The trails have been groomed at Sun Peaks Resort, with the Canadian Mountain Bike Downhill Championships set to take over the bike park. The finals will be held on Sunday. Sun Peaks Resort photo
Sun Peaks Resort is known nationwide for its mountain-biking prowess and the best in the country will head up Tod Mountain Road this weekend for the