Summer's Coming!

Congrats to Tyler for placing 10th in the Freshman Race at STATEs in Grass Valley. Despite being sick he battled for a good placing.

Doug fought through a bad starting spot and tackled the hills 3 times (3 laps)...and finished strong.

The course had some steep climbs, but rewarded the riders with some of the swoopiest bermed and banked downhill trails I've ridden.

Press Release Sent Out Today!

NEW SLO COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL MOUNTAIN BIKE TEAM HEADED TO STATES

The Great Chiweenies of SLO County race at Grass Valley May 16th.

Cambria, CA -- The Great Chiweenies of SLO County High School Mountain Bike Team (THE GC of SLO) will be sending several racers up to Grass Valley, California, to race against the best riders in the state. Racing in their first season, THE GC of SLO have raced against the best that SOCAL has to offer. This year is the second year for the SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA INTERSCHOLASTICE CYCLING LEAGUE (http://www.socaldirt.org/); it is the sister program to NORCAL's League that has been growing over the past 10 years.

THE GC of SLO finished the SOCAL season with 2 riders placing in the top 10 in the series. Los Osos resident Tyler O'Brien (San Luis Obispo High) finished 3rd by 2 seconds in the Cow Pie Classic in Los Olivos; that finish propelled him to a 3rd place tie in the 4 race series for all freshman. Evan Peterson (Templeton High) consistently finished in the top 20 and landed a 7th place in the series for sophomores.

At each SOCAL and NORCAL event, there are freshman, sophomore, junior varsity, and varsity races for boys and girls. Team scores are calculated by the team's top 3 scorers, with one of those scorers having to be the opposite gender (2 boys, 1 girl or 2 girls, 1 boy). Without a girl racing this year, THE GC of SLO placed 14th out of 19 SOCAL teams.

THE GC of SLO is a composite team that welcomes riders that are enrolled in any SLO County High School. This year, the team had 7 riders race, and had several others practice with the team. THE GC of SLO welcomes riders, boys and girls, with any level of experience. This year the team had 3 riders that had never ridden a bike off-road. The goal of the Team is to provide students in SLO County the opportunity to try cross-country mountain biking, learn proper techniques and to enjoy an active lifestyle. THE GC of SLO accepts riders at any point in the school season.

The team could not hapen without the help from some local businesses: Art's Cyclery (http://www.artscyclery.com/), Best Bike Zone (http://www.bestbikezone.com/), CORE CARE (http://www.corecare.com/), LEZYNE (http://www.lezyne.com/) SLO Nexus (http://www.slonexus.org/) and The Great Chiweenie Productions (http://www.guforit.com/). THE GC of SLO accepts sponsors throughout the year.

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THE GREAT CHIWEENIES OF SLO COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL MOUNTAIN BIKE TEAM was created and coached this year by Cubby Cashen and Megan Cordes. The team welcomes riders of all levels and parenets are invited to be ride leaders. Cycling is a healthy acitivity and the team strives to make all riders comfortable with their skills and ability. Students that are interested in riding, parents interested in being ride leaders or businesses that would like to sponsor should email the coaches at thegreatchiweenie@gmail.com or call 805 927 5406. Follow the team at http://slochiweenie.blogspot.com/.

RACE #3...what would the weather bring?

Waiting for the team members to give their input on the race/conditions...but here's a few pics and placings for the members...


Tyler 4th place Freshman category









Evan 4th place Sophomore category.












Doug 22nd JV category (biggest category)














Brad 26th sophomore race.
















Ford 21st Freshman race.

Cub and GU, the Great Chiweenie LAST (Sweep) Girls Varsity

6 riders...6 hours to get there...6 tired riders...6 hours back

Here's some pics from the race at Warner Springs this past weekend. The 30 mph winds took the wind out of most of the riders, but they battled through it (some even got to throw up).

CAPTIONS WILL BE ADDED BY THE RIDERS THEMSELVES...



GU, aka THE GREAT CHIWEENIE, and I got to ride sweep for the Girl's Varsity race. This is right as we were done with our 18+ miles. We were pooped.






Thanks to our parents for driving and thanks to our sponsors. We are always looking for sponsors...please contact Cubby at thegreatchiweenie@gmail.com if you are interested.

SPONSORS 2010: Art's Cyclery (www.artscyclery.com), CORE CARE, Lezyne, Best Bike Zone (www.bestbikezone.com), SLONexus.

Of Course...

We went out for a beautiful ride 2 weekends ago. On the Saturday, a couple of us rode at Cabrillo Peaks in Morro Bay and enjoyed a beautiful ride as the fog lifted. On Sunday, a bigger group met at Poloma Creek Park in Atascadero for a ride around the houses and out to Rocky Canyon.

The ride was beautiful as we powered up the climb to the fire road heading out towards Creston. OF COURSE, on the way back we had a flat on the only tire size we weren't carrying (24 inch). Lesson learned.

