Stu Thomsen - The Legend

There have been many names thrust at Stu throughout his career... Mighty One, Stompin' Stu, the list goes on. This guy is a stuff of legend, someone I looked up to while racing and someone I still look up to till today. This, my friends, is what BMX is all about.

This is how the BMX should be

BMX has progressed a lot since the heydays of the 70s and 80s. This event was from the X-Games 2002. Look at this. Even though this has huge jumps, this is the way BMX should be raced. No clips, just raw BMX racing. Sure, one says we have to keep up with the times but a BMX racer having to ride a roadbike in the YOG? I said it before...different muscles and different bike handling skills. I like this video because it shows what BMX is. BMX now is all about being a jock, or a joke if it held in Singapore, who put things off at the last minute by building that BMX track only now. For me, BMX is in my blood, ever since the day I watched the film ET which was over 28 years ago.

The development of the new track

I had some emails asking me about it. I told them what I already know, which was very little. I did hear that the track will be up before April this year. It really makes me wonder. It takes some hand-twisting to make the powers that be build a new BMX track. Maybe that, and the fact that the YOG are beginning to be the laughing stock of the whole world for the lack of BMX facilities. We will be following this development with great interest and if there is any other news, it will be posted up here.

'Youth' Olympic Solidarity

There is a new group in Facebook that will serve as a wake-up call for the BMX scene in Singapore as far as the YOG is concerned. It is located here. The mission of this Facebook group is to give a “wake up call to the National Olympic Committee of Singapore”, not only to try to do the best as hosts of the first Youth Olympic Games (YOG) – investing money in IT, PR, and so on - but also to support athletes in their own country. Check it out

The Tampines BMX Track has been flattened

And about bloody time too. I wonder what made them pull up their socks and get it happening? But let us take a good look at this. It is now February. SYOG is going to be in August. How about our local riders? How are they going to train? Did our local cycling association even think about fielding in our local riders to race against the rest of the world? If they had, they would have built up the bloody track earlier. I do not know how fast they can work to build up the track but I will say this...fat hopes about having any of our locals making it. I hope to be proven wrong so to all you local BMX racers, prove me wrong. Win something for Singapore please. Put us on the BMX map. make Singapore BMX proud!

More emails with regards to the Singapore BMX track for YOG

I still keep receiving emails. Many have read about the BMX track in Singapore and the sorry state it is in. You know, it is amazing. We could have had the chance of putting some pretty good riders in Singapore on the pedestal if some one on the top had just listened to my requests to do more for BMX back in 2003 but very little was done. So just now, I get an email:

Hi all. I'm a former BMX pro (42 y o now) and also concerned about the situation. What's UCI doing about it? Will they come (to Singapore) and do an inspection on the BMX track? (what track???) I know a BMX track can be built in a few days but why not having it now to give everybody a chance to practice.
Cheers

Looks like the rest of the world is with me on this. We need to send a message to the YOG people at the top and remind them that the track is needed and fast. We have been asking for 7 years now and still nothing has been done!

An observation about the Singapore YOG, BMX-wise, from a European's point of view

We love receiving emails from people and we do receive emails from all around the world. We just received this email this morning. This gentleman hails from Europe and these are his observations. The names have been edited out for privacy reasons.

Hi,

after I heard first time about Youth olympic games in 2008 I googled for BMX / Singapore and set the first link to your Homepage in May 2008. I was interested in the first youth Olympic games because all my kids ride BMX, and not so bad for (European country named edited out)

I’m one of the so called “commissaires“ never did a BMX race in my live … I’m 49 so it was not may time. With 18 I tried a bit skate boarding, MTB started 10 years later in (European country named edited out).

We also have some (small) Problems with ‘Jokers’ and ‘Monkeys’. What I learned is that age or even BMX Race Practice is not so important than to (try to) understand youth and sport. What I can say about Tampines: For me its shocking. After 2 years the track became even worse. If an official puts a photo -like it is on http://www.singapore2010.sg - from a “BMX-Track” on an official Homepage, he/she don’t understand anything about BMX, MTB, 4x, and I would say Biking as a whole. Because of the “innovative and unique” concept of UCI for the Bike events - Mix of everything - (European country named edited out) doesn’t /can not take part. We are qualified but … When I saw the Event place “Tampines Bike park” on the official Homepage I think its good, because it cost – for parents and national organisations – lot of money to send 4 young riders and staff to Singapore. From parent’s side: We’ll spend that money on European challenges.

Hope to here from you

(name witheld)

PS: Best sentence on off. Webpage is: The trail is being upgraded to make it even more technically challenging ;)

Thank you for your email sir. You just made our day! :-)