In 2016, New Jersey joined the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA). That first year, there were only five teams. But now, there are 25 teams, and the NJ Mountain Biking league is still growing.
Bridgewater’s local team, Somerset Hills Veloraptors, began in 2018 and has continuously grown as the years go on. With the 2025 season starting soon in December, and the 2024 Eastern Regionals Festival and Championships just over, the middle and high school athletes are excited for training with the team to start back up again.
NICA’s mission since day one has always been “get more kids on bikes”, as well as, “building strong minds, bodies, character and communities through cycling.”
Banners lining the start chute at races say “fun, inclusivity, equity, respect and community.” NICA values the community over competition, and it is obvious at races.
It is an all weekend event with games happening on Saturday, and races and skill areas on Sunday.
The race season starts in April and ends in June with five races. However, training for these teams starts well before that. In December, the athletes go out every weekend and train together.
Bridgewater Raritan High School student, Laila Acquista, shared her reaction after her first time mountain biking. “It’s fun. It takes a lot of concentration to not fall over but it’s fun overall,” she said.
Some student-athletes joined NICA for the fun of the sport and chose not to race, coming to practices to ride with a group of like-minded athletes and friends.
The team tries to accommodate all athletes and their wishes, meeting them in the middle from where they are starting. If an athlete does not know how to ride a bike, the coaches teach them, gets them riding with the team and participants can even start competing in a race by the end of the season.
For some of the athletes, racing is what they want to do in college and NICA can be an amazing stepping stone for that.
Bridgewater Raritan High School alumni, Beck Toro-Gordon, joined NICA in 6th grade and now races at the collegiate level for Lees McRae College. Additionally, Madigan Munro now races at the elite Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) level, but she started as a kid on the NICA.
The team director, Nadine Dalesandro, is looking forward to next season and is very proud of how the high school athletes performed at Regionals.
“We had a small but mighty showing and all three of the athletes performed remarkably well and I am extremely proud of them,” she said.
This is the first year that the Veloraptors have team captains, and Euan Maxwell and Nic Dalesandro both feel honored to have been chosen as captains and are excited to pass on their knowledge of the sport to the younger athletes.
With the team’s season just starting out, many of the athletes have been going to informal practices to get their legs moving again.
Just this past Sunday, the team held a Bring-A-Friend Ride. Dalesandro and Maxwell led the ride, showing the new athletes around Washington Valley Park with the help of a few coaches. All the athletes are super excited for the start of the season.
If you want to learn more about mountain biking, you can join the Mountain Bike Club at Bridgewater-Raritan Regional High School.
Jeremy Marton, a Science Teacher at the high school, oversees the Mountain Bike Club and they have meetings every other week to talk about biking.
The Google Classroom code to join is: sqkstv. Several members of the club are also on the Somerset Hills Veloraptors.
To find out more information about the team, visit their website: https://shveloraptors.com/.
