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Sports

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“Review Wednesday, August 8,1990 — B6
a eT — Ta aaa a
in BMX battle

Brentwood’s Bain bumps and jumps

by Mare Davis
The Review

The thnil of propelling his bicy-
cle at full tilt down a bumpy,
winding dirt track, seeming to be
on the brink of a spectacular
tumble, is what makes Jeff Bain a
BMX racer.

Since he first became involved
in the dare-devil sport of BMX
cross-country racing, the Bren-
twood Bay resident has become a
top Canadian rider.

Over 150 trophies fill his home,
including an award for the top
Cruiser Division (24-inch frame
bicycle) racer in Westem Canada
for 1986.

“BMX racing has got speed and
excitement, with aerial jumps, too.
It’s a bit like moto-cross,” he says.

At the age of 12, Bain first heard
about a relative newcomer on the
sports scene called BMX racing
— a sport that combines sprint
cycling with the acrobatic rigors of
tackling a rugged dirt obstacle
course.

For a couple of hundred dollars
he bought a 20-inch frame BMX
bicycle (standard size) and was
soon competing in the Greater
Victoria area.

“My first race was in Esquimalt.
It was really exciting, just like
taking trail riding to new heights,”
he says.

Now he races on a top-of-the-
range light-weight bike that has
been customized at a cost of
$1,100.

Regardless of the cost of a
tacer’s “wheels,” the ability to be
the quickest over a 1,000-foot long
course boils down to a test of
endurance, skill, gritty determina-
tion and smart thinking, Bain said.

“It can be very physically
demanding. You always need fin-
esse and a good sense of balance
but there’s also a lot of tactics
involved,” he says.

“After a while you leam what’s
called track sense. Without look-
ing around you, you know where
everyone is and you get a feel for

-what kind of maneuver they are

going to make in the next tum.”

A competitor usually battles it
out with seven other riders over
three heats during the course of a
day’s racing, Bain said.

The rider who accumulates the
most points over the three heats
wins the event or advances to
further rounds of competition, he
said. :

Since most of the riders com-
pete against one another on a
week-to-week basis, a strong sense
of camaraderie usually develops,
he said.

“When you're at the track, it’s
usually like a big family. If you
brake a part, someone will proba-

bly lend it to you, evenifit’sa guy —

you're racing against.

“It?s a good atmosphere, but
when the race is on, the competi-
tion gets fierce,” he said.

‘I's a good
atmosphere, but
when the race is on,
the competition gets
fierce’

The sport’s struggle for credibil-
ity among the sporting establish-
ment is one of the reasons the
riders work so hard to give BMX
racing a good image, Bain said.

Recently, some progress was
made in this direction, when Bain
was picked — along with seven
other area riders — to represent
Vancouver Island/Powell River at
the B.C. Summer Games.

“For the past three years (the
Greater Victoria BMX Associa-
tion) has been trying to get BMX
racing into the.B.C. Games,” Bain
said.

“We believe it’s the best way to
promote the sport and this year we
got in as a demonstration sport.

“The word back seems very
favorable,” he said.

His team placed second overall
at the Games. The confidence-
booster inspired Bain to try and
regain his crown as the best in the
West.

“Next year, if things work out, I
think I'll put in another full-force
effort to get back into serious
racing and become the Western

BAIN KEEPS his eyes open and his head up @uring BMX
competitions. Even the sixth sense is used in competition
to know where fellow racers are on the Course, and what
they might do next: :

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LEADING THE PACK into a tight comer, BMX racer Jeff Bain,
Number 27, holds on to a narrow lead with gritty
determination as he looks for the next comer.

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