Tim and his son Duncan at MTB Nats, Bear Creek 2024
January 7, 2025
by Tim Leithead
Coach/Parent, NICA PA & Masters MTB Racer
MTB Nationals is an amazing experience for kids and adults alike; the energy, the massive fields and the opportunity to race along with the pros is unique.
We were lucky to have it in our backyard at Bear Creek for the past two years. My son and I raced both times, and while neither of us had remarkable results, we both came away with amazing memories and the desire to do better next year.
For the next two years, USAC MTB Nationals heads to Roanoke, Va. Roanoke is roughly a 6 hour drive from the Philadelphia area, so attending is obviously a much larger commitment.
If your child wants to go, the simple fact that they want to compete is amazing. It shows your child’s dedication to and passion for this wonderful sport. Nationals can bring with it challenges and disappointments, but with some preparation, you can increase your child’s chances of making the most of the trip.
Why Should I Care About USAC Points?
For kids not racing at Nationals, USAC points aren’t likely any concern at all. But for student athletes that want to, USAC points have a big impact:
- For young women & girls in all categories and for boys 14 and under as of 12/31/2025, points dictate the order in which they’re called up to the start line.
- For the boys that will be 15/16 or 17/18 as of 12/31/2025, it impacts whether they will have to do a qualifying race as well as their call up position.
Call up position dictates where you start in the race, and with fields of up to 120 kids, a good call up makes a huge difference. Unlike the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Cycling League, NICA’s PA league, Nationals don’t do wave starts; everyone starts at once. If you’re starting near the back, you’re much more likely to be significantly held up by traffic.
For the 15/16 & 17/18 year old boys, the qualifying race is an extremely tough challenge; only the top 20 finishers get to move on to the main race. A lot of fast kids end up with too few points to auto-qualify, so it’s far better to have enough points to avoid the qualifier!
How Does One Earn USAC Points?
So, with all of the background out of the way, how does your child (or you if you’re a student athlete reading this) earn USAC points? Well, there is one bit of good news for NICA racers; if you’ve linked your child’s USAC license to their NICA profile in Pitzone, the NICA leagues will report race results to USAC for them. For the high school divisions in PICL, this means some pretty solid points because the fields are big (points are based on size and “strength” of the field). For PICL’s middle school racers the news isn’t as good–particularly for middle school advanced which tends to have very small fields.
Interested in seeing where your child (or you) stand; you can look up at this site, which allows you to both search for your child’s results and points associated with each result, as well as their national ranking by age group. If you can’t find your child there and they raced NICA, look up one of the events they raced, and look for their name in the results. If they don’t have any points beside their name, it likely means that their USAC license number isn’t in NICA Pitzone, so you’ll need to fix that. To check Pitzone, login, select “Rider Profile”, and then select “Rider Information”. USAC License Number is the last field on that page.
Beyond NICA, you can look to various regional mountain bike races to get points. The closest option in Southeastern PA is the H2H Series; their first event, Mayhem, is held in March in South Jersey, and is a popular first race of the season for many area racers (adults and kids alike). The rest of the H2H series is run in Northern NJ, so a bit further to drive.
Another option growing in popularity is the Virginia High School Series. This is a 4 race series that takes place in April & May, and is open to all school age children (elementary through high school). These fields tend to be large and very competitive, and thus award valuable USAC points for strong finishes. The races are all 5+ hours from the Philadelphia area, so tackling this series is a major commitment!
Unfortunately our local series, the Mid Atlantic Super Series, is not a USAC affiliated series and thus no points are awarded for racing MASS.
In summary, USAC point chasing isn’t for everyone, but for the seriously motivated MTB racer with a very supportive family that is willing to travel, there are some great options, but NICA is by far the easiest option for racking up USAC points!
Happy MTB racing! Bring on 2025!!!
Additional Details Regarding Nationals Qualifying:
For age groups other than 15/16 and 17/18 (again—this is age as of 12/31/2025 for the 2025 race season) Nationals call-ups will be based simply on national ranking by points. For 15/16 and 17/18, it’s a bit more complex as per this link; while the information for 2025 hasn’t been announced yet it will likely be similar if not the same. As per the site, call-ups will be based on the following:
- 2024 MTB National Championship Results:
- The defending & aged-up 2024 National cross country Champions (e.g. the 13/14 national champion if they are now 15 would get an automatic spot up front in 15/16)
- The 2023 remaining podium places in the specific age group:
- Junior 17-18 (2nd – 3rd places)
- Junior 15-16 (2nd – 5th places)
- The National Series: this has not been confirmed for 2025, although some of the dates of the events that made it up have been announced. Regardless, this series requires a massive amount of traveling. The closest race to the Southeastern Pennsylvania area is in Danville, VA
- In each age group, the top five junior riders from every Cross-Country event in the National Series secure an automatic spot in the Nationals finals. For events with over 100 participants, this extends to the top 10 riders.
- If spots remain, the remaining positions are filled based on UCI rankings (for the 17-18 category), followed by USA Cycling XC rankings points (note that in terms of USAC points, lower is better).
- The final 20 spots are determined through an on-site qualifier
A Note from Independence Youth Cycling
Independence Youth Cycling would like to thank Tim for sharing his valuable insights and expertise on this important topic. As the youth cycling community continues to grow in the Southeastern Pennsylvania (SEPA) region, many families are navigating the complexities of competitive mountain biking for the first time. Tim’s guidance provides clarity and encouragement for families and athletes eager to embrace new challenges like USAC MTB Nationals.
We’re proud to support young riders and their families as they explore opportunities to excel on and off the trails. Stay tuned for more content about USA Cycling races, events, and tips to help you and your student athlete make the most of the journey!
