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2024 Candy Rush – South
April 7, 2024 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Join us for the CANDY RUSH at Sugar Land!
This will be a SOUTH CONFERENCE race.
Before the Race
Register in PitZone
The race registration deadline is 11:59 p.m. the Tuesday prior to race. Late registration will be open on the Saturday of the race weekend, between 9:00 a.m.-2 p.m. A $25 late fee will be assessed and the rider will go to the back of the call-ups regardless of series standings.
Fun lap riders may register ($25) for the fun lap during the late registration window on Saturday. Riders must be practice ready in Pit Zone.
Fill out the Venue Waiver
The league will be using a digital waiver again this year that race attendees will be required to sign once and will cover all venues throughout the 2024 season. Everyone who enters the venue is required to complete the waiver even those who are not competing.
Venue Gate Hours
Friday: 2 – 9:00 p.m.
Saturday: 8 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Sunday: 7 a.m. –
Fees – CASH ONLY
$15.00 per person if arriving Friday or Saturday.
$10.00 for Sunday only.
Children under 6 free.
Venue Rules
- No open fires – fires in fire rings only.
- No drones.
- A dumpster will be available at the entrance/exit. Please leave the ranch as clean as we found it!
- Pets must be on leash
- No ATVs allowed unless approved by land owner/league.
- No RV hookups available.
- Generators must be turned off by 10 p.m. unless parked in the generator zone.
Camping and Venue Map
Please familiarize yourself with the venue map! The venue map is intended to help teams and families easily organize and plan for the weekend. Please only camp in designated areas.
The map is subject to change as sometimes the weather and venues can throw us special surprises. 🙂
Race Route
The trails we’ll be riding are located at a city of Sugar Land park and are free to ride! The trails are managed by the Fort Bend Mountain Bike Association. Be sure to check TrailForks for trail status.
Leave your climbing legs at home and trim those handle bars down and get ready for a speeder chase on Endor.
*Note: The posted route is subject to change.
Join us for a Try-it-out ride!
Curious about mountain biking or about joining NICA? Trek will be hosting a try-it-out ride for students grades 4-12 on Saturday, April 6 at the Candy Rush at Sugar Land race!
This event is free, but registration is required!
2:45-3:45 p.m.
- Check-in at the Trek tent.
- Helmet and bike check to make sure you’re ready to roll.
- Skills and bike games to get warmed up!
3:45 p.m.
- Break into groups.
- Students must be riding in a guided group for the duration of the event.
- Take a lap on the Sugar Land Candy Rush race course!
- Our coaches and ride leaders will lead and sweep the groups.
- Expect there to be times where you can stop to work on skills and enjoy some fruit snacks!
Race-weekend Schedule
Friday
2-9 p.m. Venue Gate Hours – Staff and volunteers setting up course. No pre-ride available at this time.
Saturday
8:00 a.m. Venue Gates Open
9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Team packet pick-up at the registration tent. Send one coach per team to get athlete race number plates, coach plates, and feed zone lanyards.
8:30 a.m. Volunteer Shifts Begin
9:15 a.m. Coaches Only Pre-ride
11:00 a.m. *Course Open for Scheduled Pre-Rides.
*All racers should pre-ride the course during their appointed time. Riders must adhere to all course restrictions and follow the directions of staff on the course.
2:30 p.m. NICA GRiT Ride @ NICA GRiT Tent
9:00 p.m. Venue Gates Close.
Sunday
7:00 a.m. Venue Gates Open
7:30 a.m. *Course Open to for Pre-Ride
8:00 a.m. Course Marshal Meeting, Volunteer Shifts Begin
8:15 a.m. Head Coaches Meeting @ Registration Tent
This meeting is mandatory. If a team does not have a coach represented, a penalty may be assessed.
8:30 a.m. Pre-Ride Closed, Race Sweep Meeting
9:00 a.m. Racing Begins – Race-day updates will be communicated through the League channel 6(6) on your radios.
Podiums following infield cleanup.
OTB 101
Saturday April 6, 2:00 p.m.
$25
OTB101 is needed to become a Level 2 Coach.
You must be registered as a coach in PitZone, with NICA membership fee paid and NICA participant waiver signed. The cost of the course is $25, which covers the Field Guide you will receive upon successful completion of the course. A Certificate of Completion will be uploaded into PitZone.
MOB Skills (Moms On Bikes)
Saturday April 6, 10:00 a.m.
