Shanaze Reade at start of semi-final heat 1
Came 2nd.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Sport
BMX
(6 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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Could be bronze or silver in the final then?Posted 12 years ago # -
Hope we get a 1-2 Shanaze & Liam and people like CTC and BC (and Spokes) actually take BMX a bit more seriously. After all it has perhaps the widest age range riding - from 6 to 66 (Ms Reade's former coach still races on the Manchester course and he's 68 IIRC)
I'm guessing that BMX will become the new national sport craze in Latvia and Colombia...
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
actually take BMX a bit more seriously. After all it has perhaps the widest age range riding - from 6 to 66"
Yeah that's why I keep highlighting Cycle Speedway on here - similar age range.
I was around when BMX first landed in the UK. Established cycle organisation were very sniffy.
I was more enthusiastic as I saw it as one way of 'reclaiming' the sort of kids who had been buying Choppers - great marketing success, but not much use for transport or sport.
Raleigh was strangely very cautious (they repeated the trick when Mountain Bikes where becoming the next big thing).
It was left to Halfords to make it happen. They had an early setback when one of the models they imported had to be withdrawn when it didn't meet (not particularly high) standards.
Halfords didn't just try to sell bikes, they actually created BMX racing as a sport in the UK. They employed Geoff Wiles - a former professional road racer - and the services of cycle promotion man Alan Ruston who later went on to bring City Centre Racing to places including Glasgow and Edinburgh AND TV. (He almost certainly introduced live cameras on motorbikes.)
Raleigh still waited to see if BMX was going to take off in the UK - meanwhile they were running a race team in the US with bikes with 531 frames! Here they eventually launched the Burners, which sold well.
BMX has never gone away but is now more of a trick/stunt activity than a race one.
Edinburgh has the outdoor skatepark at Saughton and also Transgression Park. There used to be a race track at Hunters Hall Park (behind the Jack Kane), but it gradually became overgrown and has now been removed - there used to be a cycle speedway track too.
If Glasgow hadn't won the 2014 Games, Craigmillar might have had a velodrome by now.
The fact that both Team GB riders didn't get medals today means that a BMX race track is even less likely than it was this morning!
The Niddrie Community Youth Group's Bike Club might like one though.
Posted 12 years ago # -
But they Liam really crashed well!
Don't knock it - with BMX the result really is a lottery, as today's races proved. Hold same race again tomorrow and results could be completely different. Many of the Olympic disciplines do not offer such opportunities to throw up an unexpected winner.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Posted 12 years ago #
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