Global Update

IMBA Trail News
Volume 13, Number 5
Winter 2000

Canada - Vancouver locals are getting serious about mountain bike advocacy. In Port Moody, the site of IMBA's Eagle Ridge Epic, IMBA has helped foster a new advocacy group to provide a voice for mountain biking in local and regional recreational policy. Led by local rider John Gowans, the Tricities Offroad Cycling Coalition (TORCC) is working with public and private land managers to develop legal riding opportunities. In the face of many trail closures, TORCC is helping to create a coalition of regional cycling groups to promote technical mountain biking as a legitimate recreational activity. "TORCC is working to build legal, technical routes where land owners have expressed concerns over man-made stunts," said Gowans. "We're also working to get entry-level trails sanctioned on public land." TORCC joins forces with the existing BC clubs NSMBA, SIMBS, KMBC, WORCA, KMBA, SORCA, and GMBC. For more information contact the TORCC hotline: (604) 667-8059 or email us at

Italy - IMBA will lead the first-ever European Mountain Bike Patrol Training Conference in Finale Ligure, Italy, March 9-11. The conference will help establish a new patrol group in this coastal mountain bike destination that's located 40 miles east of the French border on the Mediterranean Sea. IMBA mountain bike patrols are already active in Canada and Japan.

The conference is part of a growing IMBA partnership with the town of Finale Ligure, which has become a center of IMBA's Italian activities. IMBA is helping to establish the area as a premier mountain bike destination by working with locals to develop and manage a trail system for mountain bikers and other trail users. The new patrol will assist, educate and inform trail users while providing leadership in trail construction, maintenance and management projects. One larger goal of the Finale project is to develop a series of projects that IMBA can adapt to other international locations.

Mauro Bertolotto, an active member of the cycling community and the president of Race Ware, is leading the partnership. Mauro was recently named IMBA's official Italian representative. He can be contacted via email at .

Bici da Montagna, Italy's premier mountain bike magazine, featured IMBA in an nine-page article in its September 2000 edition (see page six). The article presented photos and an in-depth story from the IMBA Epic celebration and trailwork event held in Cortina last May. During 2001, the magazine will partner with IMBA to create a monthly column on advocacy, trail maintenance and responsible riding.