FREE, but you must sign up
Introducing a new skills clinic specific for women who are just getting started mountain biking, or have been off the bike for a while and are returning to the sport!
A collaboration of the NICA GRiT (Girls Riding Together) staff and Coach Supporter Coordinators, the MOB (Moms on Bikes) skills clinics will offer basic bike skills instruction for small groups of women. The sessions will progress over time to help improve riders’ skills and confidence on the bike.
Whether your end goal is to ride with your student-athlete, to coach with the team, to better enjoy your time on the bike, or to meet and ride with other like-minded women, this course will help you start that journey!
Volunteer at a race
This organization is run by a community of volunteers, and there are a number of ways you can donate your time to support the league!
Volunteering at our races is a fun and rewarding way to get involved and help bring the NICA experience alive for our student athletes, parents, and coaches. It takes approximately 100 volunteers to put on each race and we have positions for all skill sets – on or off the bike.
For more information, contact volunteers@texasmtb.org
Volunteer Positions
You don’t need to be a mountain bike expert to be a great volunteer! Volunteers can help set up the course, work road and course crossings, keep an eye on students on the course (course marshals), assist with scoring and so much more.
Sign Up
Getting involved with the race is a rewarding experience and a great way to be part of the action!
Volunteer Home Teams
Each race is assigned a group of home teams based on proximity to the venue. We expect home teams to make a concerted effort to get as many volunteers from their team as possible for that race weekend, but we recognize that the weekends can be busy for everyone involved and travel itmes vary.
Sugarland (S)
Feb. 1-2, 2025
Houston Composite
Woodlands
Pearland Coyotes
Armadillos – Fort Bend
29 Pines (N)
Feb. 15-16, 2025
Rose City Racing
ETX Piney Woods
Jesuit Dallas
Highland Park
Mesquite
Classical Dallas
Millican (N+S)
Feb. 22-23, 2025
A&M/College Station
North Austin
Austin High
St. Stephens
Steiner/Vandergrift
RPR (N+S)
Mar. 8-9, 2025
Bulldogs
Lake Travis
San Marcos
Hays County
Troy (N+S)
Mar. 22-23, 2025
Heart of Texas/Midway
Fort Worth Flyers
South Metro
Abilene – Team Big Country
Vista Ridge
Westlake
4R (N)
Apr. 5-6, 2025
Amarillo
Wichita Falls
North Texas
Azle
Mineral Wells
Warda (S)
Apr. 12-13, 2025
Boerne 9ers
Two10
Alamo Heights
Lopez
Alamo City Femmes
Victoria
State Championship
May 3-4. 2025
All Teams
Additional Race Details
Race Plates
Race Plate Pick-up
Coaches will pick up all race plates at the first race. Riders will receive one plate to be used for all races and event weekend activities. Plates have chips on the back and require care to avoid damage. Each athlete will also receive a back number that must be adhered to their jersey during races. There is a $10 fee to replace lost, stolen, or forgotten plates. If you need a replacement, go to the registration tent.
No unregistered parents or siblings allowed on course
To be on the course or in the adventure zone at any time during event weekends, riders (Students and Coaches) must be fully practice ready in Pit Zone and have their number plates on their bike.
GRiT ride participants should sign a waiver at the GRiT tent
Season Scoring
Race Series Rules
Texas offers a conference race series for each conference (North and South) followed by a joint conference State Championship race. Teams can only attend races offering categories for their conference. Some conference races may host both conferences, but each conference will have separate podiums for each category. The League will offer five regular season races for each conference and may have one or more predetermined rain dates in case of weather cancellations.
Overall Individual Conference Series Champion
Overall Conference Series scoring for individuals is based on each athlete’s top three finishes with a 25 point bonus for competing in four conference series races. If there are fewer than four races in the series, in the case of multiple race cancellations, the 25 bonus points will be credited for participating in all available conference races. A race cancellation is when a specific category is unable to start a race or all riders in that category are unable to complete at least one timed lap.
Overall Conference Series final standings will be determined after the last conference race and prior to the State Championship race. In the event of a tie for the conference championship, the winner will be determined based on the number of wins. Should a tie remain, finishes of second, third, etc., will be tallied until the tie is broken. If a tie remains, the best finish in the last race will determine the champion. The State Championship race is not included in the race series for the Overall Conference Series scoring.
In the event of a tie for the conference championship, the winner will be determined based on the number of wins. Should a tie remain, finishes of second, third, etc., will be tallied until the tie is broken. If a tie remains, the best finish in the last race will determine the champion.
