Here is the link to the IJ:  http://www.marinij.com/sports/ci_14289105

Our own freshman rider, Josie Nordrum, was pictured in the Marin IJ for the story.

Here is some of the text:
"SOME COUPLINGS just make sense. Just as chocolate and peanut butter eventually found their way together, so too have Marin's high school mountain bikers and adult road cyclists. It's no coincidence that this momentous connection will take place on the biggest sporting day of the year, Super Bowl Sunday.

On Feb. 7, the Marin County Bicycle Coalition will team up with the NorCal High School Mountain Biking League to host the first Dirt Bowl, a fundraiser trail ride through West Marin led by pro racer Dave Wiens. It's the first event to pair two of Marin's largest cycling groups, and the unofficial kickoff of the 2010 mountain biking season in Marin.

"This is a way to raise money and make a connection with a great organization," said Tom Boss, membership director for MCBC. "We wanted to partner with NorCal because they have such a strong presence in Marin, and they are growing so fast."

NorCal MTB director Matt Fritzinger said about 25 riders have signed up for the ride so far, and the list will be capped at 50 riders. The event gives Fritzinger and NorCal MTB a chance to spread the word about their trail advocacy work, which has high school mountain bikers out repairing trails and maintaining tracks all around the Bay Area. Boss and the MCBC are excited to reach out to the mountain biking community, which has been underrepresented in the coalition in the past. A few years ago MCBC conducted a survey of its members and found that more than half of them enjoy mountain biking in addition to traditional road riding.

From San Geronimo, riders will head to White Hill and up Porcupine Trail, out to Camp Tamarancho for a 3-4 hour ride with Wiens on one of Marin's best single-track trails. For those who may not feel up to a rigorous workout with a world-class mountain biker, there will be a series of informal rides on some of Marin's less-difficult trails, and a road ride for the non-mountain bike types who still want to help.

After the ride, San Geronimo will host the barbecue and broadcast the Super Bowl on a big screen TV for all Dirt Bowl attendees.

Wiens is a nice get for the event. A Colorado native, the 45-year old "retired" from full-time racing in 2004 but continued winning events, including the Leadville 100 six consecutive times over the likes of Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis. Wiens' wife Susan DeMattei won a bronze medal in cross-country mountain biking at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and is a Marin native, so Wiens is familiar with Marin's historically great mountain biking trails.

"He's a huge fan of high school mountain biking, and he was excited to be a part of this event," Fritzinger said.

"I don't think it was a tough sell," Boss said.

For more information on the Dirt Bowl, visit dirtbowl.net.

The Mountain Bike team is unlike most high school sports that practice every day after school.  Instead we hold practice 2 days a week and one on the weekend (typically on Sunday mornings).  We also have a 30-minute meeting a lunch every week.  This meeting is usually held on mondays, but if monday is a school holiday, then we hold the lunch meeting on tuesday.

This year we have arranged the practice schedule as such:
Monday: Lunch meeting (unless school closed, whereas we default to tuesday)- Julia and Ray will be lead coaches in attendance
Tuesday: 3:00 Spin Class - Julia and Eddy will be lead coaches in attendance
Wednesday: Option ride day once day light savings starts)
Thursday: 2:25 Spin Class (until day light savings, when we will change this work out to a practice ride) Julia and Ray will be lead coaches in attendance
Sunday: 9:00 Ride - Eddy and Ray will be lead coaches in attendance.  However, we will have lots of other coaches and ride leaders out for this practice.

We ask that to participate with the team, riders come to all the practices, and to the lunch meeting every week.  If you can not make practice, you must inform a coach prior to the practice by either email or cell phone.

In the past, riders that attend the most practices typically improve the most and become our strongest riders.  As a result, we request that  all doctor's appointments, dentist's appointments, tutors, other school activities be done on the days that we are not holding practice (Monday, Wednesday and Fridays!)

We will be taking attendance this year, and Riders that only show up for 1 or 2 practices a week and do not come to the monday meetings will not be able to participate in races until their attendance record is corrected.  If attendance is not improved the rider will no longer be considered part of the bike team.  We set this minimum standard for several reasons. 1) to ensure safety to the individual and the team, the more time on the bike, the safer you are; 2) to create a sense of "team" and to foster team spirit; 3) to ensure improvement over the season for each individual rider.  

There are several members of the team that have spoken to us about previous commitments that prohibit adherence to these guidelines.  We appreciate them letting us know before the start of the season, and have worked with them individually to ensure the "reasons" above are satisfied by other commitments.  These riders are expected to make an extra effort to be part of team-building activities, because this is not just about individual improvement, it's about being part of a TEAM.

