The MCHS Mountain Biking Team

Did you know that our school has a mountain biking team? What’s mountain biking? Mountain biking, according to Wikipedia, “is a sport of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, usually using specially designed mountain bikes”, and has been a sport since the late 1970’s. Also according to Wikipedia, the first race or “the oldest organized cross-country racing-like event, however, is believed to take place from Crested Butte to Aspen in Colorado in 1978.” And “It took 10 years before the UCI recognized racing on mountain bikes as a regular cycling discipline in 1990.” Since then, it’s remained a cross-country Olympic for men and women.

Our school’s mountain biking team has existed for over six years now and hasn’t gotten the publicity it deserves for being such a unique and interesting sport. The mountain biking team would meet on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at five o’clock on days we’d have school and ten o’clock on Saturdays. If you are wondering why “would” was used in the last sentence, it’s because the mountain biking season has already ended this year, which lasted during fall, August to October. There are usually five races a year and usually are held out of town. The team’s practice would only be canceled if there was lightning present, but if it was just rain, practice would still be held. An anonymous mountain biker at MCHS that was interviewed was asked on what would happen to practice due to certain weather conditions to get these answers. To this question they said: “If it was only raining, we’d be riding in it. If there was lightning? We’d call it off. But no lightning means we’d be good.” Practices were also held on the soccer fields of MCHS.

The anonymous senior who participated in these mountain biking activities at MCHS was interviewed to also give us insight into what the team was like; the rest of this article is their full responses. When asked what days they meet, the student mountain biker answered with: “Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays,” and followed up with the time, “Five o’clock on weekdays and ten o’clock on Saturdays.” The student also added that practices would last about two hours.

The senior was then asked where they usually partook in their sport, and they responded with, “The soccer fields of MCHS.” When asked about competitions and rival schools, they said, “We’d go to races out of town; there are five races a year, and Marshall is our biggest rival for sure.” The senior was then asked if it was fun. If the sport was worth playing and if it was enjoyable. To this the anonymous mountain biker blankly stated, “It was awesome.” They then added that the seasons would last during fall, or from August to October. The student was then asked if they would like to add anything else on the McCracken County High School Mountain Biking Team and stated that the answers they had given “about summed it up.” The interview was then concluded and the senior was thanked for his time.