BIKING: Pumped Up

SPRINGDALE -- Jason Lind had a passion for BMX biking growing up in Springdale in the late 1980s.

Little did he know then that at the age of 43, he would get a chance to put his skills against the best in the world in the Red Bull Pump Track World Championships.

"Riding BMX bikes was something I was always good at," said Lind, the vice-president of sales for Cram-A-Lot. "Stick-and-ball sports I wasn't that good at, but I was always good at BMX and skateboarding."

Lind will attempt to earn a spot in Saturday's world championship races along with a number of other riders who paid a $15 fee to enter Friday's Last Chance Qualifier at the new Runway Bike Park at The Jones Center. The pump track was built by Velosolutions and is currently the largest pump track in the U.S.

This is the first world championship event in pump track racing, said Joost Wichman of the Netherlands, a former racer and one of the event's organizers along with Christoph Mueller of Switzerland.

"Pump track racing is getting bigger and bigger," said Wichman, a former BMX national champion. "Pump tracks were built for practicing skills, but it just sort of became natural for people to race on them. Pump track racing combines BMX and mountain biking disciplines."

Mueller was instrumental in bringing the Red Bull championships to Springdale after he and Mike Gilbert, the Chief Operating Officer of The Jones Center met at a pump track racing event in Oklahoma last year. Gilbert was overseeing the construction of the new Runway Bike Park on The Jones Center property by Velosolutions.

Switzerland was originally set to host the first-ever championship event, but complications forced the event to be moved. Mueller and Gilbert were able to pull the event together on the new Jones Center track, which was completed just in time for this event. The park also includes two additional bike tracks, including one for strider bikes and the other that is for skill line practice.

"Red Bull wanted to do this at a large track, and Mike was interested in hosting it," Mueller said. "So we were able to get together and work out the details, and here we are."

Over the past few months, there have been 22 world qualifiers held in various countries like Chile, the Netherlands and Scotland. The champions from those events have secured spots in Saturday's championship round, and they will be joined by the survivors of the Last Chance Qualifier.

For the past week, riders from all parts of the world have tested the new state-of-the-art track, including Bruno Labagnino of Chile.

"The track is crazy," said Labagnino, 22. "You have to find your lines, but when you find that, it's nice."

Lind was out on the track Tuesday getting in some practice time among the world's most elite riders.

"These riders are awesome," Lind said. "There is a lot of talent coming here for this event."

The Runway pump track is another feature in the explosion of biking opportunities for Northwest Arkansas. The region has become the epicenter of a mountain biking culture, and last weekend the Oz Trails Off-Road mountain biking event drew the top riders in the world to Bentonville and Bella Vista.

This weekend, the attention shifts to pump track racing. Lind said biking is a sport that anyone can enjoy regardless of their skill level.

"It's an individual sport," Lind said. "It's not organized, so you don't have to wait for a season to come around and be placed on a team or wait for a team to play on. It's something you can grow and improve on and do it on your own timeline."

When The Jones Center broke ground on the bike park earlier this year, Gilbert said he hoped the tracks would be used as a progression from striders to young bikers to more skilled riders to elite-level bikers.

On Wednesday, children ages 3 to 6 hit the race track first for a strider bike competition. If Gilbert's dream comes true, a child from that event will one day compete for a world championship a few feet away.

Sports on 10/11/2018