Will BMX Racing Be An Olympic Hit Like Snowboard Cross?

There’s a lot of talk right now about BMX racing, which is making its Olympic debut in Beijing. The concept of BMX racing is very similar to that of snowboard cross, which made its Olympic debut in 2006: ride over a bunch of obstacles, fly in the air, and try to get to the finish line before the other guys. Or ladies.

Anyway, it seems Olympic organizers are trying to deliver a “spark” similar to the one snowboard cross did. The event debuted with much fanfare, and seemed to attract a demographic that may not have previously been very interested in the Olympics: anyone under 30.

Now, the next question, well-put in this Toronto Star article is: when will skateboarding arrive at the Olympics? Maybe Shaun White can compete in both the Winter and Summer Olympics.

Slow Posting, Busy Commenting

As you can probably tell posting this summer hasn’t been exactly, er, frequent. There’s a host of excuses I could come up with - job, travel, needing to poke Steve more to write about cycling - but the bottom line is also that July and August have been really slow for news, too. So don’t despair: I’m sure things will pick up as winter nears. In fact, I’m already thinking about my first shredding trip. And at least one local resort, Holiday Valley, as announced tentative opening date: November 28.

Anyway, one thing that has been busy all summer is the comments area, which I’m really pleased to see. For anyone interested in my ACL surgery recovery saga, check out the comments on my last post, which now contains an ongoing discussion. Although I wish the ordeal on no-one, it’s very interesting to meet and talk to people who’ve had similar experiences to mine - or some that are completely different.

Weekend Snowboarding Links

Some weekend link love on an otherwise slow weekend:

• How to engineer the ultimate downhill mountain bike: find out here.
• Shanty Creek named best terrain in the Midwest: that has to count for something.
• Alltracks Academy expands to Revelstoke: we’ve covered Alltracks before.
• What happens when shredding and Google Earth get together? Check it out.

Back to the Blog: Whistler’s Sea to Sky Highway Closed

Imagine if this happened during the 2010 Winter Olympics: The only route between Vancouver and Whistler will be closed for about five days thanks to a gigantic rock slide yesterday. Some stories estimated the slide contained 16,000 cubic feet of rock. It doesn’t look like anyone was hurt.

The net result is that tens of thousands of tourists are stranded, as it’s damn near impossible to get back and forth without the Sea to Sky Highway, where the slide took place. The ride is two hours on the Sea to Sky Highway, eight hours if you take the detour. Ouch.

While it’s not likely to happen during the 2010 Winter Olympics, imagine if it did? What a nightmare.