Whole Athlete Junior Development Team Keeps Reaching Higher
What a spring it has been! Whole Athlete Juniors have absolutely dominated the West Coast spring races with over 40 wins to date, filling the podiums at the Fontana ProXCT, Sea Otter Classic, NICA State Championships, and our backyard race, the Tamarancho Dirt Classic. And that’s just on the dirt! On the road, our racers have racked up wins at the Apple Pie Criterium, Wente Vineyards Classic, and Berkeley Hills Road Race.
With a stellar first half of the season under our belts, it’s time for a summer of travel and more racing. First stop will be Lake Tahoe, where twenty Whole Athlete kids will train for a week at altitude under the guidance of our mentors and coaches. Then it’s on to the Downieville Classic XC for the girls team and east for the boys to another round of the Pro XCT series, this time a 3-day stage race in Colorado Springs, CO. The team will then regroup for our major target, the MTB National Championships in Granby, CO.
And later this summer, Whole Athlete will make it’s debut on the international stage with the Windham, NY round of the UCI XC World Cup and the UCI XC World Championships in Mont St. Anne, Canada. It’s an ambitious schedule, but our riders have proven they are ready for it.
We
Need Your Help!
The
Whole Athlete Junior Team has the best support available from world-class
mentors and coaching to the best sponsors imaginable like Specialized
Bicycle Components, Wilderness
Trail Bikes and GU
Energy. Not
only will the team be competing at the National Championships, but at
the World Cup Finals and World Championships as well!
It takes more than the best equipment and dedicated coaching and leadership to get to the highest level of competition. It takes a significant budget, funded entirely through non-profit donations to the Velo Development Foundation.
By donating
to Velo Development
Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization created to promote
and support the development of young cyclists, you will help us meet the
costs of our ambitious summer schedule. Please visit http://www.velodevelopment.org
today and make your tax-deductible contribution. By doing so, you will
help two dozen of cycling's future stars begin to realize their dreams.
National
Championship Quest - Altitude Training & Race Camp
The biggest prize in US cycling is a National title. But more important
than the prize itself, is the process - one of dedication, integrity and
fun for the Whole Athlete Team. This year, the National MTB Championships
will be held at 9000 ft. in Granby, CO, and for sea level dwellers like
ourselves, the only way to be competitive is to acclimate to riding and
racing at high elevation. So we're off to the big mountains.
First up is a week-long training camp in the Sierra-Nevada, where the team will be based out of Tahoe City. Then the girls team heads over to do the Downieville Classic XC to hone their technical skills on the fun, challenging course - while the boys team heads to Colorado Springs to compete in the final round of the Pro XCT series, the CTS International Stage Race, a three-day race including a time trial and two cross-country events. The team will then regroup in Granby, CO at the Sol Vista Ski area, the venue for the National Championships. With more than two weeks at altitude, good training and hard racing under our belts, we'll be ready for the championship event.
World
Class Whole Athletes to Compete at the World Level
Why stop at the national level with world-class talent? For
some of the Whole Athlete juniors, the National Championship race is the
pinnacle of their season, but for others it's also a step to the next
level. In late-August we'll travel to the East Coast to Windham, NY for
the final round of the UCI World Cup where a handful of our top junior
riders will face international competition.
The best riders in the world will be in attendance as the Windham World Cup is followed only one week later by the World Championships in Monte St. Anne, Canada. At least three Whole Athlete juniors are strong candidates for the World Championship Team to be decided shortly after Nationals. Stay tuned!
Rider
Profile: Sofia Hamilton
A
seventeen year old who lives just a minute away from the Whole Athlete
Performance Center in San Anselmo, Sofia Hamilton just finished her junior
year at Drake High School. So far her season has been a resounding success,
with wins at Fontana Pro XCT/ US Cup and Tamarancho Classic, plus podiums
at NICA California State Championships and Sea Otter Classic. We asked
Sofia to take a moment out of her hectic schedule and answer a few questions
and here’s what she came back with.
Q:
What was your first bike?
A:
My first bike was a pink tricycle with pink and white streamers coming
off the handlebars. My mom and I were walking past Ceasar's Cyclery one
evening when I was two years old, and I caught sight of the pink tricycle
and gasped and glued myself to the window of the shop to admire it. So,
the next morning my mom went out and bought me the tricycle, and the rest
is history.
More>
Race
Report: NICA California State Championships
Will Curtis - 1st Place Varsity Boys
Getting on the trainer on the morning, I became immediately aware that I had some legs. All my warm up was perfect, minus my shoe breaking (which I fixed with some handy duct tape), and I was stoked to race. Going into the race, I knew I wanted the win but had not really considered it a possible reality. All I wanted to do was end my NorCal career on a good note.
Top-10 Race Results
There
are simply too many good results to post them all here, but you can check
out all our top-10s on the team web site results
page. A few recent highlights include:
- State Champions Junior Cat 1 boys & girls, and Cat 2 boys
- Tamarancho podium sweep Cat 1 17/18, and 15/16 boys & girls
- NorCal and SoCal High School MTB Varsity Titles and State Champs
Rider
Profile: Sofia Hamilton
A seventeen year old who lives just a minute away from the Whole
Athlete Performance Center in San Anselmo, Sofia Hamilton just finished
her junior year at Drake High School. So far her season has been a resounding
success, with wins at Fontana Pro XCT/ US Cup and Tamarancho Classic,
plus podiums at NICA California State Championships and Sea Otter Classic.
