Ready, Set, Launch!

Published in VeloNews on May 1, 2020 by Jen See. Read full article HERE.

Hannah Finchamp can still remember the excitement she felt before each NICA team practice.

“It was this jittery feeling of, ‘Yes! I get to go ride my bike today!’” she says. Finchamp, racing for Seal Orange Off-Road, won The Mid South and is not alone in counting her years with NICA as a formative experience in her career. The fun, supportive environment of high school racing offers space for riders to experiment and learn. And some like Finchamp carry those lessons forward to elite racing.

Kate Courtney, the 2018 world champion, is one of them. From a young age, Courtney rode the Marin trails with her dad, first on the back of a tandem, then on a bike of her own.

“I didn’t know about competitive mountain biking at all until high school,” Courtney says. While racing for Branson High School, she discovered her competitive drive. “It’s a big jump to national and international racing, but high school racing was a great starting point for me.”

Even for riders who come to NICA with racing experience, there are valuable lessons on offer. Haley Batten, an under-23 rider with Specialized, grew up riding mountain bikes with her family in Park City, Utah. At an early age, she started racing.

“When I was younger, I really believed it was like, ‘you’re on your own, and if you are going to make it, it’s about you alone,’” she says.

While racing with NICA, Batten discovered how powerful team support could be.