Benefield: 'More kids on bikes' starts with 2 in Lake County

Chris Fischer wears snot well.

“He has 100 percent focus,” said his coach, Debbie Bloomquist. “There is nothing else going on. At the end of a race, he will have sweat, tears, snot all over his face, dried up everywhere. It’s 100 percent determination. He won’t waste time trying to wipe or blow or whatever.”

Snot wasn’t the only thing one couldn’t wipe off Fischer’s face last Sunday. Standing next to his new Specialized rig, the smile was pretty secure, too.

Fischer, a freshman on the Middletown High mountain bike club/team, was one of two Lake County riders awarded new bikes and gear from the Redwood Empire Mountain Bike Alliance. Bosses at the NorCal High School Cycling League also chipped in $375 for a race season scholarship that covers all of their race fees and league registration.

“I was really excited and stoked and happy,” Fischer said.

Sounds like the trifecta of teen joy.

Fischer and Kai Manner, a freshman at Kelseyville High, were nominated and selected not only for their commitment to cycling and need for new gear, but their interest in being advocates for the sport.

“We told the league to find two kids (for whom) something like this could make the difference between them participating or not,” said Nick Nesbitt, chairman of the non-profit REMBA. “They needed a strong commitment and basically this is the missing piece.”

Nesbitt, who also coaches the A-Team - a composite squad featuring riders from several area high schools who compete in the NorCal league - said the Valley Fire’s destruction of mountain bike trails in Boggs Mountain Demonstration State Forest last year made the focus on Lake County riders for the group’s first scholarship all the more poignant.

“REMBA is going to be very active up there ,so supporting two kids up there in the first year of the scholarship is really exciting for us,” he said.

REMBA was launched in the fall of 2015 as a way to rally mountain bikers to both promote the sport and organize advocacy efforts including trail maintenance. The 230-member group was crucial in the establishment of Santa Rosa’s first pump track, a sort of dirt bike playground in Northwest Community Park.

So, key to the selection of Fischer and Manner was not only need and love of the sport, but an interest in advocacy.

“It’s definitely part of the bigger picture,” Nesbitt said. “It’s not just sport, it’s a way to be involved in your community beyond what it does for you.”

Fischer, who is vice president of the Middletown club/team, is in.

“I know that they support the community a lot and have a lot of trail days,” he said. “I can’t wait to get to their board meetings and see what works.”

REMBA’s partnership is welcomed by NorCal league officials who are pushing to expand the growing club sport into more area high schools. “More kids on bikes” is a common refrain.

Started in 2001, the NorCal Mountain Bike League is broken into north and south conferences with about 1,000 riders participating on 72 teams. In addition to Kelseyville and Middletown, area high schools that have participating riders include Analy, Cardinal Newman, Santa Rosa, Montgomery, Maria Carrillo, Summerfield Waldorf and Credo, among others.

Races are typically held over two days at places like Fort Ord in Monterey, Folsom Lake and Six Sigma Winery in Lower Lake.

The state championship in May will be held at Five Springs Farm in Petaluma.

Because it’s a club sport and not officially sanctioned by the California Interscholastic Federation, coaches aren’t paid, athletes don’t get varsity letters or get let loose from class early on race day, and, most crucial to this story, they don’t get school-supplied gear.

Manner has been competing all season on a team loaner bike thanks to his coaches, Tami and Jeff Cramer who own Main Street Bicycles in Lakeport.

“It’s a sport that is sort of expensive because the school doesn’t provide anything,” Jeff Cramer said. “We want it so that if a kid wants to race, they don’t have an excuse.”

Prior to receiving his booty on Sunday, Manner had been borrowing his friend’s helmet all season.

“Having my own stuff, it’s a lot easier,” he said. “I can do what I want with it and if I break anything, I don’t have to worry about it being someone else’s.”

To Vanessa Hauswald’s way of thinking, having your own bike means more than just a training tool - it’s a taste of freedom and acknowledgment.

“It gives them real independence,” the NorCal league’s executive director said. “Maybe even more importantly, it gives them understanding that there are people who are supporting them and acknowledging that they are an important part of the community and they are doing good things. I think that goes a long way for a kid’s self esteem.”

Manner’s mom, Nancy Orton, has seen that in real time.

“This sport has gotten him motivated. Period,” she said. “He brought his grades up ... and is trying to grow up into a young adult. I think (cycling) is a huge part of it.

“It pushes him physically, but emotionally, too,” she said.

Like any mountain bike ride, even getting new gear can have a few bumps. A new bike can take some time to get to know. But Fischer was so excited about getting his new rig before his race Sunday, he made some minor tweaks and was off and racing.

It wasn’t exactly the christening he had envisioned for his new ride.

“I did crash a couple of times,” he said. “I didn’t know the bike and it wasn’t fully adjusted right.”

Seeing this, Bloomquist approached Fischer after the race with caution, despite what she calls his natural enthusiasm.

“He came off the course and you know, I was walking up thinking in my mind what I’d talk about - the frustration must be high - and he had this big old smile on his face,” she said. “This kid has got it going on.”

That, for Hauswald, is what it’s about. NorCal is working to establish teams at every high school in every county it serves.

The only thing stopping the organization, she said, is enough adults willing to get out and ride with the athletes.

“If we build it, they will come,” she said.

And with groups like REMBA lined up to help, more kids on bikes sounds more like a promise than a motto.

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield. Podcasting on iTunes and SoundCloud “Overtime with Kerry Benefield.”