September 1, 2022 at 2:50 p.m.
RNC mountain bikers set to hit trails
2022 season begins Sunday in Cable
RNC mountain bikers set to hit trails
"The No. 1 thing is fun, obviously," coach Jon Lester said. "I want these athletes to have fun and come back and tell their friends and show them there's something else to do besides ball sports."
The program - which is comprised of riders from several area high schools, including Rhinelander, Lakeland, Tomahawk and Three Lakes - has been fast on the trails, winning the last two Division 2 state title in 2019 and 2021. There was no season in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2022 season kicks off Sunday at a new venue, Telemark Resort in Cable. It begins a five-race schedule for the Hodags that will conclude with the state championships in Waterloo in late October.
"We're excited about all the new stuff," Lester said. "We all get to go and experience and learn it all at the same time. That's supposed to be fast and flowing, machine-built, trails. We're going to work on some of that (at practice). It's kind of easier that's out here in a way, but it's fast too."
Because of the program's makeup, the Wisconsin High School Cycling League splits it into two teams for scoring purposes, with Rhinelander High School riders forming one team and riders from surrounding schools competing under the RNC banner.
Repeating as state champs will be tough for the RNC side after graduating 2021 girls' varsity state champion Megan Lester from Three Lakes along with Lakeland's Jakob Craig, who was fourth overall in the boys' varsity division. The top returning scorer for RNC is Macy Lester, Megan's younger sister, who was third in the girls' freshman standings last year and will vault up to the second-highest tier, JV-3, this year.
"The Composite side, yeah, we can't go out and win the whole thing, but we can still try and we can still do well," coach Lester said. "There are still plenty of good Composite athletes out there too but, again, we're small."
The RHS side is led by senior Jett Biolo and junior Joey Belanger, both of whom will be racing in the varsity boys' division this year. Biolo finished third in the JV-3 ranks last season while Belanger was the state champ at the JV-2 level.
"He was forced to varsity this season and he's nervous about that," Lester said, noting that Belanger will have to get accustomed to races twice as long as he was used to in JV-2. "We're talking him through it. It's hard to tell an athlete that likes to go, go, go that you have to slow down to make it four laps."
Having both Biolo and Belanger in the varsity division will help the Hodags, as that division offers more points per race than lower divisions.
"The varsity racers are high scorers and if we have two varsity scorers, that's fantastic," coach Lester said.
Other notable returning athletes for RHS include Layne Roeser and Nathan Cordy. Meanwhile the team will also get a bump from a number of incoming freshmen, including Olin Slette, Holden Schmitz and Violet Biolo.
"The high school team, on the Rhinelander side, is definitely more this year and a little more stacked, if I may say, as far as racers. But their D1 too, so it's going to be tougher," coach Lester said. "I want to see how much better we can do than last year. We still did pretty good on that side last year with what we had. We're a small D1 team compared to some of these other teams."
While the competition season gets underway Sunday, the team has been practicing for more than a month and a half, mainly doing its riding at the Washburn Trail System west of Rhinelander.
"Practices are going great. We've only had one rainout. The weather's been awesome for mountain biking," Lester noted. "We're down a couple of athletes from last year, but we're having fun."
As the WHSCL continues to expand, it has gone to a modified schedule format this season. There are seven race dates on the calendar but only two - Sunday's opener and the finale Oct. 23 in Waterloo - where all WHSCL teams will compete. Each program has been assigned to three of the other five race dates to keep the championship format the same. Riders still get to count their best four of five races and receive a 25-point bonus for attending five races.
"With the way NICA was going, we had 1,000 athletes at some of these races. It was too much. They were looking for a way to separate that," Lester explained.
RNC's other three races will be Sept. 18 in Fall River, Sept. 25 in Eau Claire and Oct. 2 in Mt. Morris.
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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