“We didn’t necessarily implement any restrictions ,” Berry said. November 2020’s viking-themed Gudrun: Northwoods MTB Festival and running/cycling expo went really well, according to Traci Berry, Northwoods Trails Coordinator at Visit Hot Springs. But by fall, the biggest biking event in the area was back on. With even the locally beloved monthly Full Moon Rides canceled, the Hot Springs area’s biking and racing scene was relatively quiet last spring. “Having to navigate all this has improved our communication among staff, among athletes, and among stakeholders. “I’ve taken so many professional development courses,” he laughed. “I literally did not know what Zoom was,” he said. Still, Dunn sees an upside in what he’s learned about his own business and the industry over the past year. It’s just another unknown in an era full of them. If they think good safety protocols are in place, they’ll come back.” As for spectators, he wonders if they’re ready. “Triathletes and mountain bikers accept more risks, naturally. We did seven in-person events last year, and it was a much worse situation without having a vaccine.”ĭunn said getting athletes back to competitions is a lower hurdle than getting the public back to attending events. It all comes down to public perception or reality about the vaccine. But I don’t see us being under the same protocols. “We have a timeline on the website on how this will go.” With ridership spread out to keep groups small, “it could be three days, it could be two days - if we’re under the same protocols. “We’re going to have an in-person event for the Big Dam Bridge 100 in September 2021,” Dunn vowed. The system worked well at keeping competitors safely distanced from each other, and Dunn thinks this same system will work in other sports, too. Utilizing a time-trial start for the swim portion of the DeGray Lake Triathlon, where each competitor gets his or her own start time, was a breakthrough for Dunn. We did embroidered patches and beach towels and a lot of other stuff in addition to Big Dam Bridge 100 T-shirts.” Using an app, registered riders could complete the actual course solo in-person - or, registrants who would have had to travel could complete the equivalent mileage course in what Dunn called the “driveway challenge.” Dunn said he also realized that for virtual competitions, “you had to add value. So did the following month’s Big Dam Bridge 100, Arkansas’s largest cycling event. Francis National Forest in August, went virtual. And sanctioning bodies were not ready to issue permits, municipalities.”Īll Sports’ 2020 Ozark Valley Triathlon, usually held in the beautiful Ozark-St. Looking back now, could I have done the Ozark Valley Triathlon, or rescheduled a nonpack racing-type event? Yes. “We have a lot of constituent groups, a lot of stakeholders, and everyone was really supportive.” Like Hoover, Dunn is bullish on the future: “We’re better prepared now. “Everything from March to September was canceled or virtual,” he said. It was a shaky year of event cancellations, race postponements and general uncertainty. “We’re a for-profit company with five employees,” Bruce Dunn, owner and race director at All Sports, said. Hoover said the plans for this spring’s Square 2 Square ride are similar to last year, which she described as “a modified/limited capacity in-person event, as well as a virtual option.” While planning for all safety contingencies, Hoover said she has hopes that by this fall, the ride “can start to resemble a ‘normal’ Square 2 Square Bike Ride experience.” And Hoover’s optimistic outlook seems to be the rule.Īll Sports Productions, based in Fayetteville, usually puts on several of the state’s biggest races, but through the entirety of 2020 held only seven in-person events. “We see it as something we will continue to offer beyond the pandemic,” she said. The virtual options were so popular with bikers last year that they might stick beyond the COVID emergency, according to Tiffany Hoover with Fayetteville Parks and Recreation. Other races have followed these general protocols as well in an attempt to minimize contact and spread. Participants used apps to mark their routes and to safely engage with others. Last summer’s Square 2 Square Bike Ride Challenge, which runs from the town square in Fayetteville to Bentonville’s town square, got retrofitted for solo bikers. In lieu of hordes of droplet-spreading riders all racing together, groups like Fayetteville Parks and Recreation have encouraged competitive solo rides. Racers are back in action, though, navigating through the pandemic’s rough terrain by competing against each other virtually. Last spring, amid pandemic concerns, organizers in the cycling community put the brakes on competitive bike racing and other gatherings. Pandemic points races to virtual and time-trial options while waiting for normalcy.
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