Westside Mountain Bike Series

WSMTB 2024 schedule

About the Series

Categories

  • Cat 3: Beginner, new to mountain bike racing

  • Cat 2: Sport, rides comfortably at speed, rides (or at least attempts) nearly all features

  • Cat 1: Expert, accomplished and confident at mountain biking

Skills categories are further broken into age categories and gender categories (non-binary, men, women).

Registration and Timing

Register for a discounted Series or 5 Race Pass or register for each race individually. More day-of information including directions and a link to the Ride with GPS route are available on the individual race pages.

Timing is conducted via an RFID chip on your number plate. Please make sure it is not damaged when placing your number on your bike. The number should be legible by the finish-line camera, which is used to validate contested results. Make sure your number plate faces forward, not up!

Preregistration ends at 4pm the day prior to the event. Day-of registration is available from 6:00 AM to 8:30 AM on race-day, albeit at a slightly higher price.

Start Order

Start order is a combination of previous average lap times, logical order, and some general principals we have based on prior experience. For 2024 they are as follows:

Cat 1 Open Men
Cat 1 Men 40+
Cat 1 Men 50+
Single Speed (all genders start together, scored independently)
Cat 1 Nonbinary (Open and age group together unless otherwise requested, scored independently)
Cat 1 Open Women
Cat 1 Women 40+
Cat 1 Women 50+

Cat 2 Open Men
Cat 2 Boys under 15
Cat 2 Boys under 19
Cat 2 Men 40+
Cat 2 Men 50+
Cat 2 Men 60+
Clydesdale and Fat Bike Men
Cat 2 Nonbinary (Open and age group together unless otherwise requested, scored independently)
Cat 2 Open Women
Cat 2 Girls under 15
Cat 2 Girls under 19
Cat 2 Women 40+
Cat 2 Women 50+
Cat 2 Athena and Fat Bike Women

Cat 3 Open Men
Cat 3 Boys under 15
Cat 3 Boys under 19
Cat 3 Men 40+
Cat 3 Men 50+
Cat 3 Nonbinary (Open and age group together unless otherwise requested, scored independently)
Cat 3 Open Women
Cat 3 Girls under 15
Cat 3 Girls under 19
Cat 3 Women 40+
Cat 3 Women 50+
Cat 3 All Under 12 (All genders start together, scored independently)

Guiding principals:

  • Open always start their gender category

  • Age groups are all over the place and change dramatically from race to race, so besides the very youngest (Under 12), we run them in ascending order

  • Anyone can race in the Open category regardless of their age

Lapped Riders

If you are lapped by the lead racer (any category, not just your own), you will finish on the same lap as the leader. On the final results it will indicate how many laps you completed. 

Racers who are about to lap another racer are responsible for verbally alerting them before passing. Please yield, as soon as it is safe to do so, to racers lapping you. Everyone is responsible for a safe race environment.

Results

Results will be posted within minutes of the last racer finishing the course, you can access them via a QR code that will be posted near registration and the white trailer.

Upgrades and Transfers

It is our hope that participants who are excelling in their field will voluntarily upgrade during the season. (As long as you transfer before the midpoint of the season, your points will transfer with you!)

Should we notice a participant is more than 5 minutes ahead of the second-place person at two or more events, we will require the person to upgrade to the next most challenging relevant category. Sandbagging isn’t cool and prevents other racers from having fun.

If you transfer down a category or lateral within a category, your points will not transfer.

You can request to be transferred to a new category by emailing hello@belllapproductions.com or talking with one of the registration staff members.

Points

Individual points are calculated based on category and placement. Participants keep their existing points when they move to a higher category, but forfeit their points when moving to a lower category. Only the top five results will be used to calculate points. In 2024, the final race will be State Championships and will not count towards the series over all. Awards will be done at the Port Gamble race on April 21st.

For series awards, participants can only place in one category, and it must be their most recently raced category. Ties will be decided by most recent race results, followed by earliest registration if still unbroken.

Individual Series Points / Team Series Points

Race Photos

We have a community of great photographers who brave the elements to capture you looking like a badass. Or blowing a snot rocket. We encourage you to support them by purchasing photos. Want your own name on the list? Shoot us an email at hello@belllapproductions.com.

Refund Policy

Once you have registered and start riding the course, you are part of the event. No refunds will be issued once you start the event.

  • If you have pre-registered and need to transfer please send an email to hello@belllapproductions.com before registration has closed for either event.

  • We trust you to be honest in assessing your own health before a race. Do not participate if you are experiencing COVID symptoms or another contagious disease (we don’t want your flu, either). Please email us to defer your registration to a race when you are feeling healthy again.

Bell Lap Productions reserves the right to cancel an event due to issues beyond their control, such as weather or other acts of the gods. Bell Lap Productions will do what we can to accommodate each person who has pre-registered by allowing a transfer to another event, when appropriate.

Participation Guidelines

  1. Helmets should always be protecting your head at all times when on your bike (before, during, and after your event)

  2. The course closes at the start time for a category

  3. Headphones, including hear-through and bone-conducting styles, are not permitted while on course (racing, preriding, warming up, cooling down, etc)

  4. If you are passing, make your intentions known in a friendly way; if you are being passed, allow them through as soon as it is safe to do so

  5. Do not intentionally impact participants in another category, including impeding or assisting another racer. This is cheating and will not be tolerated. Mechanical assistance, such as helping with a flat, is exempt from this prohibition.

  6. Don’t be a jerk: no homophobia, transphobia, racism, or sexism. We have a non-binary category this year, if you aren’t sure what that means for you, please drop us an email at hello@belllapproductions.com.

Got questions we haven’t answered? Try the FAQ!


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