Prep pedaling popularity climbs
Woodcreek and other area high schools embrace club mountain biking
Teams from Woodcreek, Folsom, Oakmont, and individual racers from Roseville High School are wheeling attention to the sport of mountain bike racing. The Norcal High School Mountain Bike Racing League was founded in 2001 to promote the formation of teams in local high schools as a bridge for junior racers into the competitive world of cycling. In a season there are five to six races to which 34 California high schools send teams. There are teams in four different divisions - freshman, sophomore, junior varsity, and varsity, and competition is available to both boys and girls. The clubs are independently funded by supportive parents, families, and sponsors. On race-days, parking lots are full. Tents, trailers, and the aroma of healthy buffet style food fill the air in congruence with a positively reinforced environment of racing. Teams and individual racers are awarded points after each race and throughout the season, spanning several months of rain-or-shine spring weather. Folsom High’s team director, Jason McMillen, has been cycling for more than 28 years. His daughter Shasta was responsible for creating the Folsom Cycling Team and presenting it to the Folsom Board of Education. “In a lot of sports kids get selected out at age ten or eleven for travelling teams,” said McMillen. “This is ridiculous because a lot of kids develop late.” “Kids are underrepresented in the traditional sports,” he said. “The bike is a great equalizer. Kids that thought they could never be competitive in anything are showing up on a bicycle and doing amazingly.” Unlike other sports, mountain biking is a fresh take on athletic involvement in the developmental stages of young adults. These clubs emphasize advancement outside normal high school life. Roseville High independent racer Shayna Powless, a freshman, has finished in first place in both varsity races this season. “It’s reassuring in that I’m excited for the years to come to see how much better I can get,” Powless said. Oakmont’s David Cooley also recognizes opportunities available in cycling. “If you have a kid on the margin that’s looking for something to do, but doesn’t quite have the grades, they are still eligible to participate because the league isn’t controlled by CIF,” Cooley said. Woodcreek first started its team in the spring of 2005, and was the first local high school to form a team. “Our program is competition based, that’s what we emphasize, said Jim Winne, the director of the Woodcreek squad. “But we’re hopefully teaching kids to become better cyclists and adopt a healthy culture or lifestyle.” Matt Mazzuca plays both basketball and football for Woodcreek, and is also part of the Woodcreek High School Mountain Biking Club. “I just tried it out last year,” said Mazzuca. “I like it better because it puts all of the pressure on me instead of on my teammates.”
Oakmont racer Evan Shorter shares that enthusiasm. “Everything you do is based off of your own performance,” said Shorter. “It’s not like you can get called out to sit on the bench.” Achievements are directly related to individual performance, thus racers are supported by the league’s emphasis on creating an environment of new friendships and role models. “They work with you,” said Wisam Alhamad of Folsom. “They don’t just tell you to come back next year.” There are numbers of students just like Alhamad - young, bright, eager high school students full of energy that need appropriate direction. Kirk Shorter is one of many supportive parents. Along with many families, Shorter helped clarify why students-athletes in this sport are unique. “They’re learning to be self-motivated and they may not get that same support from the school system. These kids are becoming individuals,” he said.
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Mountain biking is very irresponsible role modelling for young people. Mountain biking is very expensive (a starter biks is about $600!) and dangerous. Serious injury and death are quite common. Do you wonder why kids from the Bay Area have to drive all the way to Folsom to compete? Because no land manager in the Bay Area is willing to subject the lands they are responsible for to that kind of abuse!
Bicycles should not be allowed in any natural area. They are inanimate objects and have no rights. There is also no right to mountain bike. That was settled in federal court in 1994: http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/mtb10 . It's dishonest of mountain bikers to say that they don't have access to trails closed to bikes. They have EXACTLY the same access as everyone else -- ON FOOT! Why isn't that good enough for mountain bikers? They are all capable of walking....
A favorite myth of mountain bikers is that mountain biking is no more harmful to wildlife, people, and the environment than hiking, and that science supports that view. Of course, it's not true. To settle the matter once and for all, I read all of the research they cited, and wrote a review of the research on mountain biking impacts (see http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/scb7 ). I found that of the seven studies they cited, (1) all were written by mountain bikers, and (2) in every case, the authors misinterpreted their own data, in order to come to the conclusion that they favored. They also studiously avoided mentioning another scientific study (Wisdom et al) which did not favor mountain biking, and came to the opposite conclusions.
Those were all experimental studies. Two other studies (by White et al and by Jeff Marion) used a survey design, which is inherently incapable of answering that question (comparing hiking with mountain biking). I only mention them because mountain bikers often cite them, but scientifically, they are worthless.
Mountain biking accelerates erosion, creates V-shaped ruts, kills small animals and plants on and next to the trail, drives wildlife and other trail users out of the
area, and (worst of all) teaches kids that the rough treatment of nature is okay (it's NOT!). What's good about THAT?
For more information: http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/mtbfaq .
