For the first time in 20 years, Saskatchewan will have nine BMX racers heading to the world championships this summer.
“It literally just hit me that I’m going to the worlds about a week ago,” BMX rider Jared Adam said.
“I was like, ‘I’m going, yay!’”
“I know there’s lots of competition there, and I’m just curious how I’m going to do,” BMX rider Deklan Veltkamp said.
READ MORE: Motocross group in Saskatoon trying to get more girls out of starting gate
The sport got its start in the ’70s. Kids in California, who were too young to ride motorcycles, would gather in corner lots with their bicycles, make dirt tracks and ride through.
It morphed into BMX racing and now involves eight racers who start at a gate and navigate through obstacles of jumps and tight turns.
READ MORE: World record holder Ryan Dodd shares water-skiing passion with Saskatoon youth
The competition can get heated with some riders even trash-talking each other, but not Taylor Sikoski, 9, who started racing at the gnarly age of five.
“I do not talk, I pedal as hard as I can through every section of the track,” Sikoski said.
“I just pedal through the whole track, I do not think of anything, I think of winning and that’s mostly it.”
The nine Saskatchewan riders will head to South Carolina this weekend before the competition begins on Tuesday.