The NICA White Pine Composite Mountain Bike Team is starting practices soon. NICA stands for National Interscholastic Cycling Association. NICA was founded, in 2009, at Berkeley High School in California. The Ely team has been going since 2019.
NICA is for kids from fifth grade to high school. There were nine kids on the team in 2023: Kyler Ahlvers, Henry Bishop, Rebekah Bishop, Oakley Campeau, Mia Horvath, Tailyn Marich, Tenley Marich, Teagan Ricci and Sophie Sandoval. Many of the team members have placed in almost all of the five races in 2023. Mia and Oakley won many of the races in their classes. Tailyn and Tenley are twins and they were six when they first started mountain biking. Tenley and Tailyn have each done five NICA races. Tenley placed second overall in her class. She says she “likes going down hill because it is super flowy and smooth.” Tailyn says she “likes going uphill because it makes you work harder and is fun.” She placed 6th overall in her class.
There are five races for the season. The first race is in August. The five races this year are in Truckee, Tahoe and Mammoth, California and Carson City and Reno, Nevada. Every lap of all the races is five miles. The older kids and more experienced kids do more laps than others. Team members also compete in other races like Fears Tears and Beers and the Intermountain Cup Racing Series.
Practices start in July and go to October. The practices happen 2-3 days per week. The practices go for an hour and a half each week. You sign up on the NICA website. You can sign up until the end of the season. The cost to sign up is $350.00, including race fees. When you join you get a free jersey when you go to the races.
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