MEC Dirt Search Contest

Canadian Mountain Bike Clubs Compete to Win $10,000 for Hometown Trails

What do mountain bikers dream of? Awesome trails. How do awesome trails come to be? Lots of sweat, dirt, and hard work. Luckily, in communities all over Canada, groups of like-minded folk have banded together to improve their home turf trails, forming clubs and associations designed to make biking better in their backyard. However, money is always tight and these clubs rely on in-house fundraising efforts to gain financial support for things like new trails, signage, insurance, mapping, and materials. Trail building projects take up thousands of hours of volunteer time, and any cash that does come in is a huge bonus for Canada’s organized mountain bike clubs and associations.

This February a plus sized donation is up for grabs, aimed to help with the creation and maintenance of hometown trails. The Dirt Search Contest, sponsored by Canadian mega-outdoor retailer Mountain Equipment Co-op, pits 19 grassroots clubs against one another to generate as many online votes as they can between February 5th and 26th, 2014.

The contest is divided into two divisions for western and eastern Canada, with the winner of each awarded $10,000 for a trail project of their choice.

In the western division, clubs in well-known British Columbia riding destinations such as Whistler, Squamish, North Vancouver, and Kamloops are vying to win the hearts and votes of mountain bikers for projects such as parking lot upgrades, signage, signature alpine loops and flow trails. They’re drawing on a vast rider base and well known reputations, but it may be a case of being too close for comfort, particularly in the Sea-to-Sky Corridor.

One club in the western division certainly isn’t worried about overcrowding: They are 2000 kilometers away from the closest competitor. “The population of our entire territory (35,000) is a mere fraction of competitors like Calgary and Vancouver”, says Sierra van der Meer, president of the Contagious Mountain Bike Club based in Whitehorse, Yukon.

Van der Meer’s club won’t even technically cash in, should they win. “We’d actually donate it to a First Nation project in a nearby community”, she explained. “This is a town (Carcross, YT) that went from having virtually no trails to being named a Global Mountain Bike Destination by Outside magazine last year. They’re redefining the social benefits of trails and riding, and we want to give them a boost.” Win or no win, legions of CMBC volunteers will be helping First Nation youth add to their 65-kilometre network this summer.

In the eastern division, the competition is less about world-famous riding destinations trying to stand apart from one another, and more about small rural towns going up against large urban centers. Contestants hail from locations as diverse as the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley, to big guns like Montreal and Toronto. All of them share the hope of securing the most support from the online community. Projects such as boardwalks, new single-track, and bikes for kids’ programs have all been styled as plans worth voting for.

The Durham Mountain Biking Association is one of the larger groups in the division, with members hailing from all across the Greater Toronto Area. Numbers aside, DMBA is confident they can rack up the votes on the basis of the great work they do. “We’re a very social club, with group rides, clinics, and even road trips”, explained President Tom Hanrahan. “Not only do we build great single-track for riders, we also have solid support from the conservation authorities we work with.” If they win, they plan to add another 10 kilometers of trail to their network.

On the far end of the country, Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley Mountain Bike Association plans to add a little flow to its riding options with a gravity-oriented fun-fest of berms, rollers, and table tops. They’re a smaller club, but they’re drawing support from the entire Maritimes region. President Ryan Lindh is the voice of this under-dog club: “We have an annual membership of around 50 people, but we maintain some of the best and most diverse riding in the Province. We are building momentum with skills parks and new trails and plan on keeping the wheels turning!”

There is no doubt that mountain biking continues to expand and grow in Canada. With the support of MEC, the Dirt Search Competition is an awesome contest that will help our sport progress.

Voting is now underway and will run until February 26th. You can vote daily for your favorites. Take a minute to throw your support behind a few of Canada’s grassroots mountain biking champions.

MEC - Dirt Search Contest