IMBA In the News

IMBA Trail News
Volume 13, Number 5
Winter 2000

Millions of Americans have been reading recently about IMBA's work in major newspapers and magazines. Mainstream press coverage is important to the image of mountain biking and our sport's future. A quick summary of significant coverage appears below. Visit a new section of imba.com called "MTB News Wire" for the full text of these and other articles.

• IMBA's work garnered two recent stories in USA Today - one of the nation's largest newspapers with 2.5 million daily readers. IMBA's Mountain Bike Access Report Card was mentioned in USA Today's September 29 edition along with our best and worst state selections. Readers were directed to imba.com for more information.

• After participating in the Harrisonburg, Virginia, IMBA Epic, USA Today reporter Sal Ruibal wrote a 1,000-word story about IMBA, trailwork and our efforts to unite the trails community that appeared in the October 27 edition. This story concludes with a positive quote from IMBA membership director Pete Webber:

  "There is no better way to forge friendships than by working side-by-side on demanding trail-work projects," IMBA's Webber says. ''You sweat, you laugh and at the end of the day you share the satisfaction of a job well done. That's how coalitions begin.''

• Mountain Bike Magazine's 15th Anniversary edition (January 2001) recounts IMBA's accomplishments over the years and ranks the formation of IMBA in 1988 as the third most significant moment in mountain biking history.

• A story about mountain biking and hunting appeared in the October 5, 2000 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (1.1 million readers). It talks about the work of SORBA (Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association, an IMBA affiliate) and quotes IMBA's executive director Tim Blumenthal.

• Mountain biking in Seattle and the work of the IMBA-affiliated Backcountry Bicycle Trails Club was featured in the August 31 edition of the Seattle Times (circulation 225,000).

• Other high-profile articles about IMBA have recently appeared in Drive Magazine (read by more than 600,000 Subaru owners) and the Raleigh (North Carolina) Times-Observer, which boasts more than 500,000 Sunday edition readers.