AUSTIN, Texas, – Student-athletes, coaches, team managers and league officials are focused on March 11, the historic start date of the Texas High School Mountain Bike League’s first race series.

Almost two years in the making, the Texas League is part of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, a self-funded non-profit youth development organization that governs high school mountain biking in the United States.

League director, Vance McMurry, said, “We are getting great feedback from the students about our program, but there’s a bigger picture to look at and I think that’s important. Our student-athletes build ties to the school community and develop lifelong healthy habits while participating in an inclusive team experience that helps build strong bodies, strong minds and strong characters. We have been building up to this for almost two years now, and with it all finally coming to fruition I must admit I have some butterflies, but everything is shaping up well and I’m truly excited that it’s about to happen.”

With new teams still signing up, the race series is expected to be include more than 10 teams in its first year, with 50 – 80 riders. Growth of the Texas League has been organic, using it’s website, email and Facebook promotions to spread the word, as well as working with coaches to recruit new riders.

The 2012 Tour de Cure has been shortened to a one-day event this year.  It will start from the Travis County Expo Center, and you will have a choice of 15, 30, 50, 80 and 100 miles rides (map).  For more fun, join or sign up for a team, or sponsor a rider.  The Tour de Cure is currently discounting registration fees until February 15:  two people for $15 (use promo code VALENTINE). Once registered, for every $50 raised they will enter your name in a raffle to win a Kindle Fire  They are also giving away Tour de Cure Team Captain cycling gloves for the team captain who recruits at least five people for the team and raises $2500 by April 30.

This year we at Southwest CycleSport are challenging riders to complete the 103 mile loop.  To help you accomplish that goal,  we will be leading Century training rides from the shop on Sundays at 8am sharp starting next week (2/12).  To make this more fun, we will be raffling goodies throughout the schedule and giving out gift certificates to those who reach certain goals and complete the ride (see the Training Schedule for details).

"Scott’s Spark has been a racers' and fast trail riders’ favourite for years. The all-new 2012 bikes combine tighter and lighter framesets with adjustable aggressive terrain geometry. The rear end isn’t the smoothest, but gives twin remote lockout sprintability that the target market will love. The top alloy-framed 40 model gives an impressively rapid and responsive ride in both 26 and 29in wheel formats."  Read the entire article.

Our first shipment of 2012 Scott bikes has arrived.  Special notice to you 29'er fans:  The Scott 29'er bikes are HOT.  We anticipate that Scott will run out of these bikes pretty quickly, so stop by the shop and take a look and a ride.