F.5 NEWS & OPINIONS

EUROPEAN BMX RACING DECLINING? (January, 2001)
TELL IT HOW IT IS!

The UCI - BMX department has at this moment 41 countries with a BMX organization affiliated world-wide. From Europe 22 countries are affiliated with BMX organizations, North and South America has 13 affiliated organizations, Africa 2 and Oceanic 3 organizations/countries.

Looking at the European scene the number of license-holders is at a very low level France, approx. 7.000 license-holders (in 1988 around 12.000); Holland, approx. 1.000 (in 1986 almost 5.000); England, approx. 450 license-holders; Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Czech republic around 350 + license-holders.

Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Italy, Lituania, Malta, Latvia, Poland, Slovenia from 150 till around 250 license-holders and Belarussian and Russia 200 and less riders! Exact figures are not made public, would be nice to see how the situation exactly is. My estimate is that in Europe we do have all ca. 12.000 license-holders.

Just received some info from the ABA telling me they have over 65.000 license-holders, just this year they added over 60 new tracks to their ranks.
Normal Nationals have 240 motos and a large National have around 325 motos. At European Championship events around 300 motos is about the limit and that's once a year! The same developments take place within the NBL.

TALKING NUMBERS (YEAR 2000)
Just to give you all an idea of how many riders per country their are, here a resume of countries involved in BMX and also the number of inhabitants of those countries (situation year 2000). My conclusion is, more then enough potential, U.C.I.: lets start promoting BMX!

A UNIQUE HAPPENING IN DESSEL (October, 2000)

It's Saturday morning 10 o'clock and I just came back from a ATB (all terrain bike) ride through the woods surrounding my house. Normal I am very focused, but this time I had to think for around 2 hours about that FANTASTIC HAPPENING last Wednesday evening October 5th.

WHAT HAPPENED!!!

The fact that Frank SMETS was able to get JOEL SMETS (not related to Frank) involved, a present WORLD CHAMPION moto-cross (he won his title this year for the 4 time in his career) that was kind of special. It gets even better.
JOEL SMETS became very involved, helping out building the track, finding sponsors and finally during the Press-conference acted as color-man, speaker, entertainer and track-manager during a demonstrations by celebrities.
JOEL presented himself as an absolute ambassador for the sport of BMX racing and his club DESSEL 2000. JOEL was able to get a line of top-athletes together during this press-conference to draw a lot of attention from the Press. National TV was present and many other from the "writing" press. Besides people from the press, sponsors were invited and special guests. Over 100 persons were present.
Never I have seen this much top-athletes (some of them millionaires) together to help present this new clubs and track. Most of them holding National titles, but also European and World titles in their sport.

The fact that Frank SMETS was able to get JOEL SMETS (not related to Frank) involved, a present WORLD CHAMPION moto-cross (he won his title this year for the 4 time in his career) that was kind of special. It gets even better.
JOEL SMETS became very involved, helping out building the track, finding sponsors and finally during the Press-conference acted as color-man, speaker, entertainer and track-manager during a demonstrations by celebrities.

Host & Entertainer
Joël Smets

All of these Belgium sportsmen and one woman came from BMX and made it in their present sport, they are:

• ELLEN BOLLANSSEE, elite BMX racer in women's class. Still racing BMX.
• TOM STEELS, elite bicycle road racer, member of the number 1 road team in the world MAPEI, raced BMX for 5 years when he was young.
• BART LEYSEN, partner of Tom Steels in the MAPEI road team WILFRIED PETERS, cyclo-cross rider, world level.
• SVEN NIJS, cyclo-cross, raced BMX from his 5th. birthday till his 15th. birthday and then changed to cyclo-cross. Former member of the WEBCO BMX team.
• BART WELLENS, cyclo-cross, never raced BMX bikes, BUT recently bought himself a BMX bike to practice and more specific practice bunny-hops, Sven Nijs his specialty which gave him several victories.
• TOM van NOPPEN, a number 2 at the Worlds cyclo-cross Espoirs, bought himself a BMX bike too, with the same purpose as the above mentioned Bart Wellens.
• CHRIS JACOBS, moto-cross Grand Prix rider, raced BMX from 12 till when he was 18 years old and then changed to moto-cross.
• JOHAN BOONEN, moto-cross Grand Prix rider, started racing BMX bikes in 1979 and after 5 years changed to moto-cross (P.s. When I was competing in moto-cross, I competed often with Johan's father, JAN BOONEN).
• STEFAN EVERTS, moto-cross Grand Prix rider, got his first BMX bike when he was 5 years old. Never competed in events, which he regrets he said. Did built his own track at the back of his house. When 15 years old he changed to moto-cross.
• MARNICK BERVOETS, moto-cross Grand Prix rider and runner up to Joel Smets in the 500 cc class this year. Did ride a lot on BMX bikes, but never in competition when he was young.

Each of these sportsmen were presented to the press and people present and interviewed by Joel Smets, which he did in his own and very entertaining way, that was just great!
All of them stated, that BMX has helped them a lot in their respectable sports and that for a lot of young sportsmen and women BMX can be a great start of their sports careers in cycling (road, cyclo-cross, atb/mtb and moto-cross).

But this is not all. Joel was able to motivate 8 of the above athletes to take a BMX bike and race each other, which they did. Joel Smets himself just returned from hospital last Monday and did not compete, he acted as announcer of the three moto's they raced.

On the gate were: Marnick Bervoets (on WEBCO), Chris Jacobs, Johan Boonen (on GT), Steven Everts, Tom Steels, Bart Leysen (WEBCO Cruiser), Wilfried Peters and Ton van Noppen. The results did not matter, this demo was great for the press and I must say I was surprised about the way these riders handled their bikes, they really raced!!! I did see Marnick Bervoets win a race with Tom Steels 2nd. And also Stefan Everts did have fun finishing 5th and 3rd.

On the gate were: Marnick Bervoets (on WEBCO), Chris Jacobs, Johan Boonen (on GT), Steven Everts, Tom Steels, Bart Leysen (WEBCO Cruiser), Wilfried Peters and Ton van Noppen. The results did not matter, this demo was great for the press and I must say I was surprised about the way these riders handled their bikes, they really raced!!! I did see Marnick Bervoets win a race with Tom Steels 2nd. And also Stefan Everts did have fun finishing 5th and 3rd.

After the demonstration all present were offered a reception. All together this evening had been a GREAT SUCCESS and the DESSEL 2000 BMX club with its chairman FRANK SMETS can be proud.
Hopefully the enthusiasm had its effect on the people of the press, helping them writing on BMX in a positive way to help the sport grow again in Belgium. This is what we need more here in Europe.

Personally I came home kind of proud too, realizing myself that bringing BMX to Europe, I (probably) have been instrumental in helping these sportsmen were they are now: on top of their present sport.

GD interviewd by Joël Smets

GD

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