The 2020-2021 Nederland High Mountain Bike team has raced hard all season long with their junior varsity (JV) and freshman teams this year.

On the JV team, riders include Hayden Camp, Violet Rainwater, and Ezekiel Fitzer. The freshman team includes Laila Waldron and Grayson Shurr, with coach Alison Powers and assistant coach Chris Camp.

The team started riding together in June of 2021 and their first race was on August 29. The race was in Frisco and was an Individual Time Trial. Since then the team has had two mass start races (Cross Country) in Eagle and Granby.

During the Freshmen race in Granby, Laila Waldron got Nederland’s first individual podium of the season, 3rd in Freshman girls (racing against riders from all schools in our Yampa Region).

State championships for the team were on October 23-24 in Durango. Riders Laila, Grayson, Hayden, and Violet all qualified. Coach Powers has stated, “We just got home from State Championships in Durango and Laila got 5th in Freshman girls. For our state champs, we don’t divide into regions or school/team size, everyone races against all riders from the state. 5th is a huge accomplishment (out of 59 racers)....It was a great weekend!”

Other state results:

Violet Rainwater- 46th out of 101 racers

Hayden Camp- 34th out of 152 racers

Grayson Shurr- 84th out of 149 racers

The Nederland team is currently a Division 3, which means it’s a school with a small team racing against other like schools. The team is ranked second in the division under Estes Park.

Coach Alison Powers says this about this year’s team: ¨It has really been an amazing season. The team rides really well together, gets along with each other, and each rider has made great gains in their confidence, skills, and racing ability. I feel honored to get to coach such an amazing group of high schoolers.¨

It has been Coach Powers’ second year coaching the team. She is a full-time cycling coach and owns her own coaching business, ALP Cycles Coaching. She was on the US Ski Team as an Alpine racer (Downhill and Super G), then she raced bikes professionally for eight years. She has been coaching ever since.

The team has been racing with passion all season -- congrats, Panthers!