Golden State South NICA Finish Line Festival 2026

About this event

Golden State South NICA closes its 2026 Southern and Central California youth mountain-bike season with the Finish Line Festival at Midland School in Los Olivos on Saturday and Sunday, October 24-25. The organizer's current event flyer turns the earlier calendar listing into a complete rider packet: a two-day NICAween-themed festival, course pre-rides, games, a GRiT gathering and ride, a community potluck, camping, and Sunday cross-country racing. Midland's course starts at the soccer field, passes the stables and creek crossing, and returns on flowy singletrack; the venue description calls it approximately 4.3 miles with about 230 feet of climbing, while the wave table separately lists a 5.00-mile lap distance, so both official figures are preserved rather than silently reconciled. Saturday volunteer course and infield setup begins at 9:00 AM. Pit Zone access and plate pickup open at noon, followed by pumpkin carving from noon-1:00 PM, festival games from 1:00-2:45 PM, the GRiT tent at 1:30 PM and GRiT ride at 2:00 PM, a coaches relay at 2:30 PM, all-rider pre-ride from 3:00-5:00 PM with a 4:30 PM last call, cornhole at 4:45 PM, and a 5:30 PM community potluck in the camping area. A 7:00 PM camper night ride is explicitly not a NICA event and requires an adult. Sunday plate pickup and volunteer operations open at 7:00 AM, pre-ride runs 7:45-8:30 AM, the mandatory head-coach meeting is at 8:00 AM, racing begins at 9:00 AM, lunch is offered 11:30 AM-1:00 PM, racing concludes and teardown begins at 2:00 PM, and Spirit of NICA awards/podiums begin at 3:00 PM. Racing is for Golden State South/NICA student-athletes in grades 5-12. The season fee includes this event, and the official rider cutoff was Tuesday, October 20 at 11:59 PM PDT; online preregistration is therefore closed, not merely absent. The flyer gives exact Sunday waves, starting with JV1 and JV2 girls at 9:00 AM, followed by Varsity/JV boys from 10:30 AM, grade 5-8 girls from noon, and middle-school advanced/grade 5-8 boys from 1:00 PM. Staging begins 15 minutes before each category. Registered riders and coaches must display their season plate during pre-ride; a lost or forgotten plate costs $25 to replace. Spectators may watch in person with no separate ticket advertised. The Midland field is available to visitors 9:00 AM-4:00 PM; handicap parking is available west of the main entrance, and families must use designated parking and fan zones. No pets are allowed on site. Camping is separately offered at $50 per vehicle for Friday, Saturday, or both nights, with tent and RV camping, portable toilets and water-jug filling but no hookups or showers; parental supervision is mandatory, personal fires are prohibited, and propane equipment remains subject to fire restrictions. Sunday lunch is $20 per plate. Weather, heat, cold, rain, mud, or course safety can change wave times, laps, or course access, with updates sent by email and posted to league channels. The strong event-page image is the organizer-selected current Finish Line Festival hero; its underlying photograph is identified as Oregon 2023 NICA imagery and is not represented as a photo of this future Midland weekend.

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