I totally agree with MJVANDE. I think that every trail should be closed to everyone. Mother earth needs our help. We should lock all of the kids up indoors and make them play video games and feed them anti-depressants. Better yet they could become wards of the state and they could be taught how to take care of mother earth by specially trained government employees. Humans are murdering the planet and only Phd's and lawyers should ever get to set foot outside. Hikers should be allowed on some trails though so the mountain lions can feed. Bicycling and healthy living should also be abolished in general. Fit people, especially cyclists eat healthy which gives them more gas than regular people and I am sure that they are directly causing global warming. Fit people also live to long which causes many more resources to be scarce. I also agree with MJVANDE's other teachings where we rebuild all of the cities underground and flood them twice a year to reduce the human population. I am so excited that MJVANDE commented on this article. I wonder if he is eating the special mushrooms and drinking the special kool-aid just like me right now. Please help us save mother earth from all the cyclists, christians, muslims, hindus and people that wear leather!!!
mjvande: I would first like to point out that you are completely loony.
-biking is not against the law.
-some of the trails are made strictly for biking (most of the ones we ride on)
-with our HIGH SCHOOL league, I don't believe we have seen many deaths (broken fingers maybe, but not anything much worse)
-not once do I think I have ever run over a small animal and the only plants that grow out over the trail are poison oak so it doesn't matter anyways.
-you do realize that any "natural area" would mean anything that isn't paved? and that most major biking accidents happen on the streets, where the road is paved?
-hundreds of bikes pass over some of our local trails every day and instead of creating ruts, it hard-packs the dirt and reduces erosion.
-Finally, the biggest problems that cause trail deterioration are horses and water, if anything, bikers and walkers help.
And if you want to teach your kids to never go outdoors, I hope they blame you for them being 300 lb. ... cause they're missing out.
As a parent of a mountain bike rider/racer I find many of MJVANDE arguments against mountain biking biased and un-supported. Now, normally I don't respond to such nonsense as put forth by MJVANDE, but as I get older I find extremism, from either side, to be offensive. The follwoing comments are in response to the information he refers to in http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/mtbfaq.
Your argument that mountain bikers are so focused about going fast that they don't have time to see and enjoy nature comes from an assumption that that is the only thing mountain bikers are about. The recreational mountain biker, such as myself, is not interested in 'tearing down a trail as fast as possible'. I enjoy the exercise it provides while also enjoying the sounds and beauty of nature. I do not find that I am so focused that 'While riding a bike, especially over terrain as rough as a trail, one has to be constantly paying attention to not crashing. That makes it almost impossible to notice much else.' Some of us can ride and chew gum at the same time. (The gum of course is never spat out along the trail. It is carefully wrapped in a bio-degradable, government approved disposal container and deposited at a bio-hazard site)
As to your assertion: 'A hiker must be very careful not to accidentally step on small animals and plants on the trail. For a mountain biker, it is almost impossible to avoid killing countless animals and plants on and under the trail.' Where are you hiking? In my younger years I did a fair amount of hiking and never did I have to tread carefully so as to not step on small animals and plants. The plants were easy to avoid and the wildlife scurried off the trail at the sound of me approaching.
My son, who has been racing for his high school mountain bike club for two years now, has yet to kill an animal let alone see the countless dead creatures you so self-servingly report is happening as fact. My sons coach, who has been mountain biking his entire adult life, has yet to run over and kill any animals. Again I ask, where do you hike that such carnage is taking place on such disastrous levels?
I will agree with you that mountain bike racing can push or go beyond the posted speed limits. 'To give a definite number, the winner of a 20-mile race here in Briones Regional Park averaged 13 MPH (the speed limit is 15 MPH -- where were the park rangers?).' Organized races, such as the one you remark about, are done on closed courses and certain rules, like the speed limit, are waived for the race. (If the racers all went by the posted speed limit there wouldn't be a need to race). Now, if in a recreational capacity, people are exceeding the posted speed limits on the trails then the park rangers should be handing out citations.
The document you cite http://home.pacbell.net/mjvande/mtbfaq is riddled with assumptions and fallacies. If this document is the source of your argument then, given its obviously biased nature, one has to wonder what your PhD is in and how you even got one. There is nothing scientific in that opinion piece as to prove your point. Although I do not have time to read all of the studies you have cited in this document, I will have to assume that they are as biased and as self-serving as yours. Why else would you cite them unless they proved your point? One example that I do not have time to read: 'The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us_, by the brilliant scientist Dr. Robert Hare. I highly recommend his book. As far as I know, in Hare's terminology, mountain bikers are sociopaths, not psychopaths.' (I'll let that stand on its own without any additional comment from me).
It becomes very apparent as one reads through your document that you have a very elitist attitude and that the only acceptable form of exercise and transportation is walking. Extreme, self-serving, elitist opinions that are touted as fact and science need to be brought into the light and exposed for what they really are; crap.