MTB Team survives torrential rain, endless mud at 1st Race

Our 13 Tiger cyclists braved torrential downpours, slippery trail conditions and increasing amounts of mud as the day and the deluge continued. This year is the USN team’s 6th season and we were one of only 7 teams during the league's inaugural 2013 season. Now in 2018, the league has grown significantly, with more than 300 cyclists from more than 20 teams participating in the 4-race series. Sunday's conditions on the trails were so challenging that just getting body and bike to fully cooperate all the way to the finish line was a huge accomplishment, and all of our 13 riders completed their full race distances.

In the Middle School races, held early in the day during intense downpours but before the mud became a sticky issue, we had 3 boys and 4 girls competing. 8th graders Eleanor Shepard finished the 4-mile single lap race in 27:51, with Jamie List just 2 minutes behind. 7th graders Maya Guha and first-time-racer Leah Joseph had strong efforts in the MS Girls’ race finishing 23rd and 28th. For the MS boys we have 3 new racers, 7th graders Christopher Haynes and Benjamin Kampine (finishing 20th and 29th out of nearly 50 7th grade boys), along with 6th grader Tate Green finishing 20th after dealing with a dropped chain in the middle of his race.

Later in the day when the mud started to become a much more significant issue, Senior Arvin Jansen suffered a front wheel mechanical and then a long delay to get it fixed on the 2nd lap in the JV race, but Arvin along with juniors Campbell Luschen, Raleigh Parr and Cameron Stenhouse all still finished in the top half of the 60-strong JV field. Despite not being able to shift gears later in the race, Campbell had our fastest lap time of the day of 21:26, finishing 15th (through 3 brutal laps of 12 miles) in 1hr:15m:51s. New Sophomore team member Alexander Haynes put in an impressive first race effort, finishing 2 laps in 57 minutes with Gavin Gordon only a few minutes behind, finishing 19th and 24th out of 40 sophomores.

We usually have one race with epic weather conditions each year, and we’re glad to have it out of the way already. Kudos to all these cyclists for figuring out how to ride and finish in those conditions. The remaining 3 races take us to Knoxville (October 7), Memphis (October 21) and finally to Sewanee on November 11th for the State Championships. Contact coaches Steve Smail and Amy Dortch if you’d like to find out more about youth cycling opportunities.

Fans can see the full season details and results at http://www.tennesseemtb.org/events/races/