We asked Sofia to take a moment out of her hectic schedule and answer
a few questions and here’s what she came back with.
Q: What was your first bike?
A: My first bike was a pink tricycle with pink and white streamers coming
off the handlebars. My mom and I were walking past Ceasar's Cyclery one
evening when I was two years old, and I caught sight of the pink tricycle
and gasped and glued myself to the window of the shop to admire it. So,
the next morning my mom went out and bought me the tricycle, and the rest
is history.
Q: Is it difficult to compete on such a high level and try to have a normal
life as a teenager?
A: Obviously being so dedicated to a sport involves some sacrifice, especially since I also take school pretty seriously, but then again I guess normal is a relative term and being on the team and knowing I'm not the only teenager out there getting up early on weekends to go on epic bike rides instead of sleeping, or whatever normal people do then, makes it feel less abnormal.
Q: What's your favorite part of racing bikes?
A: I really love how friendly everyone is, even people on other teams who you are racing against. In all the other sports I've played, the other team is always super mean, but in biking you get up to the start line and girls who you may never have met will start a conversation with you, or you'll finish a race where you've been battling it out with one person the entire time, and after you cross the finish line they'll give you a hug. I like that people in this sport can be so friendly, but still take the races super seriously. The competition is still intense, but everyone just has really positive energy.
Q: What's your favorite local trail and favorite local road ride?
A: It's hard to pick just one. I'm a big fan of Coastal Trail and I like Tamarancho when it's not wet and slippery. And as to road rides, I like going along Highway 1 and getting to see the ocean.
Q: What do you like about being part of the Whole Athlete team?
A: First of all, it's nice to know that there are other teenagers out there who love biking as much has I do, and its great to get to spend time with them. Being on Whole Athlete and riding with other amazingly fit and talented athletes definitely motivates and inspires me to train my hardest, and riding with a team is just so much fun. Being on the team makes me feel really proud to be a biker. Plus the WA kits look awesome!
Q: How has being part of the team helped you?
A: Before I joined the team I was not that serious about biking; I probably rode my bike two days a week during the bike season and I barely rode at all between the end of one season and the start of the next. Being part of the Whole Athlete team helped me realize that I really wanted to focus on biking, and not any of the other sports I was doing, and helped me take my biking to the next level.
Q: What are your goals for the rest of the season?
A: I'm hoping to make some more podiums this season, and I'm excited to race more national-level races, including the National Championships and the World Cup race in New York. I'm also hoping to improve my technical skills on the mountain bike and get more comfortable with road riding, and hopefully try a road race later this season.
Q: What are your goals for next year?
A: Next year at the NorCal races I'd like to climb one step higher on the podium and win the Varsity overall, improve on this year's results at national-level races and qualify for the World Championship team.
Q: What are your long term goals for the sport?
A: I plan on racing in college and after that I don't really know, but I definitely plan to keep riding my bike for the rest of my life, even if it's just for fun.
Race
Report: NICA California State Championships
Will Curtis - 1st Place Varsity Boys
Getting on the trainer on the morning, I became immediately aware that I had some legs. All my warm up was perfect, minus my shoe breaking (which I fixed with some handy duct tape), and I was stoked to race. Going into the race, I knew I wanted the win but had not really considered it a possible reality. All I wanted to do was end my NorCal career on a good note.
The race started with a neutral cruise down the fire road through the venue. As soon as the ride leaders peeled off, my Whole Athlete teammate and the SoCal Varsity Leader, Zach Valdez went to the front, powering up the first steep sustained climb. I knew he was the strongest rider out there, making it necessary to match whatever pace he went. By the end of the first descent (all the downhill was amazingly awesome), it was down to our core group (Zach, Bryan Duke, Cody Kaiser, Tony Smith, and myself).
Zach soon attacked again, narrowing it down to him, Brian, and me. At the beginning of the next lap, Zach and I dropped Brian. Soon after, on the second steep sustained climb, Zach put about 15 seconds on me. At this point, I thought the race was over. Yet, when I crested the top, I decided that I would work as hard as I could for the rest of the race, making sure that I gave it everything I had in my last high school event. I pinned that descent harder than I have ever done in a race, and managed to reel in Zach by the bottom.
At the end of the lap, Zach went down after rubbing my rear wheel. All the spectators yelled at me to sprint away, but that seemed like a dumb way to win a race, so I pedaled easy until Zach caught up. We traded off pulling for the lap and I made sure to stay on his wheel on all the climbs, even though the pace was extremely difficult. On the last lap, I tried my hardest to drop Zach on the climbs and descents, but he was too tough, making a sprint finish inevitable.
We sprinted every single open section of trail leading up to the finish and I managed to stay in front. Rounding the last corner, I looked up the trail and sprinted the hardest I ever have, giving it every last bit of energy I had left. I was able to stay in front of Zach and took the win (I then had too much speed to round the 90º turn directly after the finish and slid out onto my butt.)
This was by far the hardest I have gone in a MTB race, a result of having amazing coaching, support, and competition. Definitely could not think of a better way to end my high school racing career.
