At least twice a week, BMX racers of every age and skill level roll out of their homes in the South Metro suburbs and gather at the County Line BMX Track in Centennial. If it’s Wednesday, it’s a casual practice. If it’s Sunday, it’s time to race.
“We have USA BMX state qualifying races here every Sunday and also on Thursdays in the summer,” said Mateo Molina, a volunteer BMX track manager for South Suburban Parks and Recreation and a competitive BMX racer. “It’s one lap to qualify, but depending on how many people come out, it could last all day.”
Mateo has been coming to the BMX track inside David A. Lorenz Regional Park off County Line Road and South Colorado Boulevard every Wednesday for a couple of months to set up electronic starting gates for the dozens of local riders who come to practice.
“My buddies and I used to race downhill in the ’90s, and we’d come here to get in a little bit of riding,” Molina said. “That was back when the track was up over on the other side of the park. Then, when my kid said he wanted to start racing about six years ago, I took him here and found out the track moved. Now we’re here constantly.”
“The track is open to the public for use every day, but we don’t have the gates up except for practices on Wednesdays, when volunteers are there,” said Chelsea Jenkins, park and recreation’s County Line BMX track supervisor.
On a Wednesday, just before 5:30 p.m., Molina unlocks a storage shed near the scenic track in the heart of the park and pulls out a generator, a compressor and other equipment. Almost nothing happens at the County Line BMX Track unless its crew of dedicated volunteers is on site.
“It’s 100-percent volunteer based,” Jenkins said. “We have some BMX instructors who run camps, but the volunteers are the heart of the track. We have a core group of head volunteers who have been out every week for practices and help run the races and events every Sunday. On big races, they’re out there for eight to 10 hours prior.”
For decades, the tightly-packed dirt BMX track has been the only BMX practice track in the metro area from Colorado Springs to Dacono. Racers say the layout is ideal for USA BMX qualifying races. That’s about to change, however.
“County Line is special because it’s community run,” said Kevin Nielsen, who has volunteered at the track since 2011.
Nielsen is an international BMX racer who was ranked in the top 10 nationally last year, but has been off the track since breaking his wrists. He qualified for the 2017 BMX World Championships after he got out of the hospital, but couldn’t compete because he dislocated a collar bone.
“It can be a dangerous sport,” he said. “But I love it.”
He loves it so much that he’s opening his own BMX track in Lakewood at the end of the month after about five years of planning. Mile High BMX, about 85 percent built out, will hold its first race Sunday.
“The location is ideal,” he said. “We have a straight line to DIA and are surrounded by restaurants and hotels. We’re holding mainly national and international events.”
Until now, the only Colorado track that could host a USA BMX international race was in Grand Junction. Mile High BMX will include a 1,500-foot track and Olympic-style course, Nielsen said.
“We match all international rules for length of the track, width of the track and so on,” he said. “It’s been a really long time coming.”
Still, it won’t replace County Line.
South Denver-area resident Mika Shaw, 21, is ranked 16th in the world among BMX elite women and 6th nationally. She started her racing career at County Line.
“I still come here every Wednesday, and I try to make it out here on Sundays when they race,” Shaw said. “It’s a good place to get started. When I practice, it’s either here or I fly out to the Chula Vista Elite Athlete Training Center in California.”
South Suburban owns and maintains the BMX track, but Jenkins said the district is largely hands-off when it comes to USA BMX.
“Our track is a member of USA BMX, and we report our scores that the volunteers track to them,” she said. “We also organize summer camps for BMX.”
The camps, too, are led by community volunteers.
“They’re actually run by the 16-year-old son of one of our main volunteers,” Jenkins said.”His name is Wyatt Smith and he races nationally, and then in the summer, fall and spring months he comes and runs our BMX camps. They are by far our most popular camps for summer. I can’t keep enough open for the demand.”
Nielsen hopes to expand the metro area’s BMX offerings.
“My hope is that opening Mile High BMX will fill a gap in the (metro Denver) BMX community that has been there for a long time,” he said. “And I think the BMX community here is ready for it.”