Hello world, welcome to WFHR's rapid support probably brought to you by
Crocket Sceptic for this July 24th, 28th, 2025. Have your host James here with you
and I am joined right now by BMX Badger State teamed. We got our
sensual Wisconsin BMX here with us to talk about the BMX Badger State
Nationals coming up. I want to let you guys introduce yourself so the audience
put a name to the voice. We'll start down the line here.
Hi, I'm Kelsey. Hey Kelsey, thanks for being there. Good to see you.
Thanks. Hi, I'm Talon Dickey.
Talon, thank you for being here. Appreciate it. Always thank you for the time.
And thanks for being here again too. I appreciate you guys.
So I want to get into the competition to the Badger State Nationals. What can
people expect of course? To longtime riders out there, you guys know a lot of the
details already. What I'd like to do is really get other people
interested in, you know, have them know a little bit more about the sport and
about what they can expect from this great event. So let's start right there
with the Badger State Nationals. It's coming up Thursday,
the 31st of the month. So coming up right around the corner.
Well, let me start right here. How are you guys feeling about it? How are you
feeling about nationals being around the corner, Kelsey? We're anxious, excited,
a lot of energy. We're waiting for a lot of energy. Yeah, yeah, I could feel it.
I get it too, yeah, town. I'm also super just excited to have it
back in Rapids again, hometown, national. Yeah, yeah. I remember
touching on this with you before about I love talking to any athlete like
about this because it's one thing to be able to perform. It's one thing to be
able to do what you love to be able to do in your own town. You know,
it's just a different character. It's just a different animal to be able to do
that. I'm really happy for you excited for you. All of our local competitors and
everything and parents and family members and more on that in a little bit.
So the competition itself, if I'm a fan and I'm coming to this,
what can I expect? Could you kind of break it down for us a little bit?
Yeah, sure. So it's $10 to park for this event. All the parking fees go
towards our track. We are a nonprofit. Yeah, good to know.
So that goes directly to our track. The race on Friday begins
with balance bikes or striders, which are little kids with no pulse. Yeah,
yeah, they are so fun to watch. We're coming alone for. Yeah, yes, absolutely.
Yes, they are so adorable. They are the future of BMX. Yeah, yeah.
It starts at 115 and they do three races back to back. They go
forward twice, backwards once. That is so much fun. That's awesome.
We're a great way to kick things off. Yeah, that's awesome.
They're adorable. You have to come see them. And then after that, the
the pedal racing starts at 130 kicked off with we have different classes that are like an
open class, which is like a mix mix of age groups. They go first then cruisers, which is a bigger
bike. Yeah, 24 and 24 and 20. And then it goes from women to guys in the cruiser class, then
just bike by proficiency and age group. Yeah, and that'll be the rest of the day. And it's
intense. As the age group goes up, the races get faster. It is insane.
And you know, you may know this yourself too a little bit with your father, but I know
with my father being a hockey kid and everything growing up in that house, whenever I would come across
people and try to explain hockey to them and get new people to be into it and stuff. That's like
an hour conversation most days and everything. One of the things I love about this sport,
if you haven't taken something like this in yet, those details you gave us were perfect.
That was great. I appreciate it. Also, come on down. You're going to know what's happening.
You know what race it is. You know what there's not a ton that we need to explain to you here
with it and everything. If you enjoy seeing racing, seeing somebody faster than somebody else,
you are going to enjoy this, especially when you add on all those details you just gave us. And
I think to one of the bigger selling points for this sport to me is seeing the locals involved
and seeing people that I don't know how to say this with more respect that I can. But you see
athletes up there and you, well, I could see my kid doing that. You know, I don't make light of any
all the practice, all the work and everything that goes into it. But I do think this is one of those
sports where we really can encourage everybody to be a part of this. Absolutely. Nobody sits out.
Yeah. Yeah. I have three kids of my own. They all race and I race myself. It's my husband races.
It's a family event for us. It's awesome to see. Which is another great note about this too.
This is a family event. This is something that we want you to bring the whole family down for.
Now you and your friends, you're going to have a good time too if you go down there in that regard.
But you're also coming down and you're going to be having a good time with the family as well,
which we don't have a lot of those events nowadays. I feel like we have less and less as time goes on.
Here's a great opportunity for that. Make it a new tradition and come on down and have fun while
also cheering and rooting for your locals and local people out there. Right. You guys going to have
food down there and stuff? Yup. We have concessions at our facility and there will be a food truck.
I think Papa Belize is going to be there. Perfect. You got to try it. Yeah. That's going to be fun.
