Junior Robert Herrin, one cyclist out of the eight members on Clark Magnet’s cycling team, feels a great fulfillment as he finally cycles to the finish line. Despite all the complications he faced in a recent race, such as repairing a broken chain and having to continue the remainder of the race on foot, Herrin used much tenacity and perseverance to eventually reach the finish line. The race was held on April 12 at Lake Isabella, run by the Southern California part of NICA for high school mountain bike races.

Herrin has been racing since his freshman year of high school and hasn’t missed a single race since then. His team practices four days a week for about two hours or more. The Junior Varsity division competes in 15-mile races, whereas the Varsity cyclists compete in 20-mile races. “Racing is the best part about being on the team, because you get to see how your training pays off,” Herrin said. “The best thing about racing is the constant adrenaline rush you get throughout the entire race.”

Herrin, however, had been feeling more of disappointment rather than adrenaline in his recent races. “For the past season I’ve been trying to make up the spots in the first race, but the past few races had me at the back positions, and I couldn’t see the front from where I was,” he said.

Having no other option but to race where he was placed, he continued to try his best and stuck to his passion of bike racing. His recent race at Lake Isabella, however, took a positive turn on his efforts. “When I got called up to the fifth row from the front, I was shocked and knew that it was going to be a great race,” Herrin said.

About halfway through the race was when Herrin faced a complication with his bike chains. “As I was climbing the first half of the track, I started noticing my gears making a weird sputtering noise whenever I shifted,” he said. “After I climbed the hardest hill on the course and descended the other side, I started changing gears for the next hill, but when I tried to pedal again, my gears locked and I heard a dropping snap.”

Herrin’s feet started spinning around and his bike stopped. He pulled his bike over to the side of the trail and started looking for his chain. “Once I found it, I knew that there was no way I could repair it but I needed to finish the race,” he said.

Determined to finish the race, he put his chain in his back pocket and biked three miles to the finish line for the next lap. “When I got to the finish line, my coaches were there and gave me my sister’s chain off her bike,” he said. “But when they went to put it on, the links didn’t want to snap shut.”

After what felt like an eternity to him, the chain clicked together and he took off, but he lost 15 minutes, having to run his bike and had to take a five-minute penalty for receiving outside help. “At a total of 20 minutes, I was dead last,” he said.

Putting his discouragement aside, Herrin sprinted the next two laps and was able to make up the time he had lost through his penalty. “All that mattered was finishing the race,” he said.

Herrin placed 50th out of 70 bikers.