Do You Live on the East Coast?
November 5th, 2007 by Arleigh JenkinsIf you do than both you and I are being shafted by the National Mountain Bike Series. Only 1 out of 6 of the events held through out the 2008 season will be found on this side of the country. I guess we don’t have enough sand to offer them.
Found the 2008 calendar originally at Dirt Rag this evening. To say I am saddened and frustrated would be putting it lightly because there are many great places to hold all the events at.
What do you think?
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they are probably scared that they might have to ride technical terrain over here, oh and the moist conditions might also force these pros to put tires with tread on them (for shame!) and of course God forbid that you race on something that requires suspension for more than just looks (remember the guy that won that short track event on a ROAD bike a few years ago?)…I have all but given up on the pro race scene…grassroots is where it’s at man…not that I’m biased or anything :P…lol
It’s always been that way it seems. When I started mountain biking in Tn back in the early 80s, nobody had ever heard of the sport out there and all of the magazines talked about events out west. I didn’t even meet another mountain biker until I moved to SW Va in 1989 (remember the trails at Carvins Cove back then?). Not that “official” events ever interested me much. I just like to ride…
Chris
I’m with the previous two posters. Who cares about the NMBS? I’ve done some NORBAs, and I’ve done a lot of grass roots stuff. I let my USA Cycling license lapse. Watch off road to Athens and you can see just how stupid that group is.
The riding on the East Coast is strong and speaking from a South East rider’s point of view I don’t think it really matters if any organization brings any of there events this way. We have a great scene here. Those that have never ridden here have no idea. I did a ride with DT of Turner bikes when he came out for the first time this past summer and he could not believe what we had going on. In NorCar Pisgah area specifically. I did 2 weeks with Big Mountain Adventures in Switzerland on an All Mtn tour at the end of July. The entire group of 14 were (minus Paulo Valle, Brit Dave and my two buddies) Canadian. Whistler and BC riders. A great bunch of riders and people. But, let’s just say the East Coast turned those two weeks MF’in out!
If you want to be so exclusive and “Rad” as to stay to the left of the country. Knock yourself out!
I’m happy riding the east coast trails, whether or not there are national races on them. Luckily the Northeast Root 66 series and Mid Atlantic Super Series are quite nice though.
Jeff Frost, the director of the NMBS, has worked at east coast mtb events for about ten years and knows that some of the nation’s best mountain biking is there. From what I understand, Frosty wanted to locate more events on the east coast in ‘08, and made an effort to do so, but it just didn’t work out before the deadline date. We don’t always get what we want… I know he is disappointed about it too. But what’s he going to say? He can’t come out in a press release and talk about how disappointed he is that there aren’t more east coast events. He has to talk up the series for what it is, while continuing his efforts to make it what he eventually wants it to be. I hope you all support him in bringing more NMBS events to the east coast by making Windham the most bitchin’ event of the whole series.
Just so you know who I am, I write press releases for the NMBS. I’m a contract worker and speak with an independent voice, but I do have a financial interest in the series.
I understand that there was originaly going to be another east coast race at sugar mountain but they bailed out at the last minuet. I was bummed because even though I live in california I was looking forward to coming out for that race and then driving up to new york an then on to vermont for the nationals. Oh well still coming for the the last two that are still scheduled. Here is the link to the preliminary schedule that came out a few months ago before the other races dropped off. http://norcalmtnbikeracing.blogspot.com/2007/10/preliminary-2008-norba-schedule.html
I think that you still have to get your license to play the pro game, but if you want good competitive racing for something besides points the east has plenty. I feel like some of the pros are intimidated by some grassroots racing because it never looks good to finish 10th in an small venue race. I do wish there were more large scale races that would draw in the total scene like the 24 Hours of Canaan did back in the day with Libor doing tricks and people wearing leisure suits and whatnot, but still some serious racing going on in the background. I think that some of these long running grassroots races need to pool together and establish a points series of there own, and when the names repeat year after year they will garner their deserved respect. The ‘Burg Tripple Crown is my first nomination for a Super D series. Blacksburg, VA Strasburg, VA and Harrisonburg, VA I know they are all in VA but its a start. I agree with some of the folks above, mountain biking is riding rugged terrain, if you can do it on a glorified road bike it should be called path biking. Bring it.