Double A Marketing South America

“3rd Annual Verano Festival BMX Invitational Race Bogota, Columbia August 13-14, 2005 For the past 3 years, each August, a group of USA BMX pros have been invited down to Bogota, Columbia to compete in a special BMX race event. The first year, it was formed to mark a celebration of the life of Mario Soto, one of the most promising BMX stars to come out of Columbia, who was tragically killed in 2001. The event has grown greatly over the past 3 years, and this years BMX pros were brought over to compete and be honored at the BMX Festival. The local Government of Bogota funds the local BMX program and holds this event during a huge celebration in the city, on the city’s anniversary of foundation. The track itself is inside one of the coolest spots for a BMX track, it is inside a sports complex that also host a velodrome, soccer fields, baseball fields, dirt jumps, vert ramps, track and field, swimming pools, and much more.”"With what seemed like the entire city of Bogota in attendance, the overall event had huge crowds and made the atmosphere for this BMX race very impressive. The group of riders invited was quite impressive. Randy Stumpfhauser, Cristian Becerine, Matt Pohlkamp, Jason Richardson, Greg Romero, Nate Berkhiemer, Paul Lange, Donny Robinson, and Medhi Remili were the group of Elite riders that made the trip to Columbia with the addition of Justin Kosman from Twenty BMX Magazine and Pete Dylewski from Intense BMX/ Double A Marketing. The event kicked off with an impressive opening ceremony in front of 10,000 fans and each of the riders in attendance from each country was introduced. After the National Army Band played and the balloons for each country were released, it was time to hit the track and have the Elite only race start. The event was run a bit differently than races here in the USA, as it was only 8 motos of Elite riders and that the results from each day would go towards the overall ranking and awards for the weekend of racing. After each round of moto, the riders were given 20 minutes to rest up and get ready for the next round. This made the day a shorter version and a made the race action a lot better to watch, as it was only the Elite riders on the track. As the race action kicked off the Pros put on a great show, with impressive looking rides from all of the invited riders. Here are some of the race highlights-”