Whole Athlete Junior Development Team Targets Fontana Pro XCT

Marin County-based Whole Athlete Cycling Team is traveling to Southern California again looking to build on their successes at the Bonelli Park US Cup, where they took 2nd through 6th in the Junior Cat 1 XC division.

In a variation on the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" chestnut, the winner of Bonelli park, Zach Valdez, has since joined the Whole Athlete team and is looking forward to his first race as a member of the squad.

The team is on something of a roll in recent weeks with Will Curtis taking his second consecutive Varsity win in the NorCal High School MTB League while Whole Athlete juniors took six of the top-10 Varsity boys spots.

Not to be outdone, on the female side of the squad, Victoria Yoham and Sofia Hamilton took 2nd and 5th in the girls Varsity and Kate Courtney won the Junior Varsity.

Fontana also marks the return to the dirt of U23 Pro rider John Bennett, who has been focusing on competing as a Category 2 road racer recently, winning the GC overall at the prestigious San Dimas Stage Race, in the process winning the time trial and placing 2nd in the circuit race.

In just its third season, the Whole Athlete junior develpment program continues to be supported by the non-profit Velo Development Foundation, and is building momentum while staying true to its core principles of fun, integrity, and a balanced integration of sports into the busy lifestyles of modern teens. Eighteen young athletes and three mentors will make the trip south in rented passenger vans, and the team is particularly excited to put their new Specialized Epics to the race test. "It's a lot of fun and highly motivating to work with such a dedicated group of young riders," says team founder and director Dario Fredrick, who was motivated enough to snag himself a win in the 40-44 Cat 1 division at Bonelli Park, his first official win in the stars and bars he picked up at Nationals in Granby, CO last summer. The team plans on repeating its trip to MTB Nationals, following an altitude acclimitization camp at Lake Tahoe, and for the first time registered this year as a UCI trade team, in order to compete at UCI World Cup Finals in New York.

For more information please visit http://www.wholeathlete.com/team.htm and http://velodevelopment.org/