Keyesville Race Report

Keyesville Race, Lake Isabella CA – March 25, 2012

The St. Francis High School mountain bike team competed in the third event of the six-race SoCal league series at the Keyesville Wilderness Area near Lake Isabella, CA. A fast approaching rain storm and tough weather conditions made for an exciting weekend.

Saturday’s weather for the teams practice on the beautiful Southern Sierra course saw 75 degree temperatures and beautiful, blue skies. However, the weather forecast for Sunday was ominous and ugly, and the team knew it was going to be a race of attrition in what turned out to be a rainy and cold afternoon.

In preparation for this race, the team dialed-in its race-day nutrition plan and race warm-up in hopes of being better prepared when the riders reached the starting line. Podium finishes and solid results from all of the Golden Knight racers at Keyesville validated that our extra work was worth it.

In the Freshman Division 1 class, Golden Knight riders Austin Hamilton and Skyler Payne just missed their 3^rd consecutive podiums with a very strong 6^th and 8^th place finishes. Philip Saulny also finished in the top 50% of the field with a very solid 16^th place finish. Rounding out the Golden Knights were Remi Roth in 30^th and Nathaniel Blakely in 36^th.

The day’s first podium finish occurred in the Sophomore Division 1 race with Daniel Balsam narrowly missing the top-spot with a hard earned 2^nd place finish and his 2^nd podium result so far this year. Hunter Nalley earned another great finish in 13^th, and Keenan Koch battled for 21^st.

As the JV and Varsity riders approached the starting line for their afternoon race start, the clouds darkened and the wind began to howl. Within minutes of the race start, the Golden Knights were racing in the cold and rain. Working hard and never giving up, Sean Bird overcame some bike mechanicals to earn his top finish ever, a fantastic 2^nd place result in the JV race. The great JV results continued to flow in with Scott Marshall working his way up from 17^th place to finish in 11^th. As they have done all season long, another strong finish occurred with JV riders Matt Kubly, Connor Haas, Carl Demolder, and Cameron Aubert coming in within seconds of each other in 13^th, 14^th, 15^th, and 18^th place. Battling back from a first lap crash was Steven Ayoob in 23^rd place. In the Varsity race, Christian Breitschwerdt continued to improve racing to 25^th and Matt Misetich came back from a first lap crash to finish in 27^th.

Again, the Golden Knights came away with two impressive podium finishes, along with some excellent individual results in all categories.

The Golden Knights return to Vail Lake for the season’s 4^th race on April 15^th. Vail Lake was the site of the team’s best race this season at stop #1, and the team hopes to do well there again.

The Golden Knights mountain bike team are very grateful for the support that they have received from the school and administration, along with their sponsors: Design Imports, Hollandays, VCA Arden Animal Hospital, Merchants Building Maintenance, Bell Helmets, Mountain Pine Shutters, Strategic Law Partners, Nu-Hope, Kevin Martin/UBS, Stratz & Company, Financial Guaranty Insurance Brokers, City National Bank, and JoBesh International.

Daniel Balsam leads the Sophomores

Steven Ayoob cruisn' in Keyesville

Sean Bird being coached up the hill by Coach Lee Bird

Matt Misetich battling back from a first lap crash

Mixin' It Up

The team came off the Yucaipa race looking for some changes. Not that anything was wrong, but our training block had been going for 8 weeks and we were ready to mix it up.

The first week back after Yucaipa was a scheduled rest week and quarter-finals. We took the weekdays off and then had a fantastic adventure on Friday afternoon. On a cool, drizzly day, we ventured out for a fun 3 1/2 hour ride. Our route finished with a nice climb up to the top of Brown saddle. This is an area where we used to ride, but hadn't been to since the Station Fire.

The guys at the top of Brown Saddle

Our next little adventure occurred this week. The team decided that we wanted to be better prepared at the races and to accomplish this, we'd invest in some trainers. League sponsor Kinetic set us up with a great discount and we ordered 13 new trainers for the riders and team. On Wednesday we practiced our warmup at the school before our next race at Keyesville. Spectators described 18 guys spinning on their trainers as sounding "like a swarm of bees".

It was a great two weeks of recovery and training and we all feel good about our Keyesville race this Sunday!

Hog Canyon Classic Race Report

The St. Francis High School mountain bike team persevered through a hot and hard day of racing at the Hog Canyon Classic in Yucaipa – the second stop on the SoCal League high school mountain bike racing circuit.

Leading up to race day, the Golden Knights thought that the hilly course on the outskirts of Yucaipa would suit the team best and provide an advantage for its well-trained riders. Even though the team did well, most riders found the course extremely challenging and exhausting. Located at the Wildwood State Park, the course featured over 900 feet of climbing per lap, technical descents, and dry and dusty conditions.

Coming away with podium results for the second straight race were Austin Hamilton with a well-earned 5^th place finish in the freshman class, and Sean Bird with a sprint finish for 5^th in the JV class. Also coming away with top-10 finishes were Daniel Balsam in 7^th place in the sophomore race, and Skyler Payne also with a 7^th place in the freshman race.

After the team’s best results ever in four-years of competition two weeks ago at Vail Lake, head coach Lee Bird challenged the team to continue working hard and to strive for even better results. “We had 6 riders improve their overall standings compared to the last race. That’s rewarding when you see these students continue to improve week over week. I’m also proud that all 19 of our racers finished another tough race. Our team finds a way to dig deep when the going is tough.” said Coach Bird.

Hard chargers of the weekend were Steven Ayoob, Matt Kubly, and Nick Bedford who all improved significantly over their results at Vail Lake.

The GOLDEN KNIGHTS are back to training for their next race In the SoCal League series in Keyesville on March 25^th.

The GOLDEN KNIGHTS mountain bike team are very grateful for the support that they have received from the school and administration, along with their sponsors: Design Imports, Hollandays, VCA Arden Animal Hospital, Merchants Building Maintenance, Bell Helmets, Mountain Pine Shutters, Strategic Law Partners, Nu-Hope, Kevin Martin/UBS, Stratz & Company, Financial Guaranty Insurance Brokers, City National Bank, and JoBesh International.

GO KNIGHTS!

Scott Marshall (JV) and Carl Demolder (JV)

Matt Misetich and Christian Breitschwerdt getting ready for the Varsity Race

Hunter Nalley Charging Hard

Austin Hamilton leading the Freshman Race