Guest policy

guest policy

Midwest Devo welcomes new riders throughout the early part of each season. If you're curious about the program, the best way to find out if it's a fit is to come to a practice and see it for yourself. All practices are on Thursday nights.

Here's what you need to know before you show up.

HOW TRIAL PRACTICES WORK

New riders may attend up to two trial practices before committing to the season. Trial practices are available any time during the season for any kid age 8-18. From April through July, we’re on mountain bikes and will likely have you ride with us on a skills-based practice at Indy Cycloplex before joining us on the trail at a local MTB trail. Once August hits, we switch disciplines and will be at Indy Cycloplex permanently for the rest of the cyclocross season.

If there is a desire to join the team after a trial practice, we’ll have a conversation to work out the details. We want all our kids, including yours, to have a positive experience, and we’ll talk about what’s different between starting mid-season vs the beginning of the season.

A NOTE FOR RIDERS UNDER 13

Our younger riders — ages 8 to 12 — start their trial at a skills practice at the Indy Cycloplex before joining us on the trail. This gives our coaches a controlled environment to assess where your rider is and make sure their first trail experience goes well. It's better for them and better for the group.

If your rider already has solid mountain bike experience, reach out before their first practice. A parent or guardian can walk us through their background, and we'll use that conversation to decide the right starting point together.

This is how we set kids up to have a good first day.

BEFORE YOU COME

A few things to take care of before your first practice:

  • Complete the guest waiver below. Every trial participant needs a signed waiver on file before they ride. Parents and guardians sign on behalf of athletes under 18.

  • Let us know you're coming. Send a quick email so we can expect you and make sure a coach knows to welcome your rider. Please don’t just show up unless you’ve been invited by a Devo coach/family.

  • Make sure you’ve received a response and permission to join us. There are enough moving parts with practices and we want to approve all requests to come to practice in an effort to prepare well, communicate where the practice might be, and ensure we can accommodate.

  • Come ready to ride. Wear athletic clothing you can move in. Bring water. Closed-toe shoes only — no sandals or flip flops.

If you show up and haven’t followed those steps, then we reserve the right to not allow you to join that practice and that’s no fun for anyone.

WHAT TO BRING

  • A bike in working condition with gears

  • A properly fitted helmet (required, no exceptions)

  • Water bottle

  • Any relevant medical information your coaches should know about

WHAT TO EXPECT

Practices run approximately 1.5 hours and are organized by age group and skill. A coach will introduce your rider to the group and make sure they know what's happening.

Your rider will be with our coaches. Due to our safety protocals, we cannot allow parents and guardians to ride with the group during practice at trial sessions. We know it can be hard to hand your kid off to a new group of people, but our coaches are experienced, our safety protocols are established, and your rider will almost always settle in faster when they're not riding alongside a parent.

Practices are skills-focused and structured, but not intimidating. We've welcomed a lot of first-timers, and we're good at it.

A FEW GROUND RULES

These apply to everyone — trial participants and full members alike.

  • Helmets are required at all times while riding, no exceptions

  • Riders follow coach instructions during practice

  • We expect respectful behavior toward coaches, teammates, and other riders

  • Parents and spectators stay off the course and out of the riding area during practice

  • If your rider has a medical condition, injury, or anything else a coach should know about, tell us before practice starts, not after

AFTER YOUR TRIAL

If your rider wants to continue and become a team member, have a conversation with Midwest Devo President, Andrew Hoffman. We are open to that discussion and can walk through the details of how to take the next step. In some situations or a particular point in the season, it may make sense to wait until the following season. Details we can work out.

If it wasn't the right fit, no hard feelings. We want you to find the right program.

GUEST WAIVER