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With the inclusion of BMX racing in the Olympic Games, UCI has been determined to present BMX racing in a new exciting format, with a unique purpose build track for the very best BMX athletes in the world.
The track features a massive 8 meter high starting ramp, including two separate straight-aways for Men and Women. The track will be slightly downhill with a length of app. 370 meter for Men and 350 meters for Women. Rider will complete one run in less than 35 seconds.
This article is an excerpt from the book BMX Training: A Scientific Approach.
by M. Doug McGuff, M.D.
BMX is probably one of the most demanding and complicated sports in existence. As a result, it is very difficult to set up a proper training program. As we shall see later, training for one element of the sport can result in harming another element of your performance (training for the endurance to make it through 16 motos per day can also rob you of the power you need for a good gate start). Let us take a look at the general characteristics that can define any sport, and see how hard it is to chategorize BMX. (Source ultimate-exercise.com)
by M. Doug McGuff, M.D.
BMX is probably one of the most demanding and complicated sports in existence. As a result, it is very difficult to set up a proper training program. As we shall see later, training for one element of the sport can result in harming another element of your performance (training for the endurance to make it through 16 motos per day can also rob you of the power you need for a good gate start). Let us take a look at the general characteristics that can define any sport, and see how hard it is to chategorize BMX. (Source ultimate-exercise.com)
The early years
Kuwahara was founded in Osaka, Japan in 1918 by Sentaro Kuwahara. It was a family run business with help from his wife and eight children that made and sold bicycles and bike parts at first in his neighborhood, then growing and expanding more. In 1925 Kuwahara began to export bicycles and parts to Russia, China and Southeast Asia. Kuwahara closed their doors for business temporarily from 1940 till 1945 due to World War II. In 1947 Kuwahara reopened again for business and Sentaro Kuwahara became the first chairman of the board of directors of the first bicycle wholesale association in Japan. In 1959 the very first and small shipment of bicycles were delivered to the USA. Sadly in 1960 founding company president Sentaro Kuwahara passed away and his Son, Masao Kuwahara took over in his place. In 1962 Kuwahara sent it's first shipment of APOLLO brand sport (10speed or 12speed road racing) bicycles to Canada. In 1968 Kuwahara started exporting bicycles to the USA as private label bikes for other companies such as Schwinn, Takara, Puch, Concord, Apollo, Azuki and others. Kuwahara had never produced their own Kuwahara brand bike outside of Japan until 1972 when Kuwahara began developing BMX bicycles for the US, Canada, European and Australian markets. During the middle 1970's the BMX boom had started and Kuwahara was regularly exporting Kuwahara brand BMX's to these countries.
1979
In 1979 Takuo Kuwahara became the new (and present) President of Kuwahara. He started up a Factory Kuwahara BMX team each in The US, Canada, Europe and Australia.
Howie Cohen started Kuwahara distribution through Everything Bicycle, a distributorship that Howie himself started. Everything Bicycles coincidentally was located just around the corner from Wizard Publications, the folks responsible for Bicycle Motocross Action magazine.
Intense/Phantom/On-Trac sweeps first North American UCI Event in World Class fashion!
With several of the United States’ best riders on the team roster, it was to be expected that the Intense/Phantom/On-Trac squad would make their way to Boulder City, Nevada where the first two events of 6 UCI qualifying races for the U.S. squad were being held. The stakes were high as top scores were needed so the riders could earn the right to represent the United States at the UCI BMX Worlds in Victoria, Canada this summer.
With a limited number of positions open in each of the Challenge and Elite classes, all the riders were focused and ready to compete. When the weekend ended, virtually all of the dozen riders who took part found themselves in excellent positions early in the qualifying process and it is a certainty that the Intense/Phantom/On-Trac riders will play a major part in the American team’s bid to win this year’s world championship title.
