UtahBMX.com

]*Edited for P.C & as to not ruffle any feathers*





Who caught your attention this year?

Thomas Bullock. - This kid has top NAG rider written all over him if he keeps progressing.

Sophia Foresta. - Yeah she's fast & has been for awhile but she really opened my eyes winning from gate 8 in the Ladies Pro-Am last race. Fastest female in the State?

Greg Baumgart. - Since I tend to watch the older classes, this guy, out of all the COGs seems to have stepped it up most of all. His gate, pull & ability to make moves is impressive. It's close but he's the biggest standout in the COG classes.


Who's your picks?


b.

I think you are dead on with your selections but I would like to add one more...
Mark Kizerian has come back to the sport after quite a bit of time off and has quickly moved up.
Like Greg, his start & first straight are strong.
Also like Mr. Baumgart, he's a great guy and has made our entire class faster.
2011 has been my best year of racing ever and that is thanks to competing with Mr. Baumgart and Mr. Kizerian.
COGs rule!!
Can't wait to see what 2012 brings...

How about that COON feller??? Started 2011 as a novice and hasn't stopped yet as a inter. That guy is wicked. Then BJ Harmon coming out after 10 years and making the main at the grands. I would say the whole cog bunch of guys Dave, Greg, Mark, just to name the ones i can think of. They push each other harder in ever race then anyone. They are getting faster and smoother with some dirt samples.

bnd wrote:I'm not listing the stars of the State because we all know them, I'm talking about the riders that really stepped their game up this year.
b.

This thread seems a bit bogus to me for 2 reasons: 1- the riders that stepped up their game this year, are the "stars of the State" and 2- it's hard to make a list based on only being around for 2% of the gates dropped in utah this year.

That being said, a few riders I would put on that list:

Jack Kelly: I realize he has been fast for a few years now but being a state, NAG, DIsney, Redline, and World Champion is as impressive as any bmxer anywhere is going to get. I think that most people have no idea how much work went into this.

Robby Patterson: I agree that Thomas Bullock is fast and "NAG capable", but Robby has a NAG plate in that age group x 3-4 years now. This year he won NAG 1 on cruiser with a foot injury that most of us wouldn't have been able to get out of bed with. In terms of stepping it up, Robby took a training program that was already above and beyond, and went even further with it. Look for even bigger and better things in 2012.

Brent Barton: Posts above are giving a lot of well deserved love to our fast intermediate old guys. Along with Baumgart, Coon, and Kizarian, we should point out that Dave Cote has been winning more than his fair share as well. I think these guys are all ready to race expert, but ask yourself how well will they do in that class, especially at the National level. One year ago, Brent Barton was in that Inter class and did well enough to get his wins and turn Expert. One year later, the guy is getting podiums at nationals and was sitting in a NAG plate position right up to the end of the year. This wasn't just by accident, the guy works really hard at it and certainly has earned it.

Zac Haymond: Zac has been quietly becoming one of the fastest kids in Utah. You never hear much posted about him. Zac made every National main buy one this year for a total of 17(?) mains in an always big/stacked 12X class. He also won both days at the Canadian Grands this fall. His track speed and cornering are incredible. He's been working a lot off the track as well, so his results were earned the hard way for sure. I think the only main he missed all year was due to washing out in a corner while in a semi main transfer spot.

Sophia Foresta: She's coming on really strong. She was leading everything at the grands but was way too sick to finish strong. Wait till next year, I bet she wins a National #1. Her gate is incredible. She could probably win my class to the 30 foot line. Again, as with the other's above a lot of hard work and hours and hours at The Kelly's is starting to pay off.

Jonas Harmon: Jonas sort of jumped back into the sport full steam ahead this year. Has been training like crazy, and providing a ton of help and support to a bunch of the Utah riders this year. Made both mains at Grands, earned a NAG plate, and was in the mix on both bikes at Worlds this year. All things that most of the riders from Utah will never do.

Not sure why we need to limit this list to 3-5 riders, but I guess if those are the rules. Should however mention that Uth Bmx took home more NAG plates than ever before this year. The amount of work done and results acheived by riders such as Jason Melton, Heather Allred, Brenlee Fordham, Hayden Brown, Danny Patterson, Cody Kelly , Todd Parry, Aerielle Martin, Brighton, Alvey, Dallas edwards, Hunter Brown, Steff Gansen, Hollie Allred, Rylie Edwards, Jasmine Bullock, Max Shephard
Corbin Wells, Oakely Busk, Alex Zesiger, Arlene Ervin, Brooke Oblad, Kaden Wells, Matt Spencer, Kale Tanner, Aleah Berringer, Alex Clift, ETC ETC< ETC Although that's a pretty long list, I'm sure I just left off another dozen riders that have also really worked hard to step it up this year. I gues the point I'm trying to make is that a list like this is a bit pointless as narrowing it down to 3-5 riders when we have SO MANY great riders in our state is going to leave out a ton of people have have truly "steped it up" this year.

