After last year's award-winning cross-country mountain biking season, Team Squamish is ramping up for the Canadian races to begin on March 30.
Since March 13, three of their young athletes — Koel Shinkaruk (12), Cam McCallum (13) and Eric Sol (14) — have been training with the Provincial High Performance XC Mountain Bike group and racing in US Cup Series in California.
Tobin McCallum, who helps with coaching, said the three riders are the youngest training with the group, which is made up of the fastest riders in B.C. His own son, Cam, he said, is the fastest kid in the province. He may also be the fastest kid in Canada.
The young McCallum was bumped up an age category during training. In all four of his racing seasons, he's always finished minutes ahead of the next rider.
"I'm a pretty proud dad," McCallum said. "I think they're going to be fantastic when our Canada Cup race season starts."
As for the rest of the Team Squamish athletes, they've been keeping in shape during the off-season with a combination of fall and winter team trail rides and other sports including biathlon. The 17 riders are part of the same program that produced champions including the likes of Sean Fincham and Holden Jones, who placed in nationals in 2018.
"These days it's a little bit more challenging getting the kids off the devices, off the tech, working hard and into sport. The team does a great job of that. There's kind of a fresh wave of new riders," said McCallum, adding that the team is now made up of younger riders between 12 and 15 years old.
But it's not all about the finish line.
"We keep the focus on fun," he said. "A big part of the program is just to build outstanding citizens. We produce champions, but they're also learning life skills. Competing, preparing meals, doing all the packaging and preparation and budgeting how much they need for groceries. This is about developing and growing into young adults."
Six to eight members of Team Squamish are expected to make the trip to compete in Victoria for the first race of the Canadian season on March 30 and 31.
