BNS Mountain Bike Committee to Investigate Race Courses

The Bicycle Nova Scotia Mountain Bike Committee's long vacant seat for Trails / Land Access Coordinator has been filled in 2010 by the very capable and knowledgable Tom "Tommyboy" Kavanagh.  Tom is a busy man in the local cycling scene and has been for many years.  Most recently Tom has been behind A-Gore-aphobia, a BNS point series cross-country race in Gore, NS and he is also acting president of the newly formed Nova Scotia Mountain Bike Trail Association.  If you don't know Tom, ask the next group of people you find riding on a trail in Nova Scotia and they'll tell you all good things about his dedication and character.

The Bicycle Nova Scotia Mountain Bike Committe voted unanimously in favor or an informal investigation to gather information on the current, and in some cases past, race courses around the province.  Who owns the land, who builds / maintains the trails, what level of trail interest / trail awareness there is in the respective community surrounding the trails etc.  Special focus will be paid to different plans of action for poor weather conditions.  BNS Vice President, Mountain Biking Andrew "O9Man" Lowery explains "right now we don't know what plans our current organizers have for poor trail conditions on race day.  If a new organizer were to ask what typically happens, we wouldn't have an answer for them.  At the very least we hope to have that answer by the end of this investigation.  At most maybe we'll have some kind of policy that can help financially protect organizers who have to cancel a race."

At the last Mountain Bike Committee meeting it was discussed and agreed by all that Nova Scotia's current pool of race organizers have dedication and passion second to none. There was some concern that this investigation may come across as accusatory.  The Mountain Bike Committee recognizes that our race organizers are all builders both on and off the trail; Lowery adds "it's important to know that this investigation hasn't come about because we have a problem or because anyone had even the slightest doubt of one of our organizers.  All we want is to have at least that resource for new race organizers who come into the community in the years to come."

Inbetween his duties as President of the NSMTBA, trail building, club riding, race planning and being a family man, Kavanagh plans to contact Nova Scotia's race organizers through the Spring.