Those were the days.

"Downhill is the Formula One of cycling"- Fabien Barel

Truth is U.S. MTB racing has suffered because the largest governing body (USA Cycling) can give two sh!ts about most of the events they "sanction" when it comes to the gravity side of cycling. The bottom fell out of NORBA in 03. No money for the pros…no sponsors...no spectators.... that meant no money coming into the resorts...and NO reason to hold a NORBA race. However after 03, a tremendous amount grass roots racing was born to fill the void. Snowshoe had their own races, 24 hour races were on the rise...and as of recently the grass-roots Super D came around (I.e.: Downieville, and Ashland) All well and good for the expert-semi pro (useless class) racers of NORBA "pullout". But without the revenue generated into OUR sport...not many teams could afford to send their athletes all over the world to race bikes. The UCI World Cup is a stage that is higher than anything the current US Nationals can even think to attain. Why do you think there hasn't been a UCI World Cup event in the U.S. for some time? (Angel Fire was the last)

It is extremely difficult for American riders to compete with the Euros and Aussies when we are not faced with the same level of competition. We need to step up our venues in order to attract the UCI and improve the skill-set of our riders or we can just rely on the select few that can afford to travel the world to climb the UCI podium.


Dave Kalt.