Photos: Kids bicycle races at the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Festival. How about for Northfield?

The kids bike races at last weekend’s Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Festival in Crosby, MN were a huge hit: lots of kids participating, lots of people watching and cheering with big smiles.

The kids were grouped into four age categories (something like ages 1-3, 4-5, 6-8, 9-10) and they rode one loop on the grass around the edge of Crosby Memorial Park, adjacent to the bandstand and cook shack. The top three finishers in the two youngest classes then ran a second race, as well as the top three finishers in the two oldest classes.  The parents of those 12 kids then raced each other, competing on their kids’ bikes.  Hilarious.

I think kids bicycle races would be a great addition to one of Northfield’s community celebrations, most obviously the 4th of July when the bike criterium is held downtown, or on the Saturday of the Defeat of Jesse James weekend when the Northfield Rotary Club holds its Jesse James Bike Tour.

Could one of the local bicycle shops take on the organization of the event, or maybe some other non-profit or association?   It could be held close to downtown, eg, Ames Park, Central Park, Riverside Park, or Babcock Park.

See my album of two dozen photos of the kids bike races, view the large slideshow (recommended), or SLOW CLICK this small slideshow:

6 Comments

  1. Joy Amunrud said:

    My husband Todd is an avid mountain biker and we attend races with our children throughout the summer. Our six and three year old have been doing these “races” for years and love them. I think it would be a great addition to any of our festivals.

    June 15, 2011
  2. Joy Amunrud said:

    I would also like to see a children’s fun run during DJJD…

    June 15, 2011
  3. David Koenig said:

    Griff, there is a kids race every year in Northfield during the Northfield Criterium, that Milltown Cycles sponsors.

    Our kids have “raced” in it for the past five or six years and love it.

    The whole day of racing is a wonderful event, but it is sadly under-promoted by the Chamber, CVB, NDDC and others. So, attendance is very low compared to what it could be. I know that the organizers do their best to promote the event to the cycling community, but there are many businesses and hotels that could benefit from making this event more widely known as a tourist draw.

    The kids race is a fun break from the real racing!

    Here is a link to the PDF for the event: http://www.usacycling.org/events/getflyer.php?permit=2011-2059

    It would be great to promote this so that people come to town for the races and stay for dinner, fireworks and a night in Northfield!

    June 15, 2011
  4. Griff Wigley said:

    David, I had no idea there was a kids bike race during the 4th of July criterium. I see Ben Witt has a new blog post up (It’s that time again) and the kids race is at 1:50 pm. I plan to be there to take photos. Thanks for the alert.

    June 16, 2011
  5. Todd Amunrud said:

    Griff,

    Speaking of biking. Have you seen what local Ben Oney is doing? Check out http://www.tourdivide.org

    Pretty epic!

    June 24, 2011
  6. Griff Wigley said:

    Thanks for that, Todd… Jim Fisher alerted me a week ago and I’d forgotten about it. Jim wrote on June 11:

    Ben is riding the tour divide from Banff to the Mexican border. Currently he is in 15th and headed to the within 70 miles of the US border. this link http://trackleaders.com/tourdividei.php?name=Ben_Oney has almost real time updates. It get a bit confusing because when he stops to rest it doesn’t say stopped, it just shows his ave. speed slowly declining. Average speed is also somewhat relative, 5000′ on the divide.

    Ben is now in 12th place.

    June 24, 2011

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