A little-known fact about Claremont High School is that it has its very own Mountain Biking Club or one can say, team? They act like a team, practice like a team, compete like a team, and work just as hard, if not harder, than any of the other athletic teams on campus. They meet three times a week to ride through Bonelli Regional Park, Marshall Canyon as well as through the amazing foothills that surround Claremont.
The Mountain Biking Club has existed since 2014. It was started by Jonathan Chang. It started with 16 riders and has grown to 24 riders, three of which are young women and twenty-one of which are young men. Coaches Jacob Blanchard and Mike Green lead this team, which ranges from 6th to 12th grade. Unlike football, baseball, or soccer, it doesn’t require eleven or more people to play. All it requires is a biker, a bike, a helmet, and a trail.
“I just love the fact that you can enjoy mountain biking in many different ways from going out on an adventure ride to cruising along the beach to going out and racing your mountain bike,” Blanchard said. “It’s just great fitness for life. And you can get all of that accomplished just by being a part of this team.”
Mountain biking is not a sport where a team is shipped out on a bus to their meets. The Mountain Biking Club usually books campgrounds for their races and whole families attend. Cameron Vallaro – a senior at CHS who has been on the team for six years – has some words to share.
“The practices are fun, but the races are definitely better because you get to hang out with families at campsites,” Vallaro said.
Claremont High’s team consists of many competitive and non-competitive riders. There are three groups of riders that the CHS Mountain Biking Club implements on their rides. The White group—the most beginner-friendly—is for the people who are just starting out on the team, and the Gray group—intermediate riders—people who have been riding for a bit and are becoming more interested in the sport. Egan Little, a freshman and two-year veteran of the club, agrees that this system works.
“One of the things that the coaches do in the Gray group is that they start to increase the pace and focus on bike handling skills,” Little said. “The Maroon group, the most advanced group, rides the fastest. What all of these groups have in common is that they ride for the same amount of time.”
As of December 6th, the CHS Mountain Biking Club is just starting out their season with their first couple of rides. They will train now until mid-February when the racing season starts. Until the end of the season in May. They will have practices on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.
The races happen outside of Claremont in places like Vail Lake in Temecula and Cachuma Lake in Santa Barbara. The sixth, seventh, and eighth-grade riders are placed in levels according to the years they have ridden and the speed they ride. The high school also has levels including freshmen, JV One, JV Two, and Varsity. All freshmen start at the freshmen level, but new riders to the team who are not freshmen are placed in JV One. Women ride on these same levels against each other.
Both Coach Green and Coach Blanchard are immensely excited to close the ratio of men to women in this sport starting with their club. The ratio is roughly one girl for every seven boys, so competitions award more points to teams with more girls competing and winning.
The benefit of being a club instead of a team is that they can include riders from El Roble and other districts. They are called independent riders. Independent riders from outside the district who don’t have mountain biking clubs in their district are allowed to practice with the CHS Mountain Biking Club. They can sit in the CHS pits, wear the school colors at practices, and train with the team but their scores don’t count towards the team.
“If you are looking to just come out and ride you are totally welcome,” Vallaro said. “If you are looking to push yourself, there’s a group of riders that you’re able to do that with.”
