness…

    …i know the california program, which got it’s start right here locally, is a BIG deal these days so props to colorado for getting involved…

  2. do they limit gear ratios in hi skoo MTB racing like they do in junior road & track racing?

  3. …good question but no…they don’t allow single speeds or cross bikes because the intent as in junior road & track racing is to keep young riders from developing cartilage damage in knees that aren’t fully formed…

    …word from a buddy who’s shop (sunshine bikes in fairfax) is involved in sponsoring the drake high school mtb team here in marin…2009 & 2010 california state champs…props…

  4. As a high school mountain bike racer who has been riding and racing (independently from the NorCal High School MTB League) single speed for a year now, I find NCHCMTBL’s rule on single-chainring bikes to be a little over cautious.

    I mean, I understand their concern. They don’t want kids mashing gears. But, any singlespeed rider in his right mind would understand the importance of proper gearing based on the course. And that proper gearing is easily accomplished based on how early the venues are announced. Plus, one thing that I’ve noticed in the races I’ve done with NCHSMTBL on my geared bike is that they intentionally make courses with lots of sand…people are spinning anyway.

    So, I figure, if I’m smart enough to gear correctly, and can spin well enough, why wouldn’t they let me race? The muscles around my knees are incredibly strong, the best defense against a knee injury. So, I don’t understand their logic. It’s my body, so why can’t I race what I want?

    Aside from that, I love being to organizer of my high school’s club and team. It’s a really rewarding experience.

  5. …dan…you sound like you approach your cycling intelligently but as far as actually getting an answer to your question, you’d have to talk to a sports physiologist…

    …i could only surmise but i’d rather you found out the real answer…which i’d also like to know…

    …props for being a organizer for your schools team…

  6. Just saw the post, late to comment but wanted to share a picture from the end of the varsity boys race at California state championships last May.

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_ZOZQRTau9dE/S_DRRewRFyI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/gEaN24OLYA0/s1600/norcal.jpg

    There were about 200 kids at the first Norcal race we attended around 2003 and we got hooked. It’s been a labor of love for the parents and volunteers who make it happen, and in that respect it pays very well.

    We had over 500 kids race this year between Norcal and Socal leagues, and I’d guess there will be around 700 kids racing in California next year plus 3 new leagues in TX, MN, and WA. Hope we can bring this to all 50 states.

  7. make that 200 kids back in 2006 when we started, can’t do my math. There were about 130 back in 2003.

    It all started with a few Berkeley High kids and an ex-roadie math teacher named Matt Fritzinger around 2000 or 2001. Matt and everyone else just kept growing it each year.