 We are excited about the upcoming 2010 season!  We’ll have several very talented assistant coaches to help during the week and with Sunday rides, but the three of us will be your main contacts during the season. Although the RHS Mountain Bike Team is technically a club at Redwood, we complete at a race team level which means a race team participation must be made by all riders. As with any sport, joining the team requires a level of commitment. 

 

Why be a part?  The Redwood High School Mountain Bike team has much to offer: as a team we learn riding skills, get in good physical shape, receive valuable coaching, supportively drive each other to achieve, and have fun.  We’ll set individual and collective goals for the team and we work together to not only attain these goals but we also develop a wider range of valuable skills. While some will come back with impressive race victories, the team is really about setting goals, improving skills, teamwork, and achieving your personal best.

 

Who are we?  

Julia Violich is a Redwood High School alumna. She received her undergraduate and two graduate degrees from UC Berkeley. Although a soccer player in high school and college, Julia began cycling later in life and raced mountain bikes professionally for 5 years.  She has two national championship titles and has raced in several World Cup competitions.   She was an assistant coach for the RHS team in 2003-2005, the head coach in 2006 & 2007, and co-head coach in 2008 & 2009.

 

Eddy MacLeod is one of the owners of Paradigm cycles.  He races both on the mountain and the road.  He is a certified Level 3 USA Cycling coach.  He specializes in “training programs” and endurance riding.  He was an assistant coach for RHS in 2008 and co-head coach in 2009.

 

Ray Storm was born and raised in Ashland, Oregon.  He was a soccer player through high school and played at the professional level as well.  In college, he found a love for rugby and played as an all star for several years.  He was reintroduced to cycling several years ago and has been racing professionally for the last two years.  He has been consistently ranked in the top 5 in the county in Super D.

 

Our coaching goals include: providing student riders who have the desire to mountain bike with direction, camaraderie, and skills that will help them achieve both competitive success and personal development in a safe and enjoyable manner.

What Parents Say:

 

“The RHS biking team was a great experience for the whole family. Having the opportunity to spend the day at all the beautiful venues, watching the exciting races and getting to know all the great families and coaches on our team and many of the other teams has been such a pleasure. And, of course, it has been a terrific experience for [our son] who has grown so much from the experience, both mentally and physically, and who I know will have a lifelong passion for biking. When kids become teenagers, especially late teenagers, it gets harder for parents to stay involved in their kid’s activities. The bike team needs lots of parent support so is a great way to participate in a fun and rewarding activity with them.”

 

“You coaches were awesome….I can only heap praise on all of you for doing what you do. My child was reluctant to ride cross-country this year, and yet, with encouragement and praise, and some dumb luck, ending up actually enjoying himself! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

“We especially appreciate your support of each member of the team and the great way you relate to the kids and parents. The team as a whole supported each other, which was great to see.”

 

“You did a phenomenal job training the kids. I commend all the coaches for their expertise and level of fitness. The team meetings were great, [our son] learned a lot. Definitely keep it up. Great communication with riders and parents on what was upcoming, and what was expected.”

 

“This was a huge undertaking, and all you guys did a terrific job!! Friendly, helpful, willing to share experience.”

 

What Riders Say:

 

“It's a truly great experience which changes your life around in a positive way.”

 

“It was awesome. I can’t wait for next year!”

 

At the hot, dusty State Championship race, Redwood racers capped their seasons on the technically demanding Boggs Mountain course. Flashing singletrack skills honed at Tamarancho under the guidance of coaches Josh Snead,  Jackie Pereira, Ray Storm, Eddy McLeod, Julia Violich, and Ken White, team members met both success and adversity.

Varsity rider Davis Bentley, JV Bjorn Fox, and Soph Zander Slavitz claimed podium spots; while Sophs Jacob Stowe and Kyle Krueger had the air come out of their possible top ten finishes due to flats (Kyle swears a race volunteer bit his tube in half and tied off the ends in a bid to help him finish the race!). JVs Jason Andrews and Max Houtzager held on to top 10 finishes, and JV Erik Rademacher capped a scuccessful four years of racing with a 17th overall.

Devin Eastman, Will Dixon, and Chris Tucker hit high notes in the final races as well. Devin joined Max, Jason, Zander, Bjorn, and Davis as an invitee to the National Championship race! Overall,our team standing suffered due to absences, but those who were there rode hard and well.