There's not only that's going to be a great time. But I know that when it comes to having
an event like this that I think also, yes, it's good for the family and that. It's really
and whatever interests you. I really, I have a hard time believing that there's anybody out there,
even if you're not a sports fan or a sports somebody that takes in a lot of sports, I feel like you
can really, really enjoy this event. I did want to take a second just to touch on the training and
the work that goes into this and everything. And Taylor, if you don't mind, I'd like to just get
a little bit behind the curtain look, a little bit like what it's like building up two nationals here.
In these in the month, the weeks would have you that how much time do you get to really put into
biking? I know you got other things going on in a whole other life and stuff, but I also
imagine that you're trying to put in as much time as you can on the bike. Yeah, I feel like it's just
trying to find the time where you can going up to the track whenever they're open, riding practice
nights, doing your local races or even just traveling to get more races in. How much does it help
or hurt work being on a track that you've been on before you know like probably like the back of your
hand? Yeah, I feel like it just gives you a lot more confidence knowing the track and being able
just to ride one that you've rode, you're pretty much your whole life. Yeah, yeah. What is with that
in mind? What does it mean to do this? Because I know I've talked with you before, how good it feels
to be out there, what you like about it and everything. Doing this in your hometown, doing this
and where you laid those roots, where like you said, you've been on this track a lot. Yeah, I feel
like it's just an amazing experience seeing all the people that you've rode with all year round
and just pretty much seeing everybody from home. Yeah, yeah. You know, other people you race with,
I imagine, two friends and such and you know, cheering for them and having them be in that part of
this too has got to feel pretty cool. Yeah. Right on. You know, one, talk with you about this too,
one other thing that I wanted to make note of too is I think that having this event right after
or before, but especially right after the state water school tournament, I think it can give people
another reminder too of what it means to host events like this and what it means, certainly I could
ramble for an hour economically the impact it has and whether I'm talking to the mayor or anybody
else about it and we reference those things, the importance that these nonprofits put on our community
and how much they improve our lives, certainly on an economic level, but just touching on the whole
the enjoyment level of this, the entertainment level of this have something like this that most
people out there listening to this, especially at this point in the interview, you'd travel half an
hour, two hours to pretty lucky here in Central Wisconsin. We, you know, most things are two hours away
at the farthest. Yeah, this is this is about five minutes away from you probably. Yeah, this is
wherever you're listening to us, especially in the Rapids area here, you're right around the corner
from this. Here's a great opportunity to take in something where you're not going to be spending
half the day traveling. Right. If you are out there listening to us, chances are you are within
half an hour to 45 minutes of us. So again, not a big distance to travel to take in something that
is literally bringing in the whole union. I mean, the whole country comes to this event. We've got
the riders from all over this country coming to this event, which means we've got their families,
their friends, their people coming to town with all of that. It's just pretty cool. It is
amazing. It's quite an honor, actually, to think about our little town hosting this national event.
And Cass, I'm sorry. Go ahead. Where people come from literally all over the country. Some people
even come from outside of the country, which is mind blowing. And that reminds me, not one of,
oh, you know, everybody on your good behavior. Let's all treat these people good. Let's treat
them well, one of the come back, one of the come back not only for more events, but more of the
next year's events and the times we get the hostess, but also just kind of for us to be able to
take back and sit back and appreciate our area. No area is perfect. Everybody got everything needs
work here and there and stuff. But as somebody who when I was a kid didn't appreciate this area enough,
just taking a step back and be like, darn, there's some pretty cool stuff around here. There's
some pretty great stuff that we get to do around here. Right. The river goes right through the
middle of our town. Yeah. It's awesome. Yeah. So many great things. And this is another great one.
This is a great event that we're very, very, very excited about. I do want to remind everybody
that you can be a part of things with this event as well, whether it's volunteering or you want to
get your kids or you yourself want to get on the bike. We encourage you to do that. If you want to
reach out to the team over at Central Wisconsin BMX, one of the ways I would encourage you to
serve the Facebook page. Yes. That's probably one of the better ways. Is there other ways to do
that as well, Kelsey? There's an email on our webpage. Yeah. But the Facebook page is probably the
fastest. That email that Kelsey's referencing info at a CWBMX.org info at CWBMX.org. Again,
the Facebook, web site is also great. It is stored in your search engine and find them that way
like their page. Keep up the date and what they're doing. Be sure to share their posts and your
page. You just never know who might see it otherwise. Of course, show up. We will meet you at
Nationals. They're going on right here in Rapids Thursday. The 31st of July had on over 220 East
Riverview Expressway right here in Rapids and taking this amazing event, support this event,
everybody. We'll meet you down at the track. You too. You did it. Thank you. You did it. Thank you
for having us. Thank you. Thank you. You did too good though. You're going to have to come back
sometime. At least next year. I should have told you that overhead of time. I'm so sorry.
Thank you guys. Thank you for the time. And thank you, everybody, for listening. We appreciate
you joining us for another edition of Rapids Report brought to you by Cracket Sceptic here at WFHR.
