The Bone Bender Report

Another Bone Bender 3/6 Hour has come and gone.  I must say this one might have been the easiest to promote.  With a great team (Cow Town Cycling, The Wheel Cyclery,  Team Go Racing and Lantern Rouge) and support from the cycling community and the Trail Patrol the Bone Bender lived on this year.  Thank you to all the volunteers that really stepped up this year to help.  A special Thank You needs to go out to Jeff Arnaud who put in many hours to make sure we had a great course this year.  One person that really needs the biggest Thank you is my wife Carolynn.  She is basically the glue that holds all these events together.  Plus she feeds us :-)

 Do not forget to check out and order your Bart Cox photos - Bart Cox Bone Bender Photos

The BB36 was started as a fundraiser.  We continue to hold the event to raise money for local organizations.  Last year was about a wash as we spent as much money as we earned.  This year we tried to keep our expenses in line and did a better job of it.  So far this year we have donated over $2,000.00 to the Kansas Trails Council, Lawrence Mountain Bike Club and the Kansas Department of Wildlife,Parks and Tourism.

Bone Bender has grown in reach.  This year we had riders from 13 states come participate - North Dakota, Minnesota, Arizona, Wisconsin, Utah, Pennsylvania, Arkansas,  Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Colorado, and Missouri.  While the reach has grown, the overall numbers have stayed about the same.  Which has me asking myself this question.  Is the Bone Bender course too hard?  It only seems like the true hard core mountain bikers come back year after year.  Maybe that is the way it should be.

 The work never seems to end when you promote a race but that is part of the game and most likely why so very few step to promote an event.  What was I doing Monday after the race?  Freezing my butt off cleaning up the course.  I collected enough course markings and trash (water bottles, food/gel wrappers,etc) to fill 4 backpacks.  I worked until dark and luckily Jeff was able to come out before dark fell and take care of the campground #3 loop or I would have froze to death (under dressed big time...)

Overall the 5th Annual Bone Bender was a success.  Look for some changes in 2014 and beyond.  If you have any suggestions let me know. I have some ideas but would love to hear yours. 

Thank you to all our sponsors who made Bone Bender possible.

Bart Cox Photography
Chamos Butt'r
Hammer Nutrition
Jewel Cartoons
Lantern Rouge Volunteer Group
MultiSport Marketing, LLC
Schnick Construction, Inc.
The Wheel Cyclery