But I want my kid racing NOW!

So this post is going to be a bit of topic change.  I had been going to split my attention over the next little bit dithering on about developing track (and tracks) in Canada and on the topic of women’s racing.

Recent events however have given me pause to think (this alone is a rare occurance) on the topic of youth racing. Specifically on pre-junior and even pre-cadet racing, and when and how are the best ways to get kids into the sport.

Ain't my fault your kid brought a knife to a gun fight



It’s not a subject I had previously given a lot of thought- I've always figured the ideal pipeline invovled kids getting into riding in their early teens riding heaps and gradually racing and travelling more each season.

Not surprisingly this happens to be how I did it.  I've never really debated the merits of racing at ten before.

I began riding in 1994 and racing in 1995 as a cadet sport (however they moved the age categories around in 1996 and I was actually a cadet for three years- so retroactively I suppose I was what used to be called a minime). In that first year I did exactly 3 races- a novice category road race (for unlicensed U17 riders I believe) and two mountain bike races, the High school Mountain Bike Championships at Hardwood Hill and the Fall Festival Mountain Bike race at Holiday Valley.

What was interesting to me- and even a touch surprising, was that as I pondered the topic I discovered that I wasn’t overly romanced by the concept of creating National Championships for younger riders- even though I am a hudge advocate of accesable low frills grass roots racing.

I'm agaisnt it for a couple of reasons:

• It doesn’t make a lot of sense to start putting the burden of travel on kids (and their parents) that early.  Canada is a big country and it gets financially ugly pretty quick.  If these kids are going to go anywhere in the sport they will be playing this unfunded travel game all through Junior and likely into U23.

• I’m not convinced it helps the kids outcomes.  Yes European and the United States have youth categories down to U10.  Does it help? Aside from the fact European nations have different geographic realities, can anyone document to me that the kids doing well in the youth races have any correlation to the kids winning U23 titles when it begins to REALLY matter?  If you want examples look to the US and feel free to google: Ceclia Potts, Matt Kelly, Walker Ferguson, Megan Long, Josh Thornton, Ryan Miller – all of whom were heralded at young ages as future super stars.  All all of whom fizzled in the senior ranks.  Even Mike Creed never lived up to the thirty some national titles he won in various junior ranks.

Millie Tanner has been crushing the 10-12 year old TT's so hard Spider Tech folded

their team and just gave her a stack of unmarked bills.  For realsies.

• You are better off focussing on creating a lot of affordable local and grass root events- the more kids you expose to the sport, the greater the chances of finding the next Ryder or Pendrel.  This years OBC Cross series made a big effort to tailor their events to young riders and the results have been palatable – with thirty odd kids participating.  Do these kids really need to make a trip to Vancouver to “develop?” 

The Ontario High School Mountain Bike Championships I mentioned is an interesting case study of an excellent championship style event for young riders.  For nearly twenty years it has offered a short distance event for midget, junior and senior, boys and girls.  Although not a real high school championships (OFSSAA it ain’t) it traditionally gets (by Ontario MTB standards at least) very large fields.  It is a fantastic event for kids to gain entry into the sport, and ha quick look at past champions shows Evan McNeely, Laura Bietola, Andrew Watson and Ryan Dey as former champions.  Recent years have seen 300-400 participants, and if my memory is accurate fields were once much larger.  The participation rate is likely due to the emphasis on the team categories- kids that already ride or race are encouraged to drag out friends to field teams, and new kids are exposed to the sport.

A young McNeeley at Hardwood.  I jacked this from his blog.

Hopefully he neither reads mine, nor is litigious.

In my mind this is the direction we should focus youth racing in- regionalized events that limit travel to a reasonable distance. Events like the Highschool Championships and Ontario Summer Games expose a broader cross section of kids to racing than might otherwise enter cycling and create races that are prestigious and important for the PARTICIPANT – not their parent.

I feel bad for the young riders and would be racers at this past weekend’s National Cyclocross Championships.  Lacking categories of thier own many of these riders had the message hammered home to them by well meaning parents that they were getting screwed by the big mean Cycling Canada and the evil Cycling BC.

What those kids missed was not just a chance to race, they missed a chance to revel in the environment of elite racing. 

They got to miss out on watching 3 of Canada’s 4 Olympic MTB representatives in action.  They missed the chance to wander the tents and see how some of this country’s fastest riders warm up and get ready for racing.  To geek out on what tires people were running, and all of the other bike nerdery that comes with that age (seriously ask any cadet in any race parking lot what the best fork/tire/carbon wheel is- guarantee the kid had put more thought and research into his answer than any homework assignment he’s ever been given). 

These kids missed the change to have a former World Champion sign their t-shirts.  They missed the chance to just immerse themselves into bike racing when it is all new and exciting, and frankly, just a little bit bigger and shinier than it will be when they are older.

Yes these kids did a race. But they are probably also stoked about this part.

(Copyright Pedal)

If these kids are going to be future champions then they will be champions.  And not because their parents forced them, or because they were the Under -11 female marathon XC champion of Canada.  No, they will be champions because in addition to being talented and dedicated athletes, somewhere along the line they will have fallen in love with racing bikes. 

What I vividly remember from the first “big races” I went to, a Canada Cup in 1996 at Hardwood and Nationals the following year, was not so much the racing. What left an impact was getting to the see proverbial stars of the day and getting to soak in the environment of an elite bike race.  For that reason probably the most memorable race I did as a cadet was a non-Ontario Cup points race at Scanlon Creek.

This almost completely insignificant race was used as part of a pre-Atlanta Olympics training camp.  In attendance were Alison Sydor (then reigning World Champion and soon to be Olympic silver medalist), Warren Sallenback (who would go on to place top-15 at the Games) and Lesley Tomplinson.  It was super exiting to have big time pros at an everyday race.  To this day I have a picture (a real one – remember film?) of myself and Alison Sydor.  She was even kind enough to sign my Rocky Mountain Bikes t-shirt. 

Nope no Rocky Mountain bikes there.

 

Which was gracious given that she rode for Volvo Cannondale at the time. And that I had a truly horrible bleach job.

No apologies if this post seems overly nostalgic.  Someone declared on a recent online forum that we can’t grow the sport if we keep looking at the past and not the future.  The irony is the poster had no idea about Canada’s recent youth cycling past. This person argued blindly that we needed youth categories at Cross Nats. 

We’ve had those categories before.  The first National Cyclocross Championships I rode were in Cadet in 1996 and the category has been held at nationals several times since.  And that first Canada Cup I went to? It had over a thousand racers.

Amongst these racers were a staggering SEVENTY Cadet Sport boys and another THIRTY Cadet experts.  So maybe we can learn something from the past, because we sure as hell don’t have 100 cadets riding mountain bikes in Ontario anymore.