Five years ago, the Red Deer River poured over its banks and created all sorts of property damage in Central Alberta.
The Red Deer BMX Club, located along the river at Great West Adventure Park, was a hard-hit victim. While much of the actual track was above the high water line, the starter’s hill was partly washed out and the moto shed and bleachers were mired in a muddy mess.
Basically, the whole area between the river and the track had been submerged.
When the flood receded and the damage was evident to the eye, club members were thinking that their season was already over.
Instead, a group of 40 volunteers, with help from the corporate community, started reconstructing the site in late June and applied the finishing touches two months later, just in time for the Red Deer BMX Club to stage a provincial event.
“We have about 80 club members and the parents of probably half of them were here working most of the time,” club president Glen Pratt said on that proud August day. “Half of the dads work in the oilfield and couldn’t be here as much. The other half came down after work and then on weekends.
“We were here until 10:30 at night and some of us would be back at 7 a.m. on weekends. It wasn’t uncommon to put in a 10-hour day.”
To this day, Pratt remains grateful to the volunteers and businesses who came to the rescue with donations of money, material like clay, topsoil and sand, and the use of moving equipment.
“The track was rebuilt completely with the help of a lot of people. The community really pitched in,” he said last month.
“It said a lot about the spirit of Red Deer.”
The new track was actually an improvement on the former and remains a cherished course to this day. In addition, the club has grown in leaps and bounds in terms of membership.
When Pratt and his sons Cody and Tim joined the Red Deer BMX club nine years ago, there were 38 riders.
“Last year, we were about 120 and we’re already up to 45 or 50 this year and we haven’t even been on the track yet,” he said in early May.
“Probably about 25 per cent of our (enrolment) is yearly turnover. Kids come out and try it for one year and because it is an extreme sport just the way it has evolved, a lot of kids decide they’re either not quite that competitive or they’re not quite as brave as the same fellow they are racing. They’re always behind, that type of thing.”
Pratt, whom club media contact Deb Stahl calls “Mr. BMX” for Red Deer, has been involved in the sport since his two young sons enlisted and evolved into top riders both provincially and nationally. Tim is ranked No. 1 in Canada in the 16-year-old expert class 20-inch and cruiser categories, while Cody is the top-ranked 12-year-old expert class rider in Alberta.
But the Red Deer BMX Club’s achievements don’t end there.
“We have quite a handful of kids who have accomplished things,” said Pratt, who has served as the club’s grounds director, president and vice-president, and is currently the training director. “In 2007, we sent 21 riders to the world championship in Victoria and they came back with two world plates.”
The recipients of the plates, which indicate a top-eight placing and world ranking, were Ilana Just and Neige Delauney. The latter is no longer with the Red Deer club.
Meanwhile, Abby Graalman is the Canadian junior women’s champion, Chase Harrison was the top-ranked rider in the 10-to-12 cruiser class at the 2009 Canadian finals in Kingston, Ont., and Tyson Best took top honours in the 13-to-14 male cruiser division. In addition, Dean Best is ranked third in Canada in the men’s category.
All, or most of the top local riders are expected to compete in an international event on July 10 at the Red Deer BMX track. Upwards of 400 riders are expected to attend the competition, sanctioned by the sport’s world governing body, Union Cycliste Internationale.
“To my knowledge, this will be the biggest event — at this (UCI) scale — to be held in Red Deer,” said Pratt. “Anybody who holds a UCI license is eligible to attend. For instance, if a rider from Australia was in the U.S. training and he felt like he wanted to come up here and just race, he would be eligible because he holds a license.”
Pratt and other club leaders — including president Wayne Muttit and vice-president Tim Sekora — are hoping to attract riders from a super-cross event to be staged in Salt Lake City one week prior to the Red Deer competition, which will offer a prize purse of $10,000.
“The Salt Lake City event attracts pretty much everybody from around the world because it’s one of the higher level races. We’re hoping that we get a little bit of a bleed off from that event because it’s only 14 hours down the road,” said Pratt.
“Plus a lot of the Canadian BMX team riders are out of B.C., so we’re hoping that maybe they’ll stop in.”
The UCI races will be held in conjunction with Canadian BMX Association Series V and VI races on July 10 and 11 at Great West Adventure Park.
Red Deer BMX riders race every Tuesday and Thursday at the local track, with Sunday afternoons set aside for training sessions for all levels of racing.
For the average rider, the sport can be relatively inexpensive. Highly competitive racers, however, can shell out big bucks.
“When you get into the higher stages and when you’re starting to race against the pros and double A pros, you’re looking at (bikes made of) carbon fibre and titanium and stuff like that,” said Pratt.
“A simple set of pedals can cost you $600.”
The cost of the bikes ridden by Olympic contenders and world champions ranges from $6,000 to $10,000.
“But then you get the little kid who wants to get involved in the sport for the first time. He goes to Wal Mart and buys a bike for $100 and away he goes,” said Pratt.
gmeachem@redddeeradvocate.com