The first ever National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) eastern regional competition took place on November 10-12 at Fair Hill Natural Resource Management Area in the northeast corner of Maryland. The weekend events included racing, adventure rides, GRIT rides (girls riding together), games, skill challenges and much more. The race on Saturday included the top high school mountain bikers from NY, FL, NC, SC, NJ, DE, WV, PA, MD, VA, and OH. The race course had a balanced mixture of tough climbs and sweet downhills, technical roots and smooth single track! It was a challenging course, as riders had to draw on their fitness and grit for the gradual climb up from the 1.5 mile to 2.3 mile marker. After the long climb racers were rewarded with two miles of fast and flowy singletrack and a long grassy field climb to the finish line.
Maryland riders competed this fall on many different courses, and this was the culmination of and first ever chance for cyclists in the high school division to compete against riders from ten other states. Local student athletes Ashlynn Anderson and Nathan Aldridge, members of the Garrett County Composite MTB Team qualified and competed in the event. Ashlynn qualified in the JV girls division where she finished her 3 lap race in 14th place with a time of 1:11:25.90. Anderson had an amazing biking season. All her hard work, determination, extra effort training in the off season and pushing herself at every practice had paid off. She finished the MICL Girls HS1 race series in 3rd place. Nathan raced in the challenging varsity age group. He not only battled the race course, the fastest division of racers, but also a bike mechanical with shifting issues. He was able to finish 4 laps to take 49th place with a time of 1:13:3. Though it was not the result he was striving for, it was still a very impressive capstone to his senior high school season. Over the last three seasons (no races were held in 2020) Aldridge earned a spot on the podium (Top 5) 3 times among the state’s fastest mountain bikers. He had 4 top 10 finishes and 2 top 15 finishes. He was 6th place in the MICL Varsity overall points series.
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Nathan Aldridge crushing the race course. He finished out his senior year in 6th place in the Maryland Interscholastic Cycling League boys varsity division and 49th in the East Regional Event.
