The Iowa Mountain Bike Championship Series (IMBCS) is seeking a new series director for the 2023 season.
The Iowa Mountain Bike Championship Series has been in existence for approximately 20 years. Its purpose is to provide a series of mountain bike races in Iowa with different levels of competition for Iowans of all ages and mountain biking abilities.
2022 IMBCS Season
BIKEIOWA and the BIKEIOWA Racing Team hosted and administered the series for the 2022 season with 7 mountain bike races and 18 race categories.
The series was successful with the following highlights:
- 11 of 18 categories had racers who met the requirements.
- ALL Juniors and Kids raced for FREE
- ALL Champions got 100% pay-back on the races they attended
- Local non-profits received $2500+ dollars back from the series
Future of IMBCS
BIKEIOWA and the BIKEIOWA Racing Team will NOT be hosting or administering the 2023 IMBCS season.
Why? Two reasons - #1 The series was created to promote races in different parts of Iowa. The idea was to get racers to travel to each race to get more points. Over the course of 20 years, cyclists are not traveling as much to races outside of their home turf. Most race participants were local to the area and would have attended the race regardless if it were part of the series.
#2 Limited Resources - BIKEIOWA likes to spend our valuable time to promote events that reach the maximum amount of cyclists as possible (bang-for-the-buck). The number of points-chasers in the IMBCS series was pretty minimal. Only 11 of the 18 categories had Champions and there was very little Champion competition. It is also time consuming (yet still rewarding) to prepare, plan, seek sponsors, track categories, points, work with each race director, post results, as well the accounting for Champion and non-profit pay-backs.
If no individual or entity takes over the IMBCS series, it doesn't stop any future mountain bike races from happening.
Future of the
IMBCS Facebook page? It's a great source of information and a great way to promote upcoming races. We'll keep it and probably just rename it to something generic for Iowa Mountain BIke Racing.
Kids and Juniors - Race directors are keen on growing the sport and starting young. All races in the series allowed Kids and Juniors to race for free this year and the series allowed the non-profits to get paid back for the kids and juniors who raced, which in-turn
gave some funds back the planning organizations.
Future Iowa Mountain Biking
Iowa Mountain Bike races will continue regardless if there is a series or not.
There are at least 9 Mountain Bike races in the works now for 2023.
Local races appeal to local riders. This is not a bad thing.
Iowa has some great spots to Mountain Bike and we are lucky to have passionate riders/racers and local non-profits who build and maintain trails and work with the local city and county entities to ensure sustainable trails are being built.
Yes, Iowa Mountain Biking is ripe for growth. Iowa Mountain Biking has been more popular in the past. The popularity is ever-changing. Road racing used to be the thing, now it is Gravel Racing. There will always be a core group for each genre, but what appeals to the masses changes over time.
Either way, BIKEIOWA will continue to promote and host Iowa Mountain Bike Races and Trails as we always have, regardless if there is a series or not.
Interested in taking over the IMBCS Series?
Ready to grow the sport of competitive mountain Biking and work with like-minded cyclists across Iowa? YOU might be the next IMBCS director!
RIDE DIRT
RIDE SAFE