Fwd: ACA race #4 at McDowell

[OVMTB]

Hi OVMTB,

While writing my weekly email today, I just realized that last week's email didn't get sent to the OVMTB group (all of you) because I goofed up the email address.  Sorry about that- it's below with some info about volunteer hours and qualifying for states.

I'll be sending out this week's email later today.

Thanks,

Ryan

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: OVMTB <coach...@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Oct 13, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Subject: ACA race #4 at McDowell
To: co...@ovmtb.org co...@ovmtb.org <co...@ovmtb.org>, Shelley Neasham <hpzt...@icloud.com>, Scott Rich <scott.c...@gmail.com>

Hello OVMTB!

Well, here we are, the week of race #4 in the ACA season.  When we were doing skills clinics in June it sounded like October was months and months away... This is the last regular season race, with only the State Championships in Sierra Vista remaining after that.

It's a very little known fact that "McDowell" in French means "super fun MTB course with one soul crushing climb" and in that sense, the French really got it right.  The course has some really great flowy sections with large berms, some good passing areas and one really long climb up the face of the mountain. More good news, it's at a reasonable elevation so there will even be some oxygen available for our low altitude team.

McDowell Mountain Park is at 16300 McDowell Mountain Park Dr, Fort McDowell, AZ 85264.  Friday afternoon we'll meet in the Four Peaks lot camping area at 4:30pm to do our pre-ride, and team dinner will be at that same location around 5:45pm.  The teams is providing the main course (burritos) and the sign-up genius is here for side dishes: Fuel the team

Raceday schedule on Saturday is the same as the first 3 races with the first wave starting at 8am.  Here is a link to the race info page from ACA: McDowell Race

Since the last race I've found some new info I wanted to share with everyone as a few parents had asked recently:

1. State Championships- you have to "qualify" to race at Sierra Vista, but the stipulations are pretty easy.  Cut and pasted from the rulebook:

SECTION 9.10 — STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS RACE
9.10.A Student-athletes must individually qualify for the State Championships race,
based on the following criteria:
1. Complete a minimum of two (2) series races; and
2. Top Overall Individual Series point earners as follow:
a. All Varsity Boys and Girls.
b. All Junior Varsity 1 Boys and Girls.
c. Top 50 Junior Varsity 2 Division I Boys per conference.
d. Top 50 Junior Varsity 2 Division II Boys per conference.
e. Top 50 Junior Varsity 2 Girls per conference.
f. Top 50 Freshman Division I Boys per conference.
g. Top 50 Freshman Division II Boys per conference.
h. Top 50 Freshman Girls per conference.
i. Top 50 8th Grade Boys per conference.
j. Top 50 8th Grade Girls per conference.
k. Top 50 7th Grade Boys per conference.
l. Top 50 7th Grade Girls per conference.
m. Top 50 6th Grade Boys per conference.
n. Top 50 6th Grade Girls per conference.
o. All high school seniors regardless of category and placement.

The second topic is on Volunteering (you might have already seen this on TeamSnap).  There was some confusion on my part about the volunteers having to be "unique people".  That is no longer the case- anyone can volunteer as many times as they like and we do get credit for it.  They are tracking the hours, so each position is worth a different amount of hours towards our team total.  Staging is worth 0.75 of an hour, course marshalling is 3hrs, EMT is worth 8 hrs, etc.  The end of the year award $ is based on the total hours per rider.  Thanks to everyone for continuing to volunteer at these races!

See you tomorrow at practice!

Ryan

--

Ryan McCoskey

OVMTB Head Coach

www.ovmtb.org

--

Ryan McCoskey

OVMTB Head Coach

www.ovmtb.org