BOA (now bma) Banquet

Just got back from the schwing dinging first ever BOA Banquet. In the biggest news of the night, once we sat down for dinner, we were informed that we were at the BMA banquet. BMA is the new name for BOA. The powers that be thought that Boulder Off Road Alliance was too wide of a brush to paint with and that many folks associated BOA with motorized off road. Now, motorized is not inherently a bad thing, but it can be detrimental when you're lobbying for mtb trails in tree huggin' Boulder County. Enter BMA, the Boulder Mountain Bike Alliance. Kudos to the BMA officers - I think the name change is definitely a switch for the better. It tells what we are at the onset. No explanation required.

Redstone kicked in enough donation to acquire some complimentary drink tickets. That was a good thing, especially with 2 peoples worth of drink tickets and a pregnant designated driver! I felt right at home as soon as I walked up to the bar. Some forward thinking individual had brought in a boatload of Dales Pale and Old Chubb specific for the event. Thank you beer gods, no need to drink Coors Extra Gold!

A silent auction was there to raise a little dough for the BMA. I was happy to see that a few bike shops stepped up and donated to the cause. I'd like to personally thank the Fix, Performance Boulder, High Gear in Longmont, Sports Garage, and of course Redstone for stepping up. Good job, y'all.

There were some big dog names there as special guests. Andy Hampsten, Juli Furtado, Paul Turner, Jeremy H-K and Heather Irminger (can we call here Heather H-K now?) all had to do time behind the mic, which was wielded by Dave Townley, race announcer at large. It was definitely an interesting show. Picture an interview/talk show setting with Dave on one side interviewing his 2 guests on the other. First up were Juli and Paul Turner. Juli, humble and shy as ever, requested that long term friend and cohort Pual Turner get up on stage with her. It was comical. On the one hand is the super cheesy announcer guy asking all sorts of questions. On the other hand was the shy Furtado, with very limited short answers, and Paul T, industry illuminary that very obviously did not want to be there and could not care less. It actually made me feel not too proud to run a Maverick fork, really. Oh well, I grew up riding Manitou...

Next into the fire was Jeremy H-K and his wife Heather. They both had some good insight into the present situation at NORBA, the Olympics in Greece, and general feelings about the racing environment. Andy Hampsten was up after that, but we had to bail - the baby sitter was racking up too big of a bill and we had to get home!

Anyway, it was a fun night. BMA made about $15 per ticket and there were just over 100 folks in attendance. A good showing but not quite what it could be. I was pleased with the overall turnout for the inagural event, though.

Props also to BMA member and BATCO president, Eric Vogelsberg. Keep up the great work, Eric!