Anyway, thats my 2 cents, I guess more like 5.

You just can't make everybody happy can ya? You've known me long enough to know the point I was trying to make without making look like a dick & including the whole rider base in the State. Maybe I should of re-worded it to "riders that have caught your eye" or something like that OR I could just nuke this thread cuz it's so "pointless".

......Jeezus E*&%ing christmas!


b.

Boys, Boys. This should be positive. I'm not sure exactly what the original intent for this post was. I have to agree with Justin for the most part. I think there are 28 new NAG plates earned in 2011. I think there are probably lot of different circumstances and a story to each rider. I guess my point is that we've got some great programs here in Utah & alot of riders in many categories. We should be grateful to all who participate in this great sport, and especially to all the people behind the scenes that make it all possible (including or maybe especially the parents/families).

In my haste to make a post I concentrated on NAG riders. The are Redline Cup, State Championship, District points leaders. There are girls racing and winning in Novice classes. Riders who've made personal improvements, learned new skills, and maybe the biggest winners of all those who just had fun.

SOblad wrote: This should be positive.

I agree! We had a ton of riders have a great year this year. Everyone should know we had 29 different individual expert class riders get National wins this year and 34 different novice/Inter riders get national wins this year. Of those, 15 of the experts and 29 of the novice / inters got their first ever national wins! That's a whole bunch of people stepping it up.

We have about a dozen riders who will rack up over 10,000 district points this year.

We have a top ten team in each of the 3 team divisions, and won at least one National team trophy in each of those divisions.

The other group that stepped it up big time are our Track Operators. Meltons at Rad Canyon pulling in the biggest rider count in the country. On other sites, everyone is amazed at our moto count. The Dilley and Cote families (among others) who turned a flooded sand pit into Utah's newest track and brought over 100 new riders to our sport in just 2-3 months. Roland who with only a few helpers saved Deseret Peak (my kid's favorite place to ride) and brought a new sense of excitement to the scene out there. Brazell's who keep building a great program in a small town and opened up our newest indoor arena. If you've never been involved in running / building/ maintaining a track, you have no idea how much these four groups of people (and all their too-many-to-list volunteers) have stepped up in 2011 for our sport!

Utah also being number 4 in the Presidents Cup. Our program is HUGE. 410 riders in district 2 boys and 5 riders over 10,000 points with Jack almost getting to the 20,000 mark. The new tracks, and Rad and DP stepping it up even more.
Old guy classes getting as big as the 5 and 6 novice! Utah may be the place to be in the future for BMX.

The Bottom line is: we are one! Team Utah! We are on different teams/bikes/styles...but I think it's safe to say we all root for each other to win. 2012 is a huge year for bmx-and I can say personally I know of a handful of riders that will be contenders for nag plates in 2012 (that didn't even race much in 2011) We now have another vendor in WILD BILL"S BMX (that stocks all your bmx needs) we have kids training hard (properly) and a whole new slew of COG'S (or as BJ calls them "a whole lot of sketchy") speaking of BJ-he does a great job, but...we have one of the finest public address/announcers in the country (roland) BJ needs to ride and Roland needs to wrap! People need to swallow some pride and bring back the voice of Utah BMX to all of our local races! keep an eye out for the Bullocks this year, those kids are athletes!!! now everyone go out and do a snow dance!!!

This is the way I see this thread .

1st you are looking for the standout riders , in my mind all the riders that race weekend and week out are stand out riders ....

2nd we have a lot of young riders that are working hard trying to get faster , they come here and see this post and there name is no where to be found they get discouraged and start to think they are failures and start to give up . Not good for the sport !!!

3rd with are local teams Extreme , GT and 801 they are the ones that are putting Utah on the BMX map . In return all the other riders in are state are forced to step it up . That is a good thing !!! But not all the riders have the means to learn how to get to the next level .

4th we now have a lot of talent in this state . Why do we never have any of these top riders putting on expert clinics ? Zula , Harmon , TP , Paterson just to name a few . I do realize that the sports has to grow from the bottom up . But really when was the last time a clinic for the experts was done ?

One last thing we now have 5 outdoor and 2/3 indoors tracks in this state and close to 800 riders or more . What we all need to do is ask are self's what can we do to keep this program grow even more ?

bnd wrote:You just can't make everybody happy can ya? You've known me long enough to know the point I was trying to make without making look like a dick & including the whole rider base in the State. Maybe I should of re-worded it to "riders that have caught your eye" or something like that OR I could just nuke this thread cuz it's so "pointless".

......Jeezus E*&%ing christmas!


b.

Bruce no disrespect here but this post is a little childish like .

None taken.
Sorry if I offended anybody with this thread.


b.