Why G3?

Why G3? Well, a couple of reasons. The first is that there's a lack of quality gravity events in the U.S. You can't really say the same of the endurance disciplines - they enjoy broad-based support from USAC because they're Olympic medal sports and on top of that, there are 50 XC events for every gravity event in the United States. There just aren't enough racing and money-earning opportunities domestically for an aspiring gravity pro or semi-pro to make the leap to the international level. Providing a series of gravity events with decent sized purses helps those guys and girls on the cusp of making it big keep their dream alive.

The lack of quality gravity events also underscores one of the major issues facing cycling as a whole; participation. There are roadies who would have you believe that their discipline is the only 'real' aspect of our sport. Sadly, there just aren't that many 10 year-olds jonesing to submit to the metronomic boredom of climbing a 45-minute mountain pass. They're not mentally hard-wired that way. Not yet anyway. Plus there just isn't any sort of selection in terms of equipment for kids wanting to try road biking. Not compared to what's available on the mountain bike side anyway.

We love road bikes. We love all bikes. But kids have to physically mature enough to be able to fit on adult-sized road bike offerings and this typically happens when they're between 13 and 14 years old. We as a sport and an industry don't have the luxury of waiting 'til their 14 to get 'em on bikes. If we wait that long we've lost them to football, soccer, hockey or Playstation. Some of the roadies may look down their nose at the mountain bike side, but lemme tell ya, it's a much shorter jump from a DH or 4X bike to a road bike than it is from a set of golf clubs or an ice rink. It's easy for a kid to say yes to gravity and for that simple reason cycling needs it (although 'cycling' may not recognize or acknowledge this fact.) We're not gonna let the shortsightedness of one user group who happens to own the seats of power of our sport continue to hamstring it's future.

And the last reason; it's fun. Years of putting on Final D down in Angel Fire have proven that the format of a 'hang-out-with-your-buds-gravity-only' type events are in short supply. Our answer to that is this year's G3 Series.

See ya out there,
MM