Published May 6th, 2026
BY ZANA BALABAN
On cold weeknights in Monterey County, long after most students have finished homework or practice, a group of teenagers is still out on the trails—headlamps cutting through the dark, legs burning as they climb.
“The kids are out there at night hauling ass, straight up,” says coach Todd Roberts, Carmel High School Class of 1980. “It’s just my job to keep them all safe.”
The Monterey Bay Lightfighters, a youth mountain biking team made up of 25 riders from schools across the peninsula, have built one of the most successful programs in Northern California. Competing in the NorCal League of the National Inter-Scholastic Cycling Association, home to over 25,000 riders across 30 states, the team has gone undefeated for seven years and collected five state titles over its 21-year history, along with fostering several individual state champions.
The undefeated Lightfighters racing squad is made up of students from around the peninsula. Courtesy of TODD ROBERTS
The season runs from November to May, with training sessions eight hours a week in all weather. Typical gameday races are 20 miles—two hours of near-constant exertion—and the team rides approximately 2,000 miles and climbs over 275,000 vertical feet over the course of the season.
There’s no bench, no substitutions, no sitting out.
“You’re on the bike, training in hardcore wind and rain, but that’s what makes you feel alive,” Roberts says. “It may be freezing, but what I tell the kids is, ‘Are you going to forget this?’ And their answer is always no.”
Alek Camello, a CHS freshman who specializes in downhill dual-slalom enduro races, has been a Lightfighter for two years.
“Every day is fun,” says Camello. “It depends if we have a race coming up or we’re just trying to build endurance, but we either do longer, slower rides, which end up not being very slow, or we have shorter, more punchy rides with sprinting.”
Todd Roberts, CHS Class of 1980, trains the Lightfighters with the motto, “You can’t coach from a mile behind.” Courtesy of TODD ROBERTS
Camello’s teammate junior Ian Lookinghawk shares this love for the community culture and work ethic, and both boys plan to race competitively for the rest of their high school careers.
“We have synergy on our team,” explains Roberts. “When we climb a hill, the fastest people get to the top, and then they circle back down to bring up the slowest rider.”
The coaches are all volunteers, captivated by what Roberts refers to as the “fountain of youth” that is the Lightfighters, where coaches ride every mile with the students.
Mountain biking, he admits, isn’t forgiving. The speed, the terrain and the risk are all a part of the sport. Emma Wilcox-Gaino, a Pacific Grove High School senior, was almost killed at the Sea Otter Classic two years ago.
“The rescue team that saw her crash thought she had broken her neck,” Roberts says. “She had to skip a race for a surgery, but she came right back and won the state championship.”
Among the team’s huge pedigree of phenomenal women riders, Wilcox-Gaino is the first to ever ride elbow to elbow with the fastest boys.
“To make it in the sport, you have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable,” says the champion, explaining how the best of the best have to want to suffer. “It’s a super physically demanding, extreme endurance sport, but we always finish faster than we start.”
From the battles on the racecourse to the battles in their head, this shared struggle is what bonds the Lightfighters.
“We’re a family,” Wilcox-Gaino says. “Riding together at night, at the end of 30 miles, pushing as hard as you can—if you go through that with someone over and over again, you know everything about them.”
Alek Camello, CHS freshman, celebrates on the shoulders of his teammate after his first-ever podium finish. Courtesy of TODD ROBERTS
Moments of resilience, as opposed to results, define the team. One team member was thrown off her high school team because of her asthma, and while she did have an attack every time she rode with the Lightfighters, the other kids would give her a second to sit down before she’d hop back on the bike.
“That’s hard work,” says Roberts. “The people who end up on the team are those who have been challenged the most… and people who enjoy lying around in the dirt.”
The sport itself blends endurance with creativity.
“There’s a major freestyle element to the sport,” says the coach. “We’re out there to shred, hit burns, slash—and we’re flying through the forest at 30 miles an hour.”
At 63, Roberts fears that he is one major crash away from not being able to coach anymore, but until then, he’ll keep showing up, because, as he says, there’s no such thing as a bad kid.
“They’re always asking to do more, to ride further, and I’ll look at my watch and see that we’re an hour late already, but I’m not riding with a bunch of grumpy old men out there.”
At the end of practice, after miles of climbing and descending, the riders line up in the dark before heading home, and they shake Roberts’ hand.
The next day, they’ll be back, asking to ride farther.