State Championship Points, Podiums, and Call Ups
Call-ups for the State Championship race, to include all conferences, will be determined by the individual student athlete’s conference series points total (best three finishes), inclusive of bonus points. Podiums will be awarded to the top 10 athletes in each category. The winner of each race category will be declared as State Champion. In the event that all conferences don’t have the same number of regular season races, the number of best-of-races considered for call-ups will be determined by the lowest number of races completed by any conference. For example, Conference A completes one more race than Conference B. The combined state championship call-ups will be based on the number of regular-season races completed by Conference B minus one. There will be a minimum of 2 races considered when determining call-ups for the state championship race.
State Championship Eligibility
- Student-athletes must have earned points from a regular season race to be eligible to compete in the state championship race.
- Student-athletes must be a Texas League member to compete in the state championship race (no guest riders).
Overall Team Scoring
A team’s overall conference placement is based on team point totals from each team’s best four regular season conference races. State champion teams will be determined based on the results of the State Championship race. The team’s score is the highest score possible out of the boy-girl combinations shown in combinations shown in 6.11.F.3.
Series Call-Ups and Waves
- Maximum Field Size- Any category with 50 or more racers will be split into multiple waves not to exceed 50 per wave. As an example, an 80-rider field would be split into 2 waves. The top 40 call-ups would be in the first wave and 40-80 call-ups in the second wave.
- Categories or fields with fewer than 10 athletes may be combined at the discretion of the league.
- 1 podium for each category, 5 deep for conference races, and 10 deep for the state championship
- 100% Call ups for all categories
- Call-ups for the first race will use the previous season’s point totals, inclusive of championship points and bonus points. 6th graders will be random for the first race. New riders to the League will be assigned a random call-up behind all returning riders.
- Subsequent race call-ups will be based on the student athlete’s overall points. This will be applied to both middle school and high school categories.
- Starting with the 5th and all successive conference races, call-ups will be based upon the conference series scoring (best 3 finishes) not inclusive of bonus points.
- Middle school athletes will follow the same call-up and series points protocol as high school athletes.
- Middle-school team awards will not be tracked or awarded.
Points scale
- Middle school categories are on a 500 points scale
- Varsity will be a 575 point scale
- JV1 will be a 540 point scale
- JV2 will be a 500
- JV3 Boys will be 450 point scale
- JV4 Boys / JV3 Girls will be on a 400 point scale
Race Duration Guidelines
Middle School, JV4 Men, and JV3 Women
45 minutes
JV Women and Men
75 minutes
Varsity Women and Men
90 minutes
Student athletes are expected to be able to safely complete the course within the designated time limit. Athletes may be asked to withdraw and exit the course after cut-off time limits have been reached. Racers who do not make the time limit cut-off will still be scored and ranked.
League and race officials reserve the right to determine these time limits and alter them at any time. Time limits may be imposed or altered for reasons that include, but are not limited to, safety, heat, cold, rain, and muddy conditions.
Chip Timing
All riders will receive a permanent number plate with a chip timing transponder on the backside. Riders use the same plate for the entire race series. Please remove this number plate before transporting bikes to prevent loss.
Replacement number plates will be available at the registration tent for $10.00.
Category Placement
Race categories will be evaluated and assigned in Pit Zone. Petitions should be submitted to the Texas League Rules Committee using the petition form by Friday at 11:59 PM, one week before the race weekend.
