Think mountain biking in the Blue Ridge is as good as it gets? Think again.

Each year, the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) issues a report card that highlights the off-road achievements and blunders of every state in America. The good news? West Virginia overtook Idaho with a strong A-minus rating to take second place in the rankings, right behind Arizona-an unprecedented showing for a Southeastern state.

The bad news? No other state in the southern Appalachians rated a top grade. Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina each earned a B, while South Carolina and Tennessee both got stuck with a B-minus.

Can you say hanging chad? From DuPont to Mount Rogers, from Tsali to Slatyfork, every Blue Ridge rider knows that you don’t need to go west to find America’s best singletrack. (Crested Butte? Think I saw that in a magazine once. . . .) But Pete Webber, communications director at IMBA, says that Southeast fat-tire fans shouldn’t get their chains all lathered up just yet.

The intent of the report card, he says, is not to say that the riding in one state is just better than another. Instead, he says, the grade judges each state against itself on the basis of one basic question: “How good is the riding compared to how good it could be?”

“It’s a way once a year to start a conversation,” Webber says. “We don’t want people to feel really bad when they get a bad grade. We want people to feel renewed enthusiasm and a commitment to work harder.”

For instance, the report card notes that in Virginia “I-81 corridor riding is outstanding.” But Old Dominion loses points because “D.C. access doesn’t come easy.” Webber says IMBA wants to work with D.C. riders this year to improve the situation.

Scott Scudamore, president of Mid-Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts (MORE) in Washington, D.C., calls the IMBA knock “reasonable.”

“We’re a metropolitan area. There’s not a single metro area of 3-million–plus people that doesn’t have issues with access for mountain bikers,” he says.

But he also points out that his club made “significant inroads” last year, adding 11 to 12 miles of singletrack to the metro D.C. region.

“It’s not all doom and gloom,” he says.

Bikers that want to raise their state’s grade, Webber says, should figure out ways to come together on a statewide level to share knowledge and organize for more effective MTB advocacy.

He points to the new trail system on Dark Mountain on Kerr Scott Lake in North Carolina as the kind of grassroots effort that would transform the entire state into a true mecca if it could be duplicated in other singletrack-deprived areas down east.

“It doesn’t take that many people,” says Dwight Levi, president of the Brushy Mountain Cyclists’ Club, the group that built the Kerr Scott trails. “A very small group of dedicated volunteers have made this happen in a short period of time.”

Webber says that that having quality mountain biking into your own backyard is the real secret of great mountain biking anywhere.

“It’s not about ‘where’s the best place to ride?’” Webber says. “It doesn’t matter if there’s great riding in Moab if you can’t get there after work. It’s about ‘how do you make the best place to ride the place where you are right now?”

-Marcus Wohlsen