Yes, we ride in the rain.

"Are you really going to ride in the rain"? I've heard that question many times over the years. It may not be the smartest idea, but yes, the St. Francis team WAS going to ride in the rain.

On a cold and wet Saturday morning, we headed up to Cherry Canyon for a couple hours of singletrack and skills. The conditions made us work that much harder to stay focused.

At the end of the ride, Mrs. Kubly greeted us with bagels, coffee cake, and juice. (Thanks Mr. Koklas and Mrs. Snyder for helping also). It was a great way to end our morning adventure.

Coach Bird with the team in Cherry Canyon

The team, aka "Hearty Souls"

Coach Marshall carbing up after a cold, wet, and fun ride

Scott and Michael under the umbrellas getting some food

Gettin' Dirty

Last week we rode in Hahamonga Park again. It was the day after a pretty good rainstorm. As the ride leader, I thought that it would be fun to clip the edge of the puddles and splash up a bit of mud. A few other guys got into it and before you knew it, we were all laughing and having a good times. A bunch of guys on mountain bikes, clipping mud puddles.

That wasn't good enough for Daniel. Daniel proved that he was the real kid that day. As we approached a pool size mud puddle, Daniel sped up and rode right through the middle of it. Way to go Daniel! You proved that a little mud is no big deal....good times.

Second Practice

The season is off to a fast start. We had our first practice on Thursday, a morning workout on Friday, and our second practice today. Today we focused on more skills including tight switchback turns and riding over obstacles. Michael Greenberg won today's competition and made the tightest turn possible. Even Mr. Sercel, a scientist, said it couldn't be done. Great job Michael!

The team assembling for our 8:00am start.

Coach Bird providing instructions on today's drills.

Matt Kubly and Trent Carlson demonstrating the "tight turn" skills training.

Michael Greenberg leading the team up and over the obstacles.

Thursday, December 2nd - Our first practice of the season

Our first practice of the season. 17 riders made it out, along with 6 coaches!

The team practiced the "gauntlet". Steve Shushnar won the NICA jersey. He outlasted all of the other riders and showed the best bike handling skills, at least on this day.

Vote for our 2010-2011 cycling kit!

Below are the two final designs for our 2010-2011 cycling kit. Please be sure to email me with your vote for design "Stripes" or "Bubbles".

Design "Stripes" Jersey

Design "Stripes" Shorts

Design "Bubbles" Jersey

Design "Bubbles" Shorts

St. Francis in the SoCal Single Track Times

Thanks to Matt Gunnell, League Director of the SoCal League for the complimentary article on us in the recent SoCal League Single Track Times!

El Prieto Trail Maintenance

On Sunday, November 7th, 19 St. Francis students and 10 coaches and parents hiked up into the Angeles National Forest to support CORBA with trail repairs. Our team spent 6 hours digging, building walls, and moving rocks. Wow was that hard work!

El Prieto is a world-famous singletrack trail located right here in our own backyard behind JPL. Unfortunately, the trail was badly damaged by the Station fire and subsequent rains. Many portions of the trail were completely eroded or had disappeared under tons of debris and silt from the rains.

Our crew met at 7:45am. By 8:00am, we were on our way, with tools, for a 30 minute hike up to the trail. For 5 hours the crew worked hard, only taking a couple of minutes here and there to get some water or a snack. By 2:00pm, we were back at the cars and feeling pretty gratified with the work that we had done. Nice job St. Francis!

Here we go again!

On Thursday, September 23rd we had our first mountain bike club meeting of the 2010-2011 season. Over 40 students have signed up for the club and 30 attended our first club meeting. Our next meeting will be on Thursday, September 30th. Everyone seems pretty excited about our 3rd year of mountain bike racing for St. Francis High School!

Los Olivos Race - Season Finale!

Lake Arrowhead Race

More Great Press!

We did it again! Another great story in the newspaper about our team. This one was in the May 6th edition of the Pasadena Outlook. Thanks Mrs. Aubert!

In the newspaper!

Here is another great article on our team that was in the La Canada Valley Sun on April 22nd. Thank you to Mrs. Aubert for submitting the information to the newspaper.

Warner Springs Race

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Vail Lake Race Movie

Check out this movie!

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Vail Lake Race - 1 Down, 3 to Go

Our first race of the 2010 season is over - and was definitely a success. 15 riders from St. Francis made it to the Vail Lake venue and for the 5th straight race in the SoCal league continued our primary goal of having all racers finish. Considering the crashes and mechanicals that we had today, that was quite an accomplishment. Matt Kubly even finished the race with a seat after his broke off during a crash!

Six families made it down on Saturday night for a team dinner and some campfire time. Very cold temperatures greeted us on Sunday morning - but things heated up for race time. By noon, it was close to 80 degrees and the sun was very strong. I'm very proud of our team - the race was truly a learning experience since 8 of our riders had never done a race before. Our next race is on March 28th at Warner Springs and we are going to work hard to do even better there!

Our race results:

JV
20th - Eddy Kronfli
25th - Steve Shushnar
59th - Matt Raba

Sophomore
20th - Matt Misetich
23rd - Christian Breitschwerdt
32nd - Connor Haas
33rd - Cameron Aubert
34th - Steven Ayoob

Freshman
9th - Chris Sercel
14th - Scott Marshall
18th - Stefano Berrios
21st - Matt Kubly
22nd - Trent Carlson
25th - Matt Higashiyama
31st - Nick Lopez

Campfire Time

Team Photo - 15 Riders Strong!

Cameron and Steven bumping at the Start

Scott Marshall Out of the Saddle!

Steven Ayoob Finishing Strong

Team Party

Our ride last Saturday was another tough climb up Beaudry. This week we increased our intensity by doing some climbing repeat intervals. By the time we got to the top of Whiting Woods, almost everyone was pretty cooked.


Good thing we were headed to a party! The team parents met us at the CV Park and we had an awesome picnic. Lots of food incluing carne asada grilled up by Mr. Kubly.


Thanks parents for getting the team party together. All of us had a great time!

Saturday Rides

Our Saturday morning rides have been climbing rides to help our overall fitness and stamina. On Saturday, we rode up the Beaudry fire road to the top of the Verdugo mountains! Everyone had their new St. Francis kit on and we definitely looked like a Pro cycling team! Thank you very much Mr. Kubly for making the video below of us on our ride.

Our 2010 Clothing is Here!

A tradition in cycling for many teams is getting new team clothing each year. We use the new clothing each year to make sure that we properly represent our sponsors and change the look up to help keeps things fresh. I am very pleased to announce that our new clothing has already arrived!

Our clothing was designed this year by a VERY special person, Cici Arenas. Thank you Cici! Also, we have switched from Hincapie to LG. Thanks LG for your great assistance in getting everything done so quickly. Pictures below.