Bellingham's annual mountain bike race is now part of a new
series, which launches Sunday with the Valentines Challenge
in Belfair.
Mark Peterson, director of the Padden Mountain Pedal,
says the idea for the Indie XC Mountain Bike Series came out
of three years of discussions between him and the directors
of two other races. The idea is to attract more riders to
their races - racers that in previous years had gone
elsewhere.
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Indie XC Mountain Bike Series |
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For more information about the Indie XC Mountain
Bike Series, visit
www.indieseries.com . The schedule is:
Feb. 27: Valentines Challenge, Belfair.
April 24: South SeaTac Shuffle, SeaTac.
May 15: Whidbey Island Mudder, Langley.
June 4: Bavarian Bike & Brews Festival,
Leavenworth.
July 10: Padden Mountain Pedal,
Bellingham.
July 31: Greenwater Gamble, Greenwater.
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"Many people would have loved to go to Padden, but it
conflicted with a number of series."
SIX RACES
The series includes six races, two of them new, all in
different parts of Washington. Clif Bar, an energy snack
maker, is sponsoring it. The Padden Mountain Pedal is set
for July.
Peterson hopes the races will attract mountain bikers who
have become disenchanted with mainstream bike racing series,
which were often standardized.
"Some of the others had become a little too stale or
stagnant," Peterson said.
One selling point is price. All the races will have no
extra fee other than a same-day registration fee, usually
$25 for an adult.
RACING LICENSE
Most mountain bike races require a racing license which
is $35 for a year or $10 for a single day. There are also
penalties for not preregistering.
"For a lot of people that don't race on a regular basis,
it turns out to be $35 for the race, a $10 late fee and a
$10 one-day license fee, and before you know it you're
spending $55 to race around the course for an hour and a
half," Peterson says.
Peterson expects that the Padden Mountain Pedal, which
had 175 racers last year, will gain a boost from the series.