When local mountain biking enthusiast and Test of Metal race creator/director Cliff Miller trademarked the phrase "mountain biking capital of Canada," he had no idea the feathers he would ruffle.
Especially in Rossland, which has used the term unofficially for the past 15 years.
"Overall, we're just very disappointed that it's come to this," Deanne Steven from Tourism Rossland. "It's not something our organization has ever used, but we also believe that this isn't something you can buy."
Rossland felt blindsided by Miller's trademarking of the title, said Steven.
"Maybe we should make Rossland the Cliff Miller capital of Canada and put a big statue of Cliff in the centre of town. It's pretty ridiculous."
Miller said use of the phrase is "in limbo," however it will be used to help promote the 2011 Test of Metal race, but its future is up to the MBTA.
Now, several weeks and a few harsh words later, it seems a solution may be afoot.
In accordance with a suggestion from local cyclists, including Miller, the Mountain Biking Tourism Association (MBTA) wants to take the lead in passing the title along to a variety of communities in Western Canada each year, similar to what Kraft did with their "Hockeyville" competition, encouraging people to demonstrate their passion for the game and to win prizes and prestige.
However according to MBTA spokesperson Martin Littlejohn, Rossland's reaction has slowed down the group's plans.
"We recently had a meeting amongst our board members and Rossland's representatives were quite upset," he said.
The program could be launched in early 2011 but Rossland's concerns might delay the process, he said.
"We're all involved in this new initiative to pass the title around but we don't want to cause any negative feelings. I don't really think that Rossland has used the title that well in the past and I think this new initiative will allow our sport to become more proactive and grow."
Steven said she's unsure if Tourism Rossland will participate in the MBTA's plan to pass the title around to different communities.
"We haven't confirmed anything and I don't think we will," she said.
"We're kind of in a hard situation - we bike because we like to bike and we're trying to figure out why trademarking our phrase was so important to Cliff. He sent us this cease and desist letter and we thought it was pretty funny and arrogant.
"We're all very disappointed here because we thought this isn't the way bikers work. We're not big corporations and it's disappointing to see how this has played out."
