The Sonoran Desert Mountain Bicyclists (SDMB) are in the running for a $50,000 grant from Ford Motor Company, coordinated by Good website and magazine. Triple National cycling champion Todd Wells of Team Specialized helped SDMB put together a video for the group earlier this spring.  As more residential and commercial development occurs on the edges of Tucson, “It’s important to maintain access to these trails,” says Wells.  “It’s also great to get kids and older people outside, to become more active, become healthier, and really enjoy their surroundings.”

SDMB encourages everyone in the Tucson area to vote once a day for the local advocacy group to receive the grant. Check out the video and vote here. People can vote once each day, May 16-20. "We want to turn Tucson into a world-class mountain-biking destination," says Brian Vance, President of SDMB. Funding will go to expand trails in the area, including building urban bike parks for children.

Martha Lemen, long-time mountain biking skills instructor and trail advocate, emphasizes “Providing off-road urban bike parks for urban kids would be huge for this town. If you love your children, you’ll vote for us.”

SDMB hosts twice-monthly rides, regular skills classes for beginners, and quarterly parties. For additional biking opportunities, TucsonMTB.com has over 1,100 members posting about group rides and scoops on great trails. Vance says, “We want everyone from kids who’ve never been on their bikes to people in their 70s to come out and ride.”

SDMB was established in 1998 by a few mountain bikers advocating for good trails and land conservation in southern Arizona. Funded through donations and fees from its 130 members and T-shirt sales, the nonprofit lobbies, petitions, and forges partnerships with local land managers like the National Forest Service. SDMB has been able to preserve most of the mountain bike trails in the area. “The most important thing we do is to advocate for legal trails and get permission to build new trails,” explains Vance. “Every time we find out that someone is developing land, we try to get trail systems put in.”

The group also maintains current trails, and they’ve recently established the Trail Love Corps. If bikers notice fallen cacti or water issues on a trail, they contact SDMB who dispatches volunteers to help fix the problem. They’ve also become the go-to local experts in trail advocacy, helping build a bike park for a neighborhood school, training others on how to build trails, and chipping in funds for trail signs when the Forest Service is short on cash. 

SDMB  also works on regional efforts for Pima County to achieve the highest “platinum” level from the League of American Bicyclists. Easy access to mountain biking is a key part of why eastern Pima County is a Bicycle Friendly Community.

Professional cyclist Todd Wells trains in Tucson each winter, but emphasizes “There’s something for everyone here, easy trails, steep trails, more technical sections, it’s really fun.”