With an increasing number of locals and tourists taking advantage of its network of natural- surface trails and shared-use paved paths, bicycling provided $137 million in economic benefits to Northwest Arkansas in 2017. According to three new studies from the Walton Family Foundation, the region has reaped these positive economic, social and health benefits while still managing to keep its trail building costs lower than many regions with comparable bicycle infrastructure.

Northwest Arkansas (NWA) is fast becoming recognized as the mountain bike mecca of the country. In 2016, Bentonville was chosen to host the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) World Summit. In 2017, NWA was selected as the test location for Bike magazine’s “Bible of Bike Test.” In October 2018, Bentonville will host the Outerbike expo.

USA Cycling has added Lyon College to the list of varsity cycling programs. Lyon College is the second program to join the list from the South Central Conference.

Before moving to Arkansas with his wife to pursue graduate school, Martial Trigeaud was a semi-professional cyclist in France. While Trigeaud, now a business consultant with the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center, was thrilled with the beautiful trails and mountain biking opportunities in Arkansas, he was disappointed to find there was no competitive biking club at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

The National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) of Arkansas is growing to include Hot Springs! A new junior high and high school team is being formed to include students from Hot Springs and the surrounding area.