Announcing our 2016 sponsors -- led by TryAd Personal Training

SoMont Cycling is proud to announce its sponsors for the 2016 season, starting with the premier, GOLD level sponsor TryAd Personal Training.

TryAd Personal Training will be playing a key role aiding coaches in the development of youth athletes by assisting in strength and conditioning, as well as flexibility and proper nutrition to help the athletes minimize injuries and maximize their success on the trail!

A huge thank you goes out to Daniel Maialetti and TryAd Personal Training for their commitment to the success of the team. To learn more about TryAd visit their website or Facebook page.

www.tryad-pt.com

www.facebook.com/Tryad-Personal-Training-376055469472/

Stay tuned for more posts about our other 2016 sponsors.

Evolution of Our Practice Format

If you've been a baseball, softball or soccer coach before, you pretty much know the drill (pun intended) when it comes to the format of practice. For most sports, practice is pretty much the same. We're finding at SoMont that cycling at our level isn't that much different than other sports in terms of practice format. The big difference is we're doing it on a bike and we need to think a bit about where we hold our practices.

As we have more and more practices our format becomes a bit more refined each time. Coach and manager roles are starting to crystallize. Team and personal dynamics are beginning to shine thru. Athletes are starting to get it and it is pretty exciting.

While we have 2 different types of practices, skill and trail ride (endurance) they all generally have the same flow.

• everyone gathers up, light conversation
• group hits critical mass, practice begins
• team managers and coaches say a few things 
• start with safetey checks (water, helmets, etc...) and ABCs of bike maintenance (Air, Brakes, Chain)
• we start with an educational topic for the athletes, like hydration, and talk briefly about it. We'll continue to talk about it all throughout the practice
• we jump on the bike and start shredding!
• for skills based practice, we'll do a number of different purposed-based drills for 30 to 45 minutes. Then we'll transition to a Circuit Loop with lots of coach instruction if not a 1-1 coach-to-athete pairing (when available). For a trail ride practice, we'll ride 8 to 10 miles and start/stop with instruction along the way when appropriate
• we finish the practice with some administrative items, talk of upcoming events and Q&A

While things are starting to gel, we've also acknowledged we need to do a better job with things like warming up/down & stretching. Our broader week-to-week and season long curriculum is something that's also in development. These are just a few of the things we'll be focusing on in the next few practices.

To give you some insight into how and where we've conducted one of our most successful skills-based practices, below you'll find an embedded Strava record of the activity and some pictures of the practice. What you can't exactly see in the map below is both a skills area and a circuit loop. We're finding that a small hyper-local park like Baederwood Park in Abington is a perfect location for a practice for us!

Check it out. Are you ready to shred with us? Email us at info at somontcycling dot org if you want to learn more about our team!

Coach Dan talking about the importance of hydration

Coach Thuong overseeing a carry-over drill

Collin charging over the obstacle

Ethan from an interesting perspective

Coach John and Coach Thuong talking thru the ATTACK POSITION during a small downhill of the Circuit Loop

2016 Inaugural Race Details & Course Map Released

Exciting news! The 2016 PICL Middle and High School course maps via GPS have been released. The loop is 202 miles with approximately 172 feet of climb/descent. One loop will take an athlete approximately 25 minutes. The middle school loop will be performed a least a few times with the final number of loops TBD!

Check it the middle school loop details below! Click here for the high school loop.

SoMont Cycling sign up -- Here's how it works...

The SoMont Cycling 2016 mountain bike season is in full swing and we're off to a great start. We've held a number of practices and group trail rides in July and August. We've designed our jersey, did some fundraising and acquired our first round of 2016 sponsors! (more about that soon). The athletes are having a great time and the coaches are excited to see everyone's progression.

But that doesn't mean we're done recruiting. We're still out hosting events at local bike shops and other locations in the community. You might have even seen our posters around your neighborhood.

If you even wondered what the signup process might be like, here's what it entails from the athletes perspective.

After contacting the team directors, by emailing info@somontcycling.org, you will be sent an invitation to sign in to the PitZone. The PitZone is the online portal supplied to us by the national organization, NICA (National Interscholastic Cycling League). The parent of the athlete is typically the registrant and the person who supplies all the personal information about the athlete and their family. As part of this process there are waivers, acknowledgement forms and the initial NICA and PA League fees are collected. At this point the directors of the SoMont team are notified and the athlete is registered officially on the team.

At this point, the SoMont coaching team will contact the family about other administrative items specific to the SoMont team such as jersey sizing, personal/emergency contact information, food allergies, parent volunteer opportunities and the collection of the SoMont fees ($150).

That's it!

Contact us at info@somontcycling.org or 215 704-1556 to learn more about joining our team!

Practice Schedule Beginning to Firm Up

Our practice schedule over the past few weeks has been working out for our families and coaches so we are going to stick with it. We current have the following plans. Locations for each will be TBD and posted to the schedule hopefully a week in advance.

• Sunday Afternoon: Trail rides (Potential locations: Lorimer Park, Pennypack Rail-Trail, Forbidden Drive, SRT, Pennypack Park, Rt 202 Trail and more)
• Tuesday evening: Skills-based practice (Curtis Arboretum, Tookany Creek Parkway Trail, Baederwood Park and more)

We are also planning a number of special events. This of these as ROAD TRIPS to places like the Philly PumpTrack or RideNox.

For reference, we've put together this map of all the potential locations we'll use throughout the season. You can also view the map in FULL SCREEN.

Learn More about SoMont Cycling at Keswick Cycle + Keswick Summer Sale

We will be having another Q&A night to answer questions about the team this Thursday August 4th 7pm at Keswick Cycle Glenside.

Come by early to shop the Keswick Summer Sale where all 2014-2015 Road & Mountain bikes are 15% to 30% off! Plus everything in the store is 10% to 60% off?

Learn more about he Keswick Summer Sale >

SoMont jersey design Orange Slant is the winner!

We've been working hard on a number of initiatives to support the team this year. One of our most exciting efforts has been the design of our kit. Yesterday we released a provisional design for our jersey called ORANGE SLANT. Check it out.

We'll also be selling our jersey as a fundraiser so stay tuned for more info about how to purchase!