The St. Albert BMX club is taking the summer by storm. They have been busy hosting races and events all season long and, now that COVID restrictions are completely lifted, they have reverted back to business as usual.
Angela van Leeuwen, club vice president, said the week-to-week action has been constant, with members tearing up their state-of-the-art BMX track.
“Our track is open Monday through Thursday every single evening and then we have different things going on, like open-track and racing on Tuesdays, which we like to encourage the public to come out and watch,” said van Leeuwen. “We do coaching nights. A couple of weekends ago we hosted a Canada Cup, so we had riders come from all across Canada and compete on our track.”
The Canada Cup event also included a provincial series event, which garnered a fantastic turnout from riders across the country.
“We had more than 400 riders which, just coming off of COVID, was pretty good,” said van Leeuwen. “We were kind of surprised that we had such an amazing turnout and it was right after the restrictions lifted so we were the first BMX club to host a big race like that this season.”
Despite the constant stream of events, they are seeing lower membership, mainly due to the uncertainty of COVID. Van Leeuwen said the club saw the number drop from around 90 before the pandemic to just around 30 now.
This will cause representation in events such as the upcoming Aurora Northern Championship in Stony Plain on Aug. 20 to be lower than usual.
“We are trying to grow our ridership again and [the club] won’t be overly represented [in championships] because there is only a handful of us,” said van Leeuwen. “There are probably 10 riders or so representing St. Albert in the Aurora series.”
The low membership levels shouldn’t take too long to rebound. They are excited to have riders back on their track and it is accessible to all ages no matter how experienced they are on a bike.
The sport is one that is appealing for people who enjoy casual clubs, said van Leeuwen, who added one of the appeals of joining the club is that you can choose how active you want to be in participating in races or events.
“BMX is one of those sports where it’s individual,” said van Leeuwen. “In soccer, where it’s a team sport, if you don’t show up for a game you’re letting your team down, whereas in BMX if you don’t show up one night, no big deal.
“If you only want to come out a couple of times that is fine. That being said, BMX is a huge community and we are all very close.”
There are plans to add a super-cross hill to the track in the next few years, which would be the first of its kind in Alberta. It would open up St. Albert as a possible host for World Cup events in the future.
“It is in the planning stages right now and we are hoping construction is going to start in the next couple of years,” said van Leeuwen. “This year the World Cup was held in the Netherlands and that is something that St. Albert could potentially host in the future with this new super-cross hill.
“It will be huge for BMX here in Alberta.”
The club plans to host a try-it event soon, to open the track to potential new riders. A date has not been finalized yet. Watch their Facebook page — St. Albert BMX — for updates.
“We have great turnout for [try-it events] and people absolutely love it,” said van Leeuwen. “It’s for all ages and it's so much fun.”