Our First Race as the Great Chiweenies of SLO County

Race update: (NEWLY UPDATED)

A long way from home, we raced at Vail Lake Resort just outside of Temecula. Sleeping in the cold the night before, but waking to a beautiful spring California day. Over 160 high schoolers showed up to race and 3 of ours competed. Doug battled it out in the JV race. At the starting line was almost in the back, but after a conservative start, he charged through the riders to a 24th place (out of 64 starters...9 didn't finish).

The course was sandy and fun. And 5 minutes after the JV's hit the course, the sophomores headed out. Evan was charging (on my bike) and was battling for top 10. Despite a dropped chain and some gears slipping, he finished 11th place.

Now Brad wasn't as lucky. He was rolling in the 20's, but then his seat fell off of the rails. With no place to sit for about 5 miles, he stood and cranked his way to 30th place.

Thanks to our sponsors that are helping us have our first year as a club: Art's Cyclery (http://www.artscyclery.com), CORE Care (in Cambria), SLONexus, Gym One.

We are still looking for sponsors and are trying to make this a club that welcomes any high schooler in SLO county that would like to try mountain biking and racing. Please contact thegreatchiweenie@gmail.com if you are interested...donations are accepted too!

Just a little too late...

With the rain falling every weekend, we were happy to see it not rain like it was forcasted. We headed out to Montana de Oro (MDO) and since Megan is on injured reserve for the month, Tyler came along to help us out.

Three of the team members, Tyler and I felt good riding, but one team member (we won't mention any names) borrowed a bike that had security locks on both wheels and seatpost. Not a allen key, or screwdriver or any other tool we had could adjust them. OF COURSE, a third of the way up to Hazard Peak, the wheel was a little out of the dropout and rubbing the frame. It wasn't gonna fall out, but it wasn't gonna make the ride easy.

We continued on to the top and could see rain to the EAST. Was it circling back at us or still going NORTH. We decided to head toward Horse Camp and pretty much right when we got down far enough to not want to go back up the hill, the rain came down. We cut our ride short to get off of the now riveresque trails and with some logistics got back to our rides.

The next day we had our skills clinic. We were glad to see most of the team there with a few extra parents that needed to hone their skills.

Protect the trails...ride Santa Rita

Rain throughout the week off and on. So we decided that riding Santa Rita would be good training a wouldn't damage the local trails. Sorry for the low quality, but computer didn't like the HD for uploading.

WANTED: Sponsors and donations

We had our first practice last weekend at Montana de Oro. Four high schoolers arrived and were ready to ride on a beautiful SLO county day. One rider had never been mountain biking before, 2 riders have done a good amount of riding, but no racing, and the last rider has raced cyclocross and tri's, but never a mountain bike.

We started off on some of the easy trails along the bluff and it was obvious they all would be just fine on mountain bikes. With some natural technical skills it was time to test their endurance with a relaxed pace up to Hazard's Peak. They all made it with no difficulties and we enjoyed the view and soon to come downhill back to the parking lot. Thanks to Rick Hicks for joining us as a ride leader and for the parents for driving the riders over.

We will be accepting new riders throughout the season and even if the riders can only do one or two races, that's totally fine (5 races this year in the SOCAL Interscholastic Moutain Bike League... http://www.socaldirt.org).

Sponsors are going to be key to keeping this club afloat and we are interested in talking with anyone who is interested. Coach Cubby (Cashen) or Coach Megan (Cordes) can be contacted at thegreatchiweenie@gmail.com or thegreatchiweenie@hotmail.com.

Race schedule

2010 Racing Season

Race 1: Vail Lake – March 14

Race 2: Warner Springs – March 28

Race 3: Lake Arrowhead – April 11

Race 4: Los Olivos – May 2

State Championships – May 16




OTHER INFO CAN BE FOUND AT WWW.SOCALDIRT.ORG

WELCOME

This is the beginning of THE GREAT CHIWEENIES OF SLO MOUNTAIN BIKE TEAM. We just had our first meeting last night and had 6 guys show up. We are planning to have our first practice next Tuesday (more details to come later) February 9th.

If you know people that might be interested please have them send me a email at thegreatchiweenie@gmail.com . Anyone who is interested is invited, experienced and non-experienced, girls or boys. Have to be in a high school in SLO county or home-schooled.

Things needed to fill out before the first practice is:

WAIVER
INFO page
HEALTH FORM (we will email it out as soon as its available)
Copy of recent physical (within last year)

BIKE
HELMET
GLOVES/SUNGLASSES
WATER BOTTLES/HYDRATION PACK
I.D.
SNACK FOR RIDE

A more complete list of things will be posted later this week. Forms can be taken off the internet at www.socaldirt.org or Ms. Cordes's classroom at Templeton High School.

We are not currently affiliated with any school district and are considered a COMPOSITE TEAM.

IF you are on facebook, we have a group page THE GREAT CHIWEENIES OF SLO COUNTY .

IF you are intested in donating or know of a company that would like to sponsor, please email CUBBY at thegreatchiweenie@gmail.com .