National BMX Team riders named; more pictures from the BMX ID camp in Phoenix - Calgary Extreme Training | Examiner.com

The Canadian Cycling Association has named the athletes on their National cycling team for 2011.  The link to the National team listing PDF is here.  This list was updated in February 2011.  There are three tiers of athletes on the National Cycling team; the BMX racers chosen are listed below   

Tier 1 BMX athletes include Danielle Brisson, Jim Brown, and Samantha Cools. 

Tier 2 BMX athletes include Nick Benetti, Steven Creighton, Connor McCormack, and Tory Nyhaug.

Tier 3 BMX athletes are Kevin Hill, Patrick Lebel, Simon Meili, Karsten Millman, Sabrina Millman, Cameron Murphy, Mischa Partridge, and Amelia Walsh. 

The basic difference between the three tiers is funding for National Team projects.  Tier one athletes recieve full funding, while tier 2 athletes recieve only partial funding to selected events.  Tier 3 athletes represent Team Canada just like the athletes in the first two tiers, but have to partially or totally fund their participation in National Team projects.

Some of these athletes participated in last week's National ID camp in Phoenix.  A second installment of photos from the training and evaluation camp, courtesy of Paula Peterson, are in the photo gallery at the end of this article.

In related Canadian BMX racing news, the Western National Series went down in Abbotsford, BC last weekend.  Their indoor track was used for the race, but the turnout was very small for the inter-provincial event.  Scanning the moto sheets, most riders seemed to be from the Abbotsford area or one of the nearby local tracks.  Not many Albertans made the trip to race, but those that did definitely had a good time.  

For comparison, an Alberta provincial BMX race will see upwards of three to four hundred riders sign up.  In Abbotsford, there were less than 80 entries on Saturday and less than 70 on Sunday.  

There are links on the CBA website here  to the results from both days, as well as a photo gallery from the weekend.  

Whatever the reason for the small turnout, Albertan racers have a three month wait for the next major event.  This is not the time for BMX racers to be sitting on their backsides.  The next few months are a crucial time of preparation to be in top physical form for the beginning of the racing season. 

Check back here  with your Calgary Extreme Training Examiner at Examiner.com in the following weeks.  Look for training tips, exercises, work out ideas and more all related to preparing for the upcoming BMX racing season.