Moguls are a sneaky lot. When bumps are soft and troughs are clean, they turn mere mortals into undulating gods (thus the term “hero bumps”). But when the light is flat and the mounds are diamondhard lumps of ice, moguls become the harbingers of faceplants and the first step in funding your reconstructive knee surgeon’s vacation to Acapulco. It turns out they have another trick up their snowy sleeves: they like to move uphill.

With winter solstice behind us, it’s true that our daily ration of sunlight has begun to increase. But that’s cold comfort for those of us who begin and end our workdays in the dark. The instinct to wrap up in our snuggies and nest is strong, especially when Boulder experiences a cold snap like the one that recently froze the Front Range.

Such is a common response when people hear about the new Colorado High School Cycling League coming to Colorado high schools in 2010. The cycling organization is part of the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA), a mountain-bike based initiative that has its roots in California.