After successful 2015 Canadian edition, registration open for 2016’s IMBA Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day
In 2015, 38 individual events across Canada saw 1,500 kids and 1,800 adults attend, with events hosted by everything from clubs to bike shops to land management agencies from coast to coast.
Registration is now open for 2016’s Canadian edition of Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day, and by this year’s numbers, it’s expected to draw an enthusiastic crowd of kids and adults for yet another near running.
In 2015, 38 individual events across Canada saw 1,500 kids and 1,800 adults attend, with activities hosted by everything from clubs to bike shops to land management agencies from coast to coast. It’s the Canadian installment of the International Mountain Bicycling Association’s largest annual, one-day event, with 15,000 riders—both kids and adults—participating in 10 countries. Australia, Austria, Macedonia, Italy, England, Mexico, the Netherlands, Panama, the United States and Canada all took part, with 206 total events.
The underlying spirit of the day: to celebrate the joy of trail riding, a joy that has brought Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day to communities around the world for 12 years. Along with bike shops, community organizations and other groups across the country, Parks Canada, Ontario Parks, Velo Quebec and Sprockids were all involved in the success of Canada’s 2015 edition—with 3,000 participants to show for it.
Building on that success, IMBA Canada announced that in addition to the annual fall event—which, as ever, will fall on the first Saturday of next October: October 1, 2016—a new spring date has been added to mark Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day. In a release, the organization set a date of June 11, 2016 for the spring edition, but noted that other dates are acceptable based on seasonal conditions and other events in various regions.
“Today’s young mountain bikers,” the organization stated, “are tomorrow’s land managers, community leaders, trail builders and trail advocates,” noting the wide-ranging possibilities that start by getting kids into mountain biking when they’re young.
Registration for 2016’s Take a Kid Mountain Biking Day can be done online. The IMBA encourages interested parties to register early, with automatic entry into a draw for prizes from MEC and IMBA Canada.
