Mud On Your Race
IMBA Trail News
Volume 14, Number 3
Summer 2001
When IMBA formed 13 years ago, we could have adopted an anti-racing position or distanced ourselves from the competitive side of the sport. Such a stance might have endeared us to the conservation community and helped our relations with urban land managers - many of whom have never envisioned a place for competitive mountain biking on crowded public trail systems.
But many of IMBA's founders and early leaders enjoyed racing as participants and as spectators. They recognized then, just as we do now, that racing is a prominent, legitimate PART of mountain biking. Furthermore, racing and advocacy have a connection shaped by history: When the National Off-Road Bicycle Association formed in 1983, its mission was not only to coordinate U.S. racing, but also to enhance access and education efforts.
During the last decade, NORBA and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI, the worldwide racing governing body) have consistently supported IMBA. Elite racers have generously donated their time, their reputations and their race bikes for IMBA membership ads, projects and benefit auctions.
A well-executed race will have no negative affect on local or regional trail access or the public image of mountain biking. The ideal race promotion will enhance the status of our sport by strengthening the partnership with local land managers, promoting trail user education, and inspiring young riders.
Poor race promotions hurt our sport and should not be condoned or tolerated.
But sometimes, even the most experienced, conscientious race promoters find themselves in difficult positions - victims of our dear, but unpredictable friend, the weather.
What do you do if your racecourse is deluged by more than a foot of rain in a span of a couple weeks just before your biggest event of the year? Full cancellation or even a postponement is unthinkable, since hundreds or thousands of competitors are already en route to your event and huge financial commitments have been made to sponsors, TV, hired police and security personnel. But if your race goes on as planned, it will be a mud bath.
One reasonable solution is having an alternative course plan that can be quickly implemented in the event of horrible weather. Ideally, this alternative course will utilize graded dirt roads or other durable surfaces that will drain more quickly than narrow dirt trails. If short sections of pavement have to be used to complete an alternative circuit, so be it.
Every large event - World Cup, National Championship Series race or 24-hour competition - should have such an alternative course plan in place. Nasty course conditions that fuel war stories are great, but beyond a certain point, the suffering, the (generally short-term) damage to the land and (potentially longer-term) damage to the image of mountain biking are no longer worth it. Most mountain bike racers will prefer to RIDE their bikes on a non-technical dirt road loop than to carry their bikes through an technical but uncontrollably muddy circuit.
In fact, if the weather is so bad that even the alternative course is a mess, then even the big event must be postponed or canceled. Environmental protection and the public image of the sport must always come first. If cancellation is the only option, refunds of race entry fees may not be possible since most promotional costs are incurred prior to race day.
IMBA has been thinking and writing about responsible race promotions since our inception in 1988. (A variety of ideas on this important topic are available on our website: imba.com.) Since half our staff races regularly, it's a common theme of IMBA chatter. We want to continue to assist the folks at NORBA and the UCI in bringing out the best in mountain bike racing.
Collectively we need to do more. A little mud is inevitable, but we've got to work hard to keep the image of mountain biking clean and positive.
- Tim Blumenthal
