STRAVA MTB Racing: The Mountain Bikers' Dirty Little Secret
| Posted on December 13, 2013 at 7:20 PM |
STRAVA mountain bike racing has introduced a new scofflaw mountain biking activity to the mix of the usual ripping and shredding done to our forest floor by knobby wheeled tires. STRAVA mtb racers are usually a solitary, selfish and solitary lot, racing against others' GPS times, to become KOM: "King of the Mountain"(More about STRAVA can be found here: http://www.strava.com/ ).
This activity attracts a reckless lot who take to the "Hiking Only" trails, illegally, and sometimes cut their own fresh unsanctioned trails on the mountains. There was an incident on Fromme Mtn.'s hiking only trail, Per/PeerGynt (or Bill's Trail) on District land. Trees were cut down illegally, with dead smiley faces carved into the bottom of the tree trunks. But this is just the beginning of the sordid tale...(starting about six months ago...)
The FMCBC's Fall/Winter 2013 Cloudburst Magazine reports the findings:
Should we be blaming STRAVA mountain bikers for this vandalism in the woods? After all, there is ample evidence mountain bikers are racing on this Hiking Only trail ( and as recent as November 1st, before the snowfall.) , knowing full well that this trail is off limits to mountain biking. The rules, it seems, do not apply to such people as a former local MTB Olympian*, or even a local bike shop owner -- not listed on this updated segment, but was "KOM" in July 2013:
Peer Gynt
North Vancouver, BC, Canada
- 0.5kmDistance
- -19.2%Avg Grade
- 704mLowest Elev
- 805mHighest Elev
- 101mElev Difference
- Ridden 27 times by 23 people
0mi0.05mi0.1mi0.15mi0.2mi0.25mi0.3mi2600ft2800ft
Men's Leaderboard
| Rank | Name | Speed | Power | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tyler M. | 11.4km/h | 0w | 2:46 |
| 2 | David A. | 9.1km/h | 0w | 3:29 |
| *3 | Andreas H. | 8.6km/h | 1w | 3:41 |
| 3 | Adam S. | 8.6km/h | - | 3:41 |
| 5 | Johnny H. | 8.5km/h | 1w | 3:43 |
| 6 | Brady F. | 7.9km/h | 0w | 4:00 |
| 7 | Max B. | 7.6km/h | 3w | 4:08 |
| 8 | Stuart H. | 7.6km/h | 1w | 4:09 |
| 9 | Michael P. | 7.3km/h | 8w | 4:20 |
| 10 | Breaking S. | 7.3km/h | 0w | 4:21 |
| 11 | Alex W. | 7.0km/h | - | 4:31 |
| 12 | Denver T. | 6.3km/h | 3w | 5:02 |
| 13 | Andy R. | 5.9km/h | 0w | 5:19 |
| 14 | Marty L. | 5.3km/h | - | 5:56 |
| 14 | Terry G. | 5.3km/h | 2w | 5:56 |
| 16 | Chris C. | 5.3km/h | 3w | 6:00 |
| 17 | P N. | 5.2km/h | 1w | 6:06 |
| 18 | Alex C. | 5.1km/h | 1w | 6:13 |
| 19 | Jay M. | 4.3km/h | 17w | 7:20 |
| 20 | Malcolm D. | 3.7km/h | 16w | 8:28 |
Go hard, be safe, and have fun. This is what we stand for.
But, the mountain bikers must be hiding something when they go on attack of the both the article and the person), in an NSMB.com forum, which soon disappeared from the board -- deleted. (Perhaps there is something they do not want us to know?) Luckily my habit of copying and pasting comes in handy.
This is the kind of dialogue that ensued about the person who dared to point a finger at the "innocent" mountain bikers. "What? Us do wrong?" (Either these mtbers are clueless about the illegal STRAVA racing on Bill's Trail/Peer Gynt --- or wish to steer looky loos away from that fact.)
FMCBC - Cloudburst
Anyone get the Cloudburst newsletter? An article from a member was discussing Per Gynt (he calls it Bills Trail). Seems a lot of trees were cut down on the trail. Claims it must be mountain bikers (read it to see his reasoning - it's a pdf, maybe someone can post it up or at least the relevant section). I highly doubt it was mountain bikers having way in the past ridden it (long long time ago now) and I can't see wanting to widen it or smooth it out (hmmm well lets ignore that issue here) [authors argument re: it must be mtn bikers as they are the only ones who would want to widen and smooth it out]
Not sure if NSMBA wants/should to respond to this (I know this is NSMB). Just giving a heads up. I have no idea why I even get their newsletter except perhaps it's connected with BCMC? |
|
It sounds like a whiner that spewed the same on clubtread a while back. We were discussing it on here
too. http://bb.nsmb.com/showthread.php?t=155753&highlight=Fromme+drama (This thread is still up, so far...) |
Stay tuned for the next sordid STRAVA tale, also "covered" by the mountain bikers for fear of retaliation... but what is to fear when we get told by the public land authorities:
"While the work (tree cutting) appears to have been done by a well-intentioned group (i.e. they were not maliciously cutting healthy trees), the tree cutting was unpermitted by the District of North Vancouver."
(Do you really believe that ?!)
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