Bike club thrives in Castro Valley

Have you ever seen a group of bikers while walking around Chabot? Did they wear a bright green jersey? Well then, you have met the Hayward Composite Mountain Bike Team. This is a mountain bike team that is composed of middle schoolers and high schoolers from Castro Valley, Hayward, and San Leandro. 

The Central/East Bay Mountain Bike League had their first race of the season at Fort Ord on March 1. The high school course at Fort Ord is approximately four miles per lap with 375 feet of elevation.

Louis Keim is a CVHS JV2 rider who rode three laps in his race. He said his goal this year is to make the podium, and he did not disappoint. Keim placed fourth out of 67 racers. Even though Fort Ord is one of Keim’s least favorite courses because of the sandy turns, he was still able to start off the season strong. 

“I feel like last season I had a lot of thoughts of just giving up, and I was cramping a lot, but I felt great in this race,” said Keim. “I think I did well at keeping a good pace, but I probably could have sprinted a little better on the uphills.”

Kyle Carlson is a CVHS freshman rider who also raced three laps. He was nervous because this was his first time in a high school race. But, he was happy that the course was less sandy. Carlson finished 18th out of 52 racers. 

“My performance was good,” said Carlson, “but where I started threw me off.” He thought that he did well when he was biking uphill, as he did not get tired. He was glad that when he was descending he did not crash and kept an overall good pace. 

Rocco Nearhood and Dylan Thomas, two CVHS students, competed in the JV1 race together, completing four laps. Nearhood placed 36th out of 60 racers.

 “This course is fast and has a lot of loose parts you can crash on,” said Nearhood. Thomas placed 21st, and he was very proud of this achievement. 

“I slid out right before a little dip,” said Thomas. “Next race, I will be racing four hours away with higher elevation and hopefully not crashing — staying up right.” 

Next race the CVHS riders are hoping to ride faster and stronger. Since they know what kind of people they are going to be racing and how well they can ride, they know what to focus on to improve.