Gilroy
– Wooded paths littered with logs, drop-offs and steep hills are
hard enough to deal with on foot.
Imagine conquering them while on a mountain bike.
Several Garlic City teenagers did just that at one of the
largest mountain biking events in the country, this past weekend’s
Sea Otter Classic in Monterey.
Gilroy – Wooded paths littered with logs, drop-offs and steep hills are hard enough to deal with on foot.
Imagine conquering them while on a mountain bike.
Several Garlic City teenagers did just that at one of the largest mountain biking events in the country, this past weekend’s Sea Otter Classic in Monterey.
Gilroy’s Alex Amaral, Cody Day, Jordan Fargher, Chris Lauber and Kyle Thomas all competed in the 14–under junior beginner men MTB downhill division, which had 80 participants.
Day, an eighth grader at Brownell middle school, won the race with a time of 3:00.25 minutes. Lauber, a freshman at Gilroy High, finished sixth with a time of 3:07.61 and Thomas, who also attends Brownell, finished 12th with a 3:13.59.
“They’re just all friends who are all into mountain bike riding,” said Day’s mother, Kelly.
The win was Cody Day’s first in six total races he’s participated in. The 14-year-old has been racing for about a year and got into the sport largely because his dad, who works for Fox Racing, is a mountain biker .
“I was hoping to get podium but I wasn’t expecting to win,” Day said. “The was a little longer this year because you really had to pedal
a lot. It was kind of flat
in some parts, some
slight uphill.
“Most of the other courses I do I don’t pedal because it’s straight downhill and you’re going so fast.”
Day said that he, Amaral, Fargher, Lauber and Thomas bike at area state parks and at Christmas Hill Park, where they have jumps to practice on, including a 37-foot jump.
The bikers are mostly self-taught, but they also get some guidance from Alex Amaral’s brother Jimmy Amaral, a seasoned racer.
Despite downhill mountain biking’s dangerous nature, Day, who has broken a foot and suffered a shoulder contusion as a result of biking accidents, said he’s never been afraid of the sport.
Kelly Day, however, wasn’t so fearless about watching her son.
“She walks the course and last year she was too afraid so she stayed a the bottom (of the hill) and waited for me,” Cody
Day said.
But this year, she watched from the biggest jump on the course, and watched her son be the only competitor to make the jump.
The next race Day will compete in could be next month or in June. Regardless, he will have to move up to the 15–18 age group, with the goal of moving from the beginner to sport division.
