Come learn about the club and meet our head coach and team director! Parents, guardians, and riders all welcome.
Tuesday, October 1, 6PM-7PM
Auburn Bike Park
Auburn, CA
Come learn about the club and meet our head coach and team director! Parents, guardians, and riders all welcome.
Tuesday, October 1, 6PM-7PM
Auburn Bike Park
Auburn, CA
All parents and guardians please plan to attend. Important information about the club, our season, and how to participate will be covered.
Tuesday, October 8, 6-8PM
Crooked Lane Brewing
Auburn, CA
If you’re registered, join us for the first ride of the season! We’re stoked to get out on trails with you.
Saturday, October 19
Granite Bay, CA
We are riders! We are racers! We are riders and racers of all abilities – beginner, novice and advanced! We’re focused on learning important bike skills, having fun, and building a love of mountain biking.
Our riders come from a variety of Middle Schools, public, private and home, throughout Placer County. If your school doesn’t have a team, you’re welcome to come ride and race with us!
We depend entirely on parent volunteers, so please consider helping by becoming a ride leader. You don’t have to be an expert rider to join, and our (also parent volunteer) coaches will help you get signed up and comfortable riding with the team.
We typically split our season into two parts. Our Fall session runs from late September through the middle of December. We break for a couple months and return for Spring session at the end of February, just in time for racing with our High School team.
We ride all over the Placer Foothills every week while we’re in session, with a longer group ride on Saturdays and shorter skill development and fun team activities during the week. We typically meet at Railhead Park in Auburn for our weekday events.
We’re all about building relationships, so your riders should be prepared to bring their best jokes, share their favorite foods, and be ready to learn some really ridiculous games.
There are no tryouts. Everyone who is interested can sign up and become a team member if they are in good academic standing and participate regularly as a team member. The beauty of mountain biking is that no one ever sits on the bench and every single rider can participate in every practice and every race!
October thru December (Preseason) Weekly Saturday morning trail rides (2-3 hours) at various locations. First ride is October 19.
December thru May Weekly Saturday morning trail rides (2-3 hours) at various locations, 1 or 2 weekday practices and skills training (1 hour). 4-5 optional race weekends at various locations in Northern California.
June thru September (Offseason) Keep up the fun rides on your own in the offseason!
At the start of each practice ride, coaches determine if we need to split into groups based upon ability, speed, and endurance. Usually, we try to ride all together. Each group has a NICA-certified coach accompany them. Our student athlete to coach ratio is 6:1 maximum within each group. Additional ride volunteers are distributed throughout each group, and there is always a ‘sweep’ ride leader taking up the rear.
The Saturday morning ride is most important, though we strongly recommend attending mid-week practices because we cover important skills and have a lot of fun playing games!
We are here to accommodate all levels of riding ability and experience. We have a great group of student athletes and strive to be inclusive to all newcomers. We have a minimum of three different ride groups which ride at levels appropriate to the rider’s ability and experience.
Anyone who knows how to ride a bike can quickly learn the basics of safe mountain biking. If you are new to the sport, be sure to ask your coaches, as there are no questions not worth asking! We find new riders learn at rapid rate if they attend all team practices. You will be amazed at your progression of skills learned from the beginning of the year to the end.
Yes, many of our ride leaders and coaches have been riding mountain bikes and other bikes for decades. Athletes will be taught what to bring to be prepared and how to ride safely on the trails.
There is a trial period in October where you can give the team a try. If you decide it is not for you, a refund for your Placer Foothill membership dues is available if requested by October 20.
That said, since mountain biking is an endurance sport, it requires some commitment over many weeks or months to get into shape, and this can make the difference between a very fulfilling season and a season that is less than satisfying if you do not put in a consistent effort.
Absolutely! Please contact us and we will coordinate with you on a time and date to ride with us. We will need you bring a proper helmet, bike and water. Please print out the one-day waiver and bring to the ride. The waiver can be downloaded and printed below. Please contact us via email with any questions.
They are very exciting events with over 1,000 student athletes competing and cheering for their teammates. The atmosphere is electric. There are multiple categories for girls and boys and the courses are fun, challenging and technically diverse. They vary in distance from approximately 8 miles for Middle School, 12 miles for Freshmen and Sophomores, and to up to 24 miles for the Varsity races.
The courses are set on a circuit that allows for multiple laps so you can see the racers coming around multiple times. The race venues have varied terrain with uphill and downhill aspects which require bike handling skills and good endurance capacity as well.
Race venues are generally a 1 – 3 hour drive from the Placer Foothills, either in the Bay Area or Sierra Foothills.
Riders and their families are entirely responsible for transportation to and from races. As a matter of policy, coaches and ride leaders may not drive riders to or from races. Carpooling is encouraged, and most athletes arrive the afternoon before the event to pre-ride the course. Pre-rides are highly recommended for all riders.