Although their individual growth has been impressive, these young people have come together as a team, and learned to learn from each other. Varsity racer Davis Bentley (a Junior and road racing phenom) stood up at the team banquet and thanked JV rider Max Houtzager (a Sophomore and Downhill expert) for helping him develop his bike-handling skills. Max, in turn, has joined Davis' Whole Athlete team to ramp up his fitness training. Also at the banquet, Frosh Chris Tucker praised Senior JV racer Jason Andrews for his guidance.

In addition to fierce pride in their talents, these Redwood racers have developed humility and respect--for themselves, the sport, and each other. Great season, riders, parents, and coaches!

See you out there!

Here's Olivia--ready to race!

Despite not having a few of our racers there, and suffering from at least one mechanical, and one crash at the start, Redwood as a team got seventh place out of 33 teams. We are still in 5th place in the overalll standings. A day of learning for many, and a day of huge improvements for others. Overall, another great job.

 

The course at Folsom Lake was sandy and damp, with demanding single-track that favored technical skills, and some long straightaways for the strength riders. Each lap was 6 miles long with about 600 feet of climbing per lap. The day started out cool and breezy for the girls races, and turned to light on and off showers for the Freshman and Sophomore races. The sun came out again for the JV and Varsity races.

 

Results for the team are here. Some of these categories are very, very competitive. Our top two girls and top five boys are our point scorers. Since we had so few racers out there, almost everyone that finished secured team points!

The official results are in.  Redwood as a team got fifth place out of 33 teams!  What a great effort by all.

 

The first race down in Monterey, at East Garrison, was a very fast course, will not many hills.  The laps were only 4 miles long and very fast. The Varsity riders were completing laps in less than 14 minutes.  Although it was dry for the girls and frosh & soph, it was a little wet for the JV and Varsity riders.  Both our Varsity riders crash during the race, but got up, dusted themselves off and got back out there.

 

Here are the results of each rider.  Some of these categories are very very competitive.  We did fantastic.  It was the first race for a few riders, so next race, we know they will be moving up! Results are here.

 

This great photo of Davis Bentley from last week’s race demonstrates some of the riding position stuff we’ve been working on.

Nobody’s perfect, of course (Davis took a tumble during this race), but he’s doing a lot of things right in this picture. Here’s what you can learn:

Head up—Davis is looking toward his goal—not at his front wheel, but where he wants to go next.

Eyes forward—Davis is looking at where he is GOING, not where he IS. He’s looking toward the “exit” of the turn, where he’ll start pedaling and accelerating as soon as he can.

Using both brakes—although the bike is leaned over and the wheel is slightly turned, there’s still enough traction to use both brakes. This photo was taken before the apex (middle) of the turn, so Davis is still braking (hard). He’ll let go of the brakes as soon as he sees the “exit” of the turn.

Weight balanced over bike and compact—his center of gravity (the middle of his body) is directly over the bike and centered, and the rest of his body (arms, legs, head) are close to the center as well. Davis seems to be using his outside (left) arm to apply pressure to the bars and provide a little counterbalance as the bike arcs into the corner.

Weight driving through the corner; bike doing the turning—the bike is taking a wide arc while his body is taking a “straighter” inside line through the turn. This maximizes his momentum, and keeps him moving toward the next section of trail, rather than taking a “longer” (and slower) route of swinging out and back.

“Hovering” above saddle—Davis is not sitting, but keeping his weight low, and in an aggressive stance that will allow him to shift his weight easily and quickly if he needs to make an adjustment. Plus, he is poised to start pedaling hard as soon as he exits the turn.

Pedals in a neutral position—his feet are at 3 o’clock and 9 o’clock, and it appears he has significant weight on the outside pedal to help him keep traction. If he needed more grip, he could put his outside pedal at 6 o’clock and drive it harder downward to increase traction.

Big ring—Davis is pushing the right gear for this flat terrain.

Proper gear—his helmet is fitted properly and he’s wearing eye protection and…uh, dude, where are the gloves?

In the lead—he’s ahead of the next rider!

 Fashion first—is that a great-looking kit or what?

Yah, it's a cellphone pic. But you can tell it was a beautiful day for a ride with Devin, Kyle, Kyle, Chris, Max, Willie, Will…along with Jackie, Josh, Ron, Eddy and Ken.

Thanks to the leadership of Senior Erik Rademacher and the hard work of our crew of 8 riders and coaches, the water will now run off Wagonwheel Trail and the south side fireroad on White's Hill. Giving back is an important part of what we do....