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IMBA World Summit: Day 3
It's Day 3 of the IMBA World Summit and there is a still a palpable energy in this group. It may be the coffee, but most likely it's that these are a few hundred of the most driven trail builders in the world. It's inspiring to be around them.
The morning started off with great address given by Hans "No Way" Rey. Hans filled us in on some of his incredible travels, but it was his bit about the "Flow County" trails that had the room excited to get back to work.
Here's how Han's describes the designation:
Flow Country trails are flowy, purpose-built singletrails for mountain bikers of any skill level or for any kind of mountain bike, no matter whether beginner or expert or on a hardtail XC or downhill bike; and especially for the ever growing section of All Mountain/ Enduro riders. This mountain bike specific trail will provide a common playground for both worlds of riders, the endurance driven riders and the Freeriders. The tracks shall neither be extreme, nor too steep or dangerous, small berms and rollers shall provide the addicting rollercoaster feeling and sensation.
I've ridden a few trails that would fit this description. All of the BMCC trails in WIlkesboro, NC and the F.A.T.S. trail right here in Augusta immediately come to mind, but as Han's tells us there are trails like these all over the world. Here's a clip of one he worked on in Livingo, Italy.
Pumped up on pump track-like trails I sat in on some of the learning sessions offered. I'll share the nuggets of knowledge pulled from each of the three I was able to fit in:
- Connecting With the Bike Media: If you want a story published in the cycling mags make it a compelling one. Trail advocacy can come across a little dry, so make it a human interest story that happens to have some trail advocacy.
- Working with the Bike Industry: There are a lot of grants out there for your cycling related projects, which are funded in part by donations from the bike industry. Start with Bikes Belong. and of course IMBA.
- High School Leagues: Imagine mountain bike leagues in every high school in every state. That's what the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) is doing. This was an exciting session and I'll write more about it another time. Here's an intro to high school leagues: Clip
About this Article:
- Date:
- May 10, 2010
- Author:
- Eddie O'Dea, Topeak Team
Hans, discussing the finer points of "Flow"
The National Mountain Bike Patrol was in attendance
There's always a rider packing a Morph
The trails were dry and in great shape
The sweeping trails had flow written all over them
That's a lot of pines. The surrounding trails are somewhere under those trees.
