Not so for IMBA; International Mountain Bike Association.
Ironically Metro Mountain Biker’s joining with IMBA in the recent past, cast a wide attractive net for membership. Metro Mountain Bikers is flush with younger up and comers, movers and shakers, that will push local mountain bikers to newer and greater heights.
Mountain Biking will be great again.
WORS and WEMS, the mainstay of mountain bike competitiveness in our state are hanging on strong with solid participation numbers. Though attendance may be down for these events, it is only due to the rise of High School Mountain Bike Leagues driven by NICA.
Mountain Biking is primarily a family event and only so many races can be attended annually. A percentage of past WORS participants with children in High School have been putting their energies towards the High School League events. But fear not. They wont be in High School forever. Eventually they will be racing WORS because they have no reason to leave, there are plenty of great jobs rising in Wisconsin. No drain of any kind here.
Maybe an idiot drain, but that shouldn’t include mountain bikers. The beer in Wisconsin is too good.
Minooka Park, with paid parking, is overrun with High School mountain bike teams on certain nights. The demand for good trails is higher than ever.
Magnificent trails are being designed. Minooka is a high benchmark for our state; built by loving hands.
The current trend is to pay for professional builders to design and build fantastic trails in short order. No more weekend gatherings of club members toiling with hand tools to cut paths of enlightenment through the wilderness. It is all mechanical equipment driven.
Returning to the irony, the increase of funds that makes local trail building possible may be attributed to the IMBA name, that wide net. But IMBA has been making some bad decisions that are driving members away; like supporting the government’s stand to deny access to mountain bikes in National Parks. IMBA also stands against any e-power assisted bikes on trails. This is a growing issue. There are several levels of power assistance for bicycles of all types.
The velodrone In Kenosha has been plagued with issues. A crack in the new construction, no funds for painting the track, and when all that was resolved seasonal thunderstorms highlighted the fact that proper drainage had failed to be included in the design, producing a small lake. I could go on, on how poor design of every type infests our lives and points to the downfall of civilization as we know it, but I digress.
Cyclocross rolls quietly on as a shoulder season activity.
All the fervor is now with Fat Bikes for Winter riding. Grooming cross country ski trails for fat bike riding seems the obsession of the up and comers. They ridicule the funds spent on cross country ski trails for a dozen skiers, or at least for the dozen they see.
Of course you cannot mention Fat bikes, 4” wide treads, without mentioning Wisconsin being awe struck by the Hugh Jass Fat Bike Series.
The economy may have had an influence on the perceived decline of the number of cross country skiers (and mountain bikers). Now the economy is coming back in line along with a Winter Olympics. Ski on.
Did you know that all the ski venues and facilities for the Olympics were built by the late Reverend Moon? And still owned by his family.
It’s the economy stupid. A famous line, and though I joke about Colorado’s legalization of marijuana contributing to the downfall of IMBA, headquartered in Colorado, the economy may have played an even bigger role.
IMBA now provides only membership management services. They offer other services on an ale carte basis.One of the first services they dropped, as they suddenly went from way black to way red in their finances, was insurance.
I made the association, at one Metro meeting, between insurance costs and Obamacare, Obamacare hence the reason for IMBA’s decline, and the room went silent.
The Wisconsin Bike Fed appears, according to the irate tone in response to a question posed by me to a Bike Fed representative, to have no interest in overseeing integrated bicycle access in road design as the communities around Foxconn have all been in the process of redesigning their roadways.
Though Metro Mountain Bikers have been talking about installing a pump track locally for at least three years, not one has materialized.
So the State of Mountain Biking is strong in Wisconsin, stronger than any other cycling sport, though not perfect.
God Bless you all. God Bless the United States.
The $162 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? (some may no longer exist as venues have changed) Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.
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