No race day petitions will be accepted
| CATEGORY | MEN | WOMEN |
| 5th Grade | 5th Graders only | 5th Graders only |
| 6th Grade | 6th Graders 5th Graders who have successfully petitioned into the category. | 6th Graders 5th Graders who have successfully petitioned into the category. |
| 7th Grade | 7th Graders 5th and 6th Graders who have successfully petitioned into the category. | 7th Graders 5th and 6th Graders who have successfully petitioned into the category. |
| 8th Grade | 8th Graders only 5th through 7th Graders who have successfully petitioned into the category. | 8th Graders only 5th through 7th Graders who have successfully petitioned into the category. |
| JV4 | 9th – 12th graders who: Do not qualify for other categories. Have not raced with NICA in a previous season Successfully petition into the category This category is not open to middle schoolers. | NA |
| JV3 | 9th graders who: Placed in the top 85% in any two 8th grade races the prior year and did not qualify for the JV2 category. 10th graders who: Raced Freshman the prior year and did not qualify to upgrade to JV1 or JV2 11th -12th graders who: Raced JV2 in the prior year but did not qualify to upgrade to JV1 or JV2 9th – 12th graders who successfully petition into the category This category is not open to middle schoolers. | 9th – 12th graders who: Do not qualify for other categories. Have not raced with NICA in a previous season 10th – 12th graders who Raced JV2 in the prior year but did not qualify to upgrade to JV1 or JV2 This category is not open to middle schoolers. |
| JV2 | 9th Graders who: Placed in the top 55% in any two 8th grade races the prior year 10th graders who: Placed in the top 70% of any two Freshman races the prior year. 11th – 12th graders who: Placed in the top 55% of any two JV2 races the prior year. Student-athletes who have successfully petitioned into the category. | 9th Graders who: Placed in the top 55% in any two 8th grade races the prior year 10th graders who: Placed in the top 70% of any two Freshman races the prior year. 11th – 12th graders who: Placed in the top 55% of any two JV2 races the prior year. Student-athletes who have successfully petitioned into the category. |
| JV1 | 10th Graders who: Placed in the top 35% in any two Freshman races in the prior year 11th – 12th grade students who: Placed in the top 15% of any two JV2 races the prior year. Raced in JV1 the prior year but did not qualify to upgrade to Varsity. Student-athletes who successfully petition into the category. | 10th Graders who placed in the top 35% in any two Freshman races in the prior year, 11th – 12th grade students who: Placed in the top 15% of any two JV2 races the prior year. Raced in JV1 the prior year but did not qualify to upgrade to Varsity. Student-athletes who successfully petition into the category. |
| Varsity | 10th – 12th grade athletes who: Placed in the top 25% in any two JV1 races the prior year, Raced Varsity the prior year. Student-athletes who successfully petition into the category. | 10th – 12th grade athletes who: Placed in the top 25% in any two JV1 races the prior year, Raced Varsity the prior year. Students who successfully petition into the category. |
Weather and Refund Policy
Weather Policy
The League’s primary considerations in assessing inclement weather plans are the safety of riders, staff and spectators, as well as the potential for damage to the venue and trails. Decisions regarding canceling, postponing or altering race start times, lap lengths, number of laps, etc. will be made jointly by league staff and the land manager. If inclement weather is predicted, we will make a decision about weather related cancellations by Thursday at 5:00 p.m. For more details about our inclement weather thresholds and cancellations, see the Weather Policy.
Refund Policy
We realize that mountain biking is a new sport for many, and parents may be concerned that their child may not stick with it. The Texas Interscholastic Cycling League strives to put on world-class events and provide all of our student-athletes, coaches, and volunteers with the best resources possible at practices throughout the season. With this goal in mind, we make a financial investment to cover insurance, training, and planning activities. Those expenses are continuously incurred. In order to maintain the sustainability of the League, it is necessary we implement a NO REFUND policy with limited exceptions only for illness, injury, or family emergencies.
Refunds for injured athletes
The Texas League fee may be partially refundable for season-ending illnesses, injuries, or family emergencies that prohibit athletes from participating in practices and races. A doctor’s note must be provided for illness or injuey. There is a minimum $100 non-refundable fee to cover NICA fees, insurance, and registration. Refunds cannot be made after the second race. League leadership will review refund requests and make a determination.
NICA Handbook: Rules and Guidelines
All participants are required to read, understand and abide by all league policies, rules and protocols while attending any league event.
The handbook details important rules that should be followed at all races as well as any associated penalties or disciplinary actions that can be assessed against riders or teams for violations of the rules.
2025 NICA HANDBOOK COMING SOON
LEAGUE RULES COMMITTEE PETITION FORM COMING SOON (Form will be available soon – Do not use this form for category placement petitions)
TX Specific Rules
Student-athletes must join school teams:
School teams must submit their intent to register to the league director before the student-athlete registration opening for this rule to be enforced for that team. If a team registers after this deadline, any eligible student-athlete who has already registered with a different team will be given the choice to move to the school team or complete the season with the team they have already registered with.
Composite Team Limitations
High school composite teams are limited to a maximum of 30 student-athletes. Middle school composite team size is not limited.
Guest Riders
An active member of another NICA league may participate in one regular season race as an independent rider.
Jerseys for subdivided teams
Teams that are subdivided based on having 5 student-athletes from a school may choose to wear a unique jersey that represents their school team or the jersey of the composite team they were subdivided from. All members of the subdivided school team must wear the same jersey.