Help put junior-level mountain biking 'on the map' in Wisconsin

I attended a meeting last night of enthusiastic folks looking to bring high school mountain biking to Wisconsin. Wisconsin is already one of the best places to ride and race a mountain bike, so why shouldn't Wisco become part of the growing national movement spurred by Matt Fritzinger and the National Interscholastic Cycling Association.

Chad Warren, a teacher at Verona High School, is exploring the formation of a Wisconsin high school mountain bike league. Our friends at WORS are helping with a push to discover who of you out there would be willing to assist and or race as part of such a league.

Wisconsin is a great place to ride our bikes. We have hundreds of miles of singletrack, dozens of off-road cycling groups and one of the nation's strongest centers of cycling industry and advocacy. Wisconsin already has the resources and the interest to create outstanding opportunities for fun, safe, statewide competitive mountain bike racing at the Junior level - and the time is now.

We're bringing people together across the state. For many of you, you'll simply continue doing what you have been doing for years: helping young people to share in a sport that you love. We'll need your support to make this a success, and we hope you'll join us. Some of you may want to get involved now, and we'll be happy to help connect you with like-minded MTB enthusiasts in your area. Some of you may be Juniors who are ready to try out, or further excel in, mountain bike racing on a competitive level. We are a group of volunteers who love mountain biking and want to make this happen - and we need your help!

Our first goal is to organize Wisconsin's Junior MTBing enthusiasts into a network with two aims. We want to put Junior MTB racing "on the map" in Wisconsin!

1. To allow interested Juniors to find mentorship, friendship and support for riding and racing mountain bikes in their local community.
2. To support and unite those of you who can offer help and guidance to interested Junior riders in your local community.
   

The first thing we'll do with this data is to create an interactive, online Wisconsin community map of resources for Juniors who are interested in mountain bike racing. For clubs, teams, shops, families and individual racers, this map will be a resource to connect with others in your local area who share your excitement for hitting the trails.

To add your name to the map and the growing list of individuals interested in supporting junior-level mountain bike racers and a possible Wisconsin high school mountain bike league, please visit this Web site and sign up today.