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USA Cycling moves 2021 Marathon Mountain Bike National Championships out of Arkansas

  • Ron 

USA Cycling has announced that they will move the 2021 Marathon Mountain Bike National Championship out of Fayetteville, AR.

While I applaud their move, their press release had no teeth, not even naming Arkansas anywhere in the text.

The national governing body for cycling was preparing to announce the date and location for the race when they learned of the anti-transgender bills that were being considered in the Arkansas’ legislature. This (now passed into law) legislation would have barred transgender youth from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity.

Here’s the rest of the press release with some editorial comments from Yours Truly:

As a result, USA Cycling has decided against holding Marathon Mountain Bike Nationals in the aforementioned state (Hey guys! What state was that again? – Ed.) and is currently vetting new venues – something that is feasible due to contract status, event size, and event date. We realize the temporary lack of a date and venue impacts our members and are working as quickly as possible to announce both a new date and location.

While USA Cycling is, in this instance, able to relocate this particular event, it will not always be the case that we can move events in states that have passed similar legislation, either due to previous contractual and legal commitments or the inability to find a suitable replacement venue given the length of time before the event is due to take place (But they have wide latitude to make it clear that they’ll never be coming back, so there’s that! – Ed.).

As we learn more about discriminatory legislative efforts around the country and hear directly from our LGBTQIA+ and allied communities, we will adapt our policies to guide our decisions on where to hold future National Championships. These will be released in the coming weeks.

“USA Cycling has modified our National Championship plans where contractually possible and will place our future events in locations where legislation does not limit access to sport. For events with existing agreements that occur in locations that have passed restrictive legislation, we will work with the local host community, as well as local advocacy groups to ensure safe and fair events while drawing support for a more inclusive cycling environment”, Rob DeMartini USA Cycling’s CEO.

The move of the Marathon Cycling Championships comes after Brook Watts, the organizer of the upcoming CX Worlds that was to take place in Fayetteville, stepped away from the event when it became clear that it was too late to move it.

Personally, this whole thing hurts me. We had a great family mountain biking trip to Bentonville last fall and the area has so much potential for growth. I was gearing up for a trip down to Fayetteville to experience their trails this spring. Still, I can’t support a place that tells my friends that they can’t be what they want to be, so I’m not going to spend my dollars or anyone else’s promoting the place. Money talks.

What I dream, and that I’d really love to see, is corporate behemoth Wal-Mart threatening to pull up stakes, but that’s a dream. Or is it?

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