The 2011 season has finally begun.  We have been practicing 3 times a week as a team for the month of January.  Fortunately, we have only had one rain out so practices have been very consistent.

A big Thank You to Five Points Fitness that allowed us to use their spin room for 4+ hours a week.  They have a fantastic spin set up and just installed about 15 computrainers.  They were very accommodating to our large group and we are very grateful!

I also want to acknowledge the Coaching Staff for the year.  We are very lucky to have Eddy MacLeod, Ray Storm, Jay Shipley, Natale Servino, Rob Glaser & Mike Whitworth return from last year.  In addition, Ned Fox, Marc Kirberg, Josh Josephson, John Herschleb, Jen Sanders, John Thompson, Cammie Urban, and our past head-coach, Ken White, are all on board this year. 

Having a solid coaching staff is the core to any successful program.  They are the true heros out there, donating their time and energy to teach kids skills both on and off the bike.  I for one am very grateful to each and every one of them.

News on Powerbar Products
Check out the new PowerBar ProteinPlus Protein Powder drink mix. The powder has 20g of PowerBar Trisource Protein per serving and is formulated to sustain amino acid delivery to the muscles post-workout. There are two flavors, vanilla and chocolate.
Unfortunately, the Fruit Punch Endurance powder has been discontinued and will no longer be available. 
The best news:  New gel blasts & Beta Alanine product- Lemon and Cola are back!  PowerBar has also just recently launched High Intensity, a sustained release Beta-Alanine supplement which will assist in buffering muscles and allow for you to continue to push the intensity levels of our training. High Intensity will be available in the coming weeks, be on the look out!

Redwood riders went down to the Sea Otter Classic in force.
Racing Cross County, Downhill, Super D and Dual Slalom, the Redwood team fared very well.

In Varsity Cross Country, riding almost 40 miles, Davis Bentley captured an 11th place finish.  Riding against some of the fastest guys in the nation, this finish was very respectable.

In JV Cross Country, a twenty mile course,  Freshman Taylor Smith got second place just barely getting beaten at the line by a Junior from El Cerrito, Chris Bennett.  Daniel Thompson, a junior, who is racing for the first year at Redwood, finished 18th and Devin Eastman, a sophomore, finished 25.  For Daniel and Devin, it was their first non-league race!

Freshman Ian Stowe raced Super D and Dual Slalom.  Taylor Smith also raced Dual Slalom.  And in the Downhill, Jack Kisseberth, Max Houtzager, Sam Redman, Zander Slavitz and Daniel Thompson all gave it their best on the fast, technical course.

Folsom Lake's course is one of the fastest courses in Northern California.   Although not super technical, the speed that needs to be maintained makes the race very tough.

The JV race was one of the most exciting races I have seen in years.  Redwood Dominated with 4 riders in the top 15.  The front pack stayed together the entire race.  Taylor Smith had the race sewed up tight, but in the sand had trouble with his gears and was beaten at the line.  Daniel Thompson and Jack Kisseberth held strong, never giving up even with the fast pace being set by the race leaders.  And Jacob Stowe was in the top 15 the entire race too, only tiring at the end.

Congrats to the entire Team!

Varsity Boys (out of 51 total riders)
Davis Bentley  - 9th place 1:42:55   484 points
Zander Slavitz - 43rd place 2:01:45
Max Houtzager- Injured (sniff)

JV Girls (out of 32 total riders)
Bridget Thompson- 19th  1:16:40   395 points
Lindsay Thimmig - 20th 1:17:08     390 points

JV Boys (out of  68 total riders)
Taylor Smith- 3rd place   1:21:19          506 points
Daniel Thompson - 4th place  1:21:19  497 points
Jack Kisseberth - 6th place 1:22:08    481 points
Jacob Stowe  - 15th place 1:28:08
Jason Allen - 48th place 1:40:54

Sophomore Boys (out of 78 total riders)
Devin Eastman  5th place  1:23:28    464 points
Will Guild  20th place 1:29:16   
Peter Mix  40th place 1:38:06
Cameron Boucher  43rd place 1:38:40
Will Dixon 48th place 1:39:54
Chris Tucker  65th place 1:55:58
Nick Eastwood  67th place 1:58:51

Freshman Boys (out of 64 total riders)
Ian Stowe  6th place  57:10  456 points
Taylor Whitworth 12th place 59:53
Ryan Moore  22nd  1:03:37
Ben Suliteanu 26th  1:06:31
Nicolas Aparicio 31st place  1:08:05
Sam Redman 32nd place 1:09:57

Team result 5th place, just 6 points away from Berkeley High

Varsity Boys (out of 48 total riders)
Davis Bentley  - 14th place 1:31:45   458 points
Zander Slavitz - 39th place 1:43:37
Max Houtzager- Injured

JV Girls (out of 32 total riders)
Lindsay Thimmig - 18th 1:16:18     405 points
Bridget Thompson- 26th  1:21:52   369 points

JV Boys (out of  69 total riders)
Taylor Smith- 1st place   1:12:25          525 points
Daniel Thompson - 6th place  1:17:16  481 points
Jack Kisseberth - 11th place 1:19:33     445 points
Jacob Stowe  - 18th place 1:22:11

Sophomore Boys (out of 77 total riders)
Devin Eastman  3rd place  55:24    481 points
Will Guild  13th place 57:42   408 points
Cameron Boucher  31st place 1:02:53
Peter Mix  34th place 1:04:20
Nick Eastwood  58th place 1:13:43
Chris Tucker  62nd place 1:17:58

Freshman Boys (out of 75 total riders)
Ian Stowe  4th place  58:10  472 points
Taylor Whitworth 9th place 1:00:44
Lorenzo Cico  12th place  1:01:36
Ryan Moore  16th  1:03:37
Ben Suliteanu 18th  1:04:15
Nicolas Aparicio 24th place  1:06:56
Sam Redman 42nd place 1:14:15

Sunday, February 21st both Ann Trombley and Ned Overend came to ride with the Redwood and Branson High School teams.  Ned and Ann are both alumni of Redwood High School and, although neither of them rode in high school, they both graduated from RHS to become world famous riders.
 
Ned started in mountain biking in the early 1980s. He was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1990 after winning the World Championship.  In 2001, Ned was inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame. Even though he retired from Pro Mountain biking in 1996, he continued competing in endurance competitions like the XTERRA Triathlon, and regular road triathlons. While in professional mountain biking, Overend earned the nicknames "Deadly Nedly" and "The Lung", for his seemed difficulty to beat and his phenonomenal aerobic endurance at altitude (especially so for a man of his age), respectively. He is the current captain of the Specialized Cross Country Team.
Ann Trombley started racing in Colorado in her late 20s.  She won the first race she entered and never looked back.  Ann won several national times, and represented the United States in the 2000 Olympic Games.  Ann is an elite cycling coach and is currently working with a juniors team in Colorado where she now lives.

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.