Bike Festival Gets People Moving

By Krista Thom
Contributing Writer

Most of us don’t think of cyclists as being a particularly cliquish bunch, but like any group, they tend to settle into their own distinct factions. There are the road racers, the cyclocross racers, the mountain bikers, and the utilitarian bicyclists (who bike to save money or reduce their carbon footprints). And of course there are the ranks of less-avid cyclists who ride occasionally for exercise or fun.

The question that Zachary Johnson pondered was how to bring them all together. Johnson has been member of the Great Plains Cycling Club for three years, and was in charge of organizing the club’s 2010 cyclocross race. But instead of doing things the same way as in years past, he decided to take a different approach. He enlisted friends from other cycling groups to help him brainstorm, and with their help, the cyclocross race gradually evolved into the Red River Bicycle Festival.

The goal was to bring everyone interested in bicycles and cycling together in one place. While Johnson kept the original cyclocross race, he and his fellow organizers added other events to appeal to the whole spectrum of bike riders.

The cyclocross race is a cornerstone of the festival. For those not in the know, cyclocross is a kind of cycling that falls between road racing and mountain biking. Cyclocross bikes usually have a hard frame, which is good for speed, and tires that are made to handle rougher terrain. Courses are interspersed with obstacles like sand pits and steep hills that force riders to dismount.

There will be four different heats for different skill levels at the race. The first three races are sanctioned by the US Cycling Federation for riders in categories 1-4. The final race, which begins at noon, will be more informal and open to the public.

The festival also features a mountain bike race, which takes advantage of the mountain bike trail that opened this year in Moorhead. Tom Heilman, who helped create the course, is also one of the organizers of the Festival.

Although the mountain bike race will attract some serious bike enthusiasts, Heilman says the real point of the race and the bike festival is to expose people to different kinds of cycling, and let them try them out. “I think of it like one of the fun 5k races around town,” he says.

Attendees at the bike festival will also be able to try their hand at bicycle polo, a sport with over a century of history, but which few people have heard of. It was invented in 1891 as an alternative to traditional horse polo, and became popular enough to be included in the 1908 Olympics. Today it’s mostly played informally by kids in urban areas.

Brandon Mellem, a member of the FM Community Bicycle Workshop, was in charge of organizing an exhibition game. Mellem is part of a group that plays bike polo every Sunday, and thought it would be interesting for the public to see a bicycle sport that doesn’t involve racing. The game kicks off at noon, and will remain fairly casual. Everyone is welcome to try, and people are free to join in and bow out as they see fit.

Another non-traditional event will be the kids’ bike races, in which participants will try their best to race around on small children’s bikes. Despite the name, the kids’ bike races are open to people of all ages.

There are informative events planned as well. Members of the Moorhead Police Department will be giving a talk about bike safety, and will teach kids about things like hand signals and helmets.

Volunteers are organizing a bike rodeo, where kids can practice riding through an obstacle course.

The FM Community Bicycle Workshop will be running a repair stand where racers can make last-minute adjustments and community members can learn about bicycle repair. They will also have a space where people can make spoke cards to put in the wheels of their bikes.

One of the challenges in organizing the bike festival is knowing how many people to expect. There will be no registration, so Johnson and the other organizers won’t know how successful their event will be until the day of. Johnson, anyway, is optimistic enough to refer to it as the First Annual Red River Bicycle Festival.

Whether the Red River Bicycle Festival will succeed in uniting the valley’s cyclists remains to be seen, but clearly, the olive branch has been extended. Racers, repairmen, kids and adults all have a place to share their interests.

If you go, just remember to leave the car at home.

For more information, or to see a complete schedule of events, visit the Great Plains Cycling Club’s website at http://www.gpcycling.org.

Questions and comments: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

If You Go:

What: Red River Bicycle Festival
Where: MB Johnson Park, 3601 11th St. N, Moorhead
When: Sat, Sept 25, 9 am – 4 pm
Info: http://www.gpcycling.org