Members Only: The new DH Trend for Ride Days

By now most of you have probably found the massive DH Racing in 2010 thread.  There is a lot of information packed in there, so I thought it prudent to point out some things that seem to be source to some confusion.

Popular opinion shows that a likely solution to the struggling DH community are more ride days.  One of the major contributing factors to the lack of ride days in recent history is that they are a costly beast to produce.  In order to obtain a sanction for a ride day an organizer has two options: 1. A Commercial Event Sanction and 2. A Club Event Sanction. 

In the past, the commercial event sanction has been used to produce ride days.  It's a convenient thing for riders who aren't licensed by the CCA since no such license is required to participate in such a commercial event.  This commercial event sanction is one of the big costs that our organizers have had to endure in the past, and judging by the amount of ride days happening around Nova Scotia, it's a prohibitive cost.  Kudos to the many organizers who have done this, not many people understand how much of an investment is involved in one of these.

The other option is a club event sanction.  What's great about this is that it's much more affordable for the organizer to obtain.  The only catch is that participants need to be registered members of the CCA.  (The CCA is the Canadian Cycling Association, and a membership with BNS is a membership with the CCA.)  For racers who buy a licence each year, you're covered already with that license.  Enjoy riding!  For those of you who are not racers, all you need to do is pay ~$25 to join a club and you'll be allowed to participate as memberships to BNS sanctioned clubs come with a general membership to BNS / CCA.  Most bike shops have clubs, but there are others around the province as well.  Or if you're so inclined it's only $110 to make your own club!

Basically what's happened here in NS is that the costs associated with the commercial event sanction that is more convenient for the participant have become too prohibitive based on the turnouts we're getting.  Unfortunately in order to build numbers, we need more ride days.  This club event sanction option has made producing the ride days much easier for our organizers, and the four or more tentatively proposed ride days mentioned by some of our organizers says that the idea is appreciated by them.  By supporting the idea and becoming a member of a club to participate in the ride days, you're showing great respect to the people who have worked long and hard to bring you ride days and races, often at their own financial detriment.

Many thanks to our faithful organizers who continue to work to bring us enjoyment.