Has BMX Racing in the UK got a Brighter Future Now

Now the spectacular BMX racing has finished in the London 2012 Olympics with Team GB BMX riders Liam Philips and Shanaze Reade making the finals and still proving they are in the top ten BMX riders in the world with they strong and brave efforts.  It was amazing to see BMX racing gaining major coverage in the UK  for once, it must have been covered in nearly every big national newspapers in the back sports pages or Sunday supplements last weekend, which must help it grow over the next few years.  It appears the public were not aware how fast and exciting this cycling sport can be and comparable to boardercross and skicross in the Winter Olympics, but with a harder landing if you crash.

After all the E.T BMX  jokes, the big media wave has washed over the BMX racing scene and we're not sure if this is just because it's the London Olympics or it may continue with every Olympic from now on with some broad sheet newspapers publishing articles on the BMX world championships as a starter for the future.  I bet it's never had this much national media coverage before and probably the last time it was in the national papers this frequently was when it was classed as the next craze from the USA in the early 80's after the E.T block buster film was released (when the papers were short of a few headline stories). 

 With Swatch and Red Bull now sponsoring major international BMX events, this too will help promote this fun sport and hopefully create a greater demand for pump track and BMX tracks in the UK.  You do not have to enter BMX races to ride a BMX track, most cities have some form of free BMX track (even thou it may need some maintenance) on a public park.  You or your child would gain great bike skills with some pactice and you can soon clock up 6 or 7 miles from pedalling and pumping on a 400 metre long BMX track over a couple of hours on the track.   National and regional standard BMX tracks will not be as big or dangerous as the one seen in the London 2012 Olympics, so please don't use this as an excuse.  Get on the internet and search out your local BMX track or BMX club,  check out British Cycling  for further information on BMX racing.  You can always try out BMX freestyle or street riding too.

Wonder if any additional funding will come from it, funny how funding comes for Velodromes at £28 million and UK BMX clubs are struggling to get a couple of thousand pounds to resurface the track or get tarmac berms.  Lets see what happens in the next four years leading upto the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic games for BMX racing.

The London 2012 Olympic legacy may produce the goods, not sure if some of us will be around to see thou.  Hopefully as planned by LOCOG these games will inspire more children and adults to try out a new sport, however the particpates will only grow in numbers if there are the quality facilities available to encourgae them.  So now more people are aware of the BMX sport from the TV coverage, it's a ideal time to pump money into this growing sport and hopefully entice some people away from their games consoles and do it for real.  This would then help LOCOG meet their legacy targets for BMX.