21 & 22 June 2014
YEW TEE STREET CHALLENGE 2014
The YTSC 2014 happened over the weekend of 21 and 22 June 2014. Day 1 was titled Street Challenge, which saw BMX street/park riders competing on bike tricks in a judged stage at the hard court with wooden features similar to that of a skate park and Day 2 was titled Urban Challenge for both hard tail street bikes as well as full-suspension mountain bikes to pitch themselves in a timed course dotted with wooden features.
The event was organized by Yew Tee Community Sports Club, Yew Tee Zone 7 Resident Committee and Yew Tee CC YEC. The 2-day event was managed by Rayxtreme for Street Challenge and Attitude Bikes for Urban Challenge with event consultation by Elco International. Official energy drink was Red Bull 25% less sugar. The other sponsors and contributors were NSR Bikes for technical tools/support and ITE Central Cycling Club for manpower support on event day registration, time-keeping as well as photography & video works. Bikezilla was official media and online registration portal The wood features for the event was made possible with the sponsorship of wood from Singapore Timber Association and council member Mr Paul Tay. Mr Alex Yam, Adviser for Yew Tee Community Club was Guest-of-Honour for the event.
AN EDITOR'S PERSPECTIVE
From the editorial point of view, YTSC 2014 falls into the category of "grassroots events" or "community events". Many would say such events lack the participation of the elite athlete groups and would not make it in terms of spectator enjoyment. There might also be some who think that events like these are not benchmarks that they would want to set themselves against. While we would love to self-righteously condemn these pragmatic opinions with witty retorts, wouldn't it be better to dispel the misconception and align our focus and set all with the same interest (in this case – cycling) in the same direction?
The focus of community event is participation and having FUN!
Community events are one of the best way to personally participate in a sport/activity and gain experience. All professionals have to start some where. While new entrants to a sport/activity may not have the resources, confidence or the prime requisite to participate in national level events, they would usually be given a chance to try out an official competition through such smaller events. Such exposures work great at building confidence and gaining experience. Participants would quickly discover their own strengths and weaknesses in a competitive or more-stressful-than-usual setting. It's like a boost or acceleration to learning. And this accelerated learning burst works even better if the competitor has a coach to help guide them out of their weaknesses. What's more, it's fun doing it!
Community events are where we discover new talents!
While the spectators would enjoy watching a good race or fight between the highly skilled elites, these elites' presence may over-shadow the less experienced competitors that possess great potential. Throw them into a race or competition where they are told that they have a chance for medals and they might just shock you with spectacular results – provided they can handle the competitive stress and has the relevant skills to win. Of course, that's not to say a national event does not have a rookie class or junior class. The main factor to consider is the mental readiness. Simply said, community races prepares a competitor for bigger events and it allows for easier spotting or discovery of new talents relatively.
Regular meet-ups break barriers
Due to the fact that community events are easier to organize and utilizes less resources, they can be organized more regularly and with faster turn-around time. With more community events happening more regularly, they also serve as periodic official gatherings for like-minded folks. Now this is a big boost for any group – be it sports or otherwise. This applies very well to cycling. Cyclists usually ride in small groups or alone. As such, group camaraderie within a small group can be very strong but relationships in between groups can be distant and in rare cases even antagonistic. This is common in many competitive team sports too but let's focus on cycling for now. With regular events, fellow cyclists can stay competitive yet maintain friendly relationships as many events give them opportunity to contribute their effort or resources and they now have a chance to work together. Competitions are also conducted under fair circumstances. With more interactions, those invisible walls between groups and/or individuals would go away. And only when these walls are down, is it really possible to talk about common goals for the community or for cycling itself.
Let's all join in and have fun, improve our sports and overcome invisible walls.
The YTSC 2014 photos are located in our photo gallery. http://www.bikezilla.com.sg/gallery
We included more photos even though not all the photos are "masterpiece". We do that so that we can include as many participants in our photo gallery as possible. We will post the official results once the event organizers release them. Till then, enjoy the photos for now.
Note: "An editor's Perspective" portion is largely the opinion of our editor.
Some Highlights
