The Jesuit Dallas cycling team rode well in the MTB league race at Reveille Peak Ranch (RPR) on Sunday. It was the second of four races in the NICA League season-long series.

In the JV4 race Nate Fleischer '28 started in the 13th spot and went down in a crash in the middle of the race pack just 100 meters into the race while everyone was jockeying for positioning. His handlebars broke into two pieces in dramatic fashion and the Jesuit & Highland Park coaches jumped into action with Patrick Tavares running back to his truck to grab his bike for Nate to use and teammate Wesley Tavares '29 ran back with the bike while we got Nate set-up to continue his race. Down but not out Nate finished his one-lap race thus earning points towards the overall and preserving his chances in the season overall competition. Nate ended up finishing 8th in the JV4 North conference race but that's largely because in mountain biking a bike swap incurs a 10 minute time penalty. If it hadn't been for that time penalty Nate would have finished 4th. If accounting for the 5-ish minutes it took to shake-off the crash and swap bikes then he would have been on the podium and even in the hunt for the win. Way to persevere Nate. After two races, each with a mechanical and related time penalty we're excited to see what Nate does when everything comes together!

In the JV2 race freshman Wesley Tavares '29 finished his two-lap race in a strong 2nd place. After the first lap Wesley and his former Highland Park teammate were well ahead of the next rider with the HP student in the lead and Wesley cruising right behind on his wheel. Then at the start of the second lap Wesley took over the lead when the HP rider stalled out on the technical rock face and Wesley perfectly executed a pass up and over the rock and around the HP rider. At some point on that final lap, though, the HP rider managed to pass Wesley who came across the finish line 28 seconds behind to secure a strong 2nd place 42 seconds ahead of 3rd place.

There are two regular season races left (4R Ranch & Vineyard next weekend) and then at Troy on 4/12 with the state championship race at Warda on 4/19.