We’re thrilled to see another season of NICA races across the country off to a strong start! Texas, NorCal and SoCal Leagues kicked-off the NICA spring season with record-setting numbers of student-athletes participating. Earlier this month, we were excited to see the Nevada League’s Southern Region begin its inaugural season at Spicer Ranch while the North Carolina League hosted its first adventure day at Brumley Nature Preserve; 2019 is looking to be another great year for getting #morekidsonbikes!

NICA extends our sincere appreciation and gratitude to Vance and Brandi McMurray, who are stepping down after directing the Texas League for the past eight years. Vance and Brandi were instrumental in bringing interscholastic cycling to Texas and they will be greatly missed.

Last week, my colleagues and I attended Frostbike held at Quality Bike Products’ (QBP) headquarters in frozen Bloomington, Minnesota. It was great to connect with Minnesota League NICA student-athletes and licensed coaches and hear first-hand how NICA is impacting their lives on and off the bike. During this past fall season, two Minnesota student-athletes, Chihiro Gustafson and Ian Hase set up a mountain bike race during halftime at a school football game - you can watch the race HERE!

Thank you to Seth Nesselhuf, QBP’s Director of Community and Sustainability for organizing the annual FrostBike auction, which benefited NICA. Likewise, a sincere thank you to all the great bike companies who donated to the auction and to all who bid and purchased items! Act quickly as we’re auctioning on eBay a very special Ritchey Commando bicycle frame/fork hand-built by Tom Ritchey himself and a super nice DT Swiss wheel-set and bidding closes a week from now.

Please enjoy this month’s newsletter and continue to ride!

With gratitude,

Austin

Spring Guild Update

Our event production guild program continues to grow. This spring 97 new guild members were welcomed to the program. New for 2019 is the NICA Guild Forum where guild members are able to ask questions, get clarification and problem solve. Each guild also collaborated during their meetings to develop a race weekend checklist to ensure quality risk management at every race. For questions about NICA guilds - email Jerel@nationalmtb.org

Trek - NICA Service Course

Want to tune up your bike maintenance skills this summer? Trek's Certified School of Service is again offering its Certified Assembly Technician course just for NICA student-athletes and coaches. This year, in addition to 2 Level 1 Courses, Trek will also be offering a Women's Level 1 Course and a Level 2 course for NICA student-athletes.

Curious about a course? Check out the links below for details on dates, schedule, costs and registration information!
Level 1 Courses
* NICA Level 1 Co-Ed, June 10-12
* NICA Level 1 Women, July 8-10
* NICA Level 1 Co-Ed, July 15-17

Level 2 Course
* NICA Level 2 Co-Ed, June 24-28

Please Note: Level 1 Courses are 3-days and cost $550, Level 2 Courses are 5-days and cost $1100.