Excellent photos. What age groups do they start with the Mountain biking?
Most of the competitions here have a *Sprog* category for under 12 or 13.
Main reasons I have kept him away from competitions are -
1. He is mad competitive and I want him having fun rather for now
2. He prefers downhill and Enduro type riding and the consequences of pushing too hard and crashing can be pretty high.
I am slowly letting him loose though.
Not long ago he chased the national junior (under 14) champion down one of our local trails and kept with him easily and not long after that he piled down a piece of trail gradually picking off the adult members of a a local club team one by one over a 1.5 mile piece of single track. At the bottom he had passed 9 of the 12 that set off in front of him and the club captain made a point to come over and compliment his riding which was nice.
I have taken him for lessons with a couple of local Pro riders but they both came back with the same message - he is doing everything naturally and there isn't much they can add in the skills department, I must just allow him to develop and enter him into age group competitions when he says he wants to try.
