Written by: Shannon Boffeli
In mid 2008 it was clear the National Mountain Bike Series (NMBS) would cease to exist. With the dissolution of the NMBS the U.S. mountain bike community approached Scott Tedro for salvation. After all Tedro is president of Sho-Air a multi-million dollar company, he created a successful professional MTB race team, and bank rolled the American Mountain Classic stage race, with his proven success who better to navigate the turbulent waters of U.S. mountain bike racing.
Tedro has launched an ambitious campaign to create a sound and marketable race series that will be the pride of the U.S. mountain biking community. The new series will be called the U.S. Manufacturer’s Cup (USMC) in recognition of the bike manufacturers who have pledged their support for the series. While Tedro is grateful for the monetary backing from companies like Trek/Gary Fisher, Specialized, Cambria, Fox and Hayes Bicycle Group he admits being frustrated that more support isn’t coming his way.Tedro explains “Everyone wants this series to happen but companies don’t necessarily want to put money behind it. [Some U.S. bike manufacturers] spend up to $3.5 million on racing in Europe and I can only get them to spend $10,000 for U.S. racing. I understand they have been burned in the past but they need to understand if they don’t come forward with their support now the series just isn’t going to be successful.”
Despite Tedro’s monetary shortfalls he reports that if everyone honors their pledged commitments at this point he will have enough to put the series on for 2009. “If we can’t get more support from U.S. manufacturers some of our plans will need to be cut but we should be able to follow through with the series.”
Although he will be incorporating many of the same race courses from the now defunct NMBS he is hoping to create a new reputation for the U.S. Manufacturer’s Cup. Part of establishing a new rep for the series includes bringing in host of Speedvision’s “Superbike” television show Jason Britton as head of the series and emcee. In fact, Britton has committed to filming an episode of “Superbike” at the series opener in Fontana, California. Another indication that Tedro will be shaking things up came when he made it clear that NMBS promoters Jeff Frost and Tom Spiegel would only be involved in promoting the races owned by their respective companies or where they are hired as private contractors, these races include the NOVA National, Sea Otter Classic, and Wyndham Mountain.
While dates are not yet available the U.S. Manufacturer’s Cup will include races in:
Fontana, California
Fountain Hills, Arizona
Sea Otter Classic, Monterey, California
Santa Ynes, California
Angel Fire, New Mexico
Mount Snow, Vermont
Wyndham Mountain, New York
Conyers, Georgia
Tedro put a great deal of impetus behind adding another race on the East Coast wanting to give more racing opportunities to athletes in that region. He chose Conyers, Georgia, a challenging race course with a storied mountain bike history as the location of the first Olympic mountain bike race in 1996 and host of multiple World Cups in the years to follow, as the third East Coast venue. Ideally Tedro would like to get the series up to a total of nine races and right now is in negotiations with promoters of the Cactus Cup in Las Vegas, Nevada to be that ninth and final addition to the series.
In addition to his efforts to improve racing for professionals, Tedro has focused a great deal of his energy on improving the racing experience for amateurs in the series. As he puts it, he wants to make the series more friendly and rewarding for amateur racers and give them more value for their dollar. Tedro plans to provide more swag for amateur racers including a t-shirt, water bottle, and energy products at registration as well as taking an active part in combating sand-bagging. Tedro said “Sand-baggers are killing the morale of up and coming racers.”
Finally, he plans to give awards for series winners in all categories from Pro to Beginner.
As further illustration of the urgency and potential behind Tedro’s series he has been given a commitment from World Cup officials that they will bring at least one World Cup race to the United States in 2010 if the series has a successful opening year. So it’s clear, now is the time for the mountain bike community to get excited about the U.S. Manufacturer’s Cup and do what they can to support Tedro in his efforts to improve mountain bike racing in the United States.
Stay tuned to MTBracenews.com for updates on the U.S. Manufacturer’s Cup including a full series schedule.