Enthusiast Group Websites Provide 'Grassroots' Coverage of Biking, Climbing, Running and Horse Events

Boulder, CO (PRWEB) May 31, 2007 -- Your Climbing.com, YourMTB.com, YourCycling.com, YourRunning.com and YourHorseSports.com, 5 "grassroots media" websites that are home to climbing, mountain biking, cycling, running and horse enthusiasts, respectively, have developed an innovative program to get coverage for races and events.

Members of the websites apply to be selected as correspondents for a race, competition or event, and receive a free entry fee to compete or be a spectator in exchange for covering the event.

Race and event organizers only have to donate one or more entry fees in order to ensure coverage of the event on one of the websites. The program is a "practically free way for organizers to get enthusiastic coverage of their races or events, plus a permanent record of the event as told by participants," says Steve Outing, founder and publisher of Enthusiast Group LLC, publisher of YourClimbing, YourMTB, YourCycling, YourRunning and YourHorseSports.

The Enthusiast Group also has upgrade programs that can embed the coverage from competitor/participant correspondents on an event's website -- something the company calls a "Grassroots Channel."

Correspondents -- who are passionate climbers, cyclists, runners and equestrians -- are typically not professional journalists, but rather enthusiastic sport participants and athletes who enjoy shooting photos and video and writing blogs.

Successful Events:
One of the sites, YourMTB.com, recently signed a deal to provide Grassroots Channels for Granny Gear Productions' series of 24 Hour mountain bike races. As part of that relationship, YourMTB is recruiting correspondents to race in and cover the races.

For Granny Gear's 24 Hours of Conyers race (May 19-20), YourMTB had 3 correspondents competing in the race. They provided a wide variety of coverage of the event: blog entries (before, during and after the race), photos and video clips (including helmet camera footage).

See http://www.yourmtb.com/24hoursofconyers

The 24 Hours of Conyers Grassroots Channel was "more PR that I could ever produce," said Laird Knight, founder and president of Granny Gear Productions. Indeed, a review of the Google News search engine during the week after that event turned up no coverage by traditional media of the Conyers race.

For YourClimbing.com, 5 correspondents recently covered the New River Rendezvous climbing festival in West Virginia and 2 covered the USA Climbing Regional Championship at the Boulder Rock Club in Boulder, Colorado, in May.

See http://www.yourclimbing.com/newriverrendezvous and http://www.yourclimbing.com/usa_climbing_regional_championship_boulder

Jill Salva, BRC's sales, instructions and events director, said of her experience with a grassroots channel on YourClimbing.com:

"The beauty of grassroots reporters is that these are people who are already motivated and keenly interested in the event. Plus the advantage of having multiple grassroots reporters means that you get multiple unique viewpoints. In addition to that, it frees up event organizers to focus on serving competitors, attracting sponsors and running the event itself. With the positive response we got, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. The creativity of our correspondents uniquely captured the flavor of our comp."

Says Outing: "This new form of grassroots coverage of sporting events is proving to be very exciting. We're seeing our correspondents post photos, videos and blog entries. The common element in all their posts is enthusiasm.

"The content from these event correspondents -- plus submissions from other event or race competitors and spectators -- creates a wonderful website that event organizers can use as a marketing tool, and as a permanent record of what transpired at the event."

Attention: Event Organizers

Event organizers who wish to get Enthusiast Group website correspondents to cover their events can sign up online. On any of the sites, look for the events link on the navigation bar.

For information about getting a Grassroots Channel in addition to finding event correspondents, please contact Yann Ropars at 303-543-7810

Bike enthusiasts wishing to be correspondents at a partner event can apply online. On any of the sites, look for the events link on the navigation bar.

About YourClimbing.com, YourMTB.com, YourCycling.com, YourRunning.com and YourHorseSports.com

The websites are participative online communities designed for sport enthusiasts. The sites are based on the concept of "grassroots media" -- which simply means that athletes themselves are the authors of much of the content on the site.

The sites aren't all user-submitted content, however. Each site has a "head cheerleader" -- the Enthusiast-In-Chief -- who encourages fellow athletes to share their stories and images and offers expert advice. The EIC also writes a blog for the sites, as well as produces an audio podcast, and occasionally video features.

The sites routinely run contests and promotions, rewarding the best inspirational tales, photos and videos, for example, with sport-related prizes provided by sponsors. Use of the sites is completely free to users.

About the Enthusiast Group:
The Boulder, Colorado-based company was founded in 2006 by Outing and Derek Scruggs, an experienced Internet entrepreneur, with the goal of creating a network of grassroots-media-based websites serving adventure and participant sports. YourMTB.com, YourCycling.com, YourClimbing.com, YourRunning.com and YourHorseSports.com are the first sites published by the company to open to the public. Sites covering additional adventure and participant sports are planned for roll-out throughout 2007.

The Enthusiast Group is funded by a group of 12 investors, including Omidyar Network (a mission-based investment group founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar), DB Medialab (the new-media arm of Norwegian national newspaper Dagbladet), and Brad Feld.

Websites:
YourClimbing.com website: www.yourclimbing.com
YourMTB.com website: www.yourmtb.com
YourCycling.com website: www.yourcycling.com
YourRunning.com website: www.yourrunning.com
YourHorsesports.com: www.yourhorsesports.com
Corporate website: www.enthusiastgroup.com

Contacts:
Yann Ropars, director of business development: 303-543-7810
Steve Outing, founder and publisher: 303-543-7810
Derek Scruggs, founder and CEO: 303-543-7810

###