Team BOREALIS kicks off season in Alexandria

Local youth mountain bikers from Team BOREALIS kicked off the fall race season Aug. 24-25 in Alexandria, MN. Eight high schoolers and middle schoolers from Ely made the trip to race the smooth but twisty course at Brophy Park. The team has been practicing locally at Hidden Valley since mid-July and was eager to test their fitness at their first race.

Team BOREALIS races as a part of the Minnesota Cycling Association (MCA) which organizes race events for 6-12th grade students throughout the state of Minnesota. Each race is a festival- like atmosphere with two days of racing each weekend.

“At these MCA races, every weekend has almost 50 teams and 1,000 riders. This makes every race almost like a state meet in other sports, where we see the best riders from all over Minnesota come to race,” said Team BOREALIS head coach Mark Sponholz.

Leading Team BOREALIS in the results was Beck Sponholz, taking third place among seventh grade girls. Also racing in middle school categories were Ava Wohnsen (29th, seventh grade girls), Max Ice (48th, seventh grade boys), Hokan Lunn (50th, seventh Grade boys), Addison Kannas (14th, eighth grade girls), Amelia Strom (15th eighth grade girls), and Sawyer Chick (30th, eighth grade boys). George Sponholz took 14th racing in the JV2 category of high schoolers.

This was the first week of the fall race series organized by the Minnesota Cycling Association. Team BOREALIS riders will race again in two weeks at Lake Rebecca Park in Rockford. Additional races this season will be at Theodore Wirth Park (Minneapolis) and Pine Valley (Cloquet) with the season finale at Redhead mountain bike park in Chisholm.