November 16th X-C race in Kentucky

[Camino]

The Bowling Green High School Mountain Bike Club is hosting the 2002
Kentucky High School State Mountain Bike Championship on Saturday, November 16th. This one-day cross-country event will be open to junior high and high school students in Kentucky. It will be a NORBA sanctioned race and winners will advance to the NORBA high school nationals next spring.

We are also offering some races for adult riders earlier in the day. These, obviously, are open to riders from any state. Race is located at the Park Mammoth Resort in Park City, KY--right off I-65. It's very easy to find.

For more information, go to http://bghsmtbclub.topcities.com/race.htm
Check back regularly for changes. Hope to see you there!

[wooglin]

I think its pretty cool that you've got a HS MTB club. My HS, back in the dark ages, had a roadie club and it has since converted to MTB, but I wonder how many others might be lurking out there? Obviously there's more than one in KY.

[Camino]

I know that Saint X in Louisville has a club, but I'm not for sure who else already has one established. One of the things I hope we can accomplish with this race is to inspire kids to go back to their schools and ask for a club of their own. We're a part of Sprockids, and I think that program is a positive force that would be appealing to administrators. At my school, we have kids who are interested in mountain biking, but because the sport isn't hardly a part of the culture in this state, most never really get opportunities to taste "real" mountain biking outside of our club activities.

[Rotifer]

Very cool. I didn't even know that NORBA sanctioned high school events. Hmmmm ... gets the wheels turning.

[angelo_caduto86]

Man Rot-dog, you have been drinking PBR so long you don't think straight :D

Put a lot of money in a bucket and send it to NORBA and they will sanction a race.

Now if you asked them to think up a way to nuture racing and young people and having a high school race series or state championship would be the last thing they would think up.

(sorry, as you may have guessed, I don't think much of NORBA)

btw, at the risk of starting a nasty tangent, how did your C-x racing go this week?

[Camino]

Well, I've never dealt with NORBA before we got involved with hosting this race, so I know nothing of their track record. However, I know that we've had to invest less money to hook up with NORBA than would be required for a different club/event. If we had to go out and get a policy of our own to cover the event, it would probably cost more than our NORBA fees.

As far as I know, NORBA did come up with this race concept for high school and middle school students and started promoting it--not that someone cut a check and said "Hey can we have a high school race." By design, these races are meant to be more "user-friendly" for young riders than simply having a junior category at a "regular" race. Unless mountain biking gets tied into a school setting, the only kids who x-c race will be the few who have cyclists for parents. (At least 80% of those who race.) Until the sport is integrated into schools and more kids get racing experiences and support from their schools, American cyclists will continue to get spanked by European x-c riders. I'm glad somebody has finally figured this out. Maybe one day mountain biking will actually be a school sports team, with a paid coach and school transportation.

[Rotifer]

Quite a few veterans of the mountain bike community dislike NORBA. Personally, I haven't had any problems. I, like you, enjoy the insurance. However, an increasing number of race promoters in the West are moving away from them. Never having promoted a race I am not certain why that is. However, NORBA's leadership has been less than stellar. North American mountain biking is in a continual state of flux and they never seem to be able to find that balance between promotion, spectator appeal and, well, all the other things that go into crafting a successful sport. The rider base is there.

[Janeva]

Hey Camino!

I grew up hangin' around Howard's Schwinn! I went back to BG a few weeks ago and took my wife into Howard's. I bought up a bunch of stuff and told her basically, this is were it all started for me! Do they still race BMX down in BG? I'm kinda old, We used to race at the old Beach Bend BMX track.

Aces:
The Gordo

[Camino]

I'm not into the BMX scene too much, but they have built a nice track at a fairly new park out by Warren East High School. I know a couple of guys who worked on it, but I'm not for sure what's going on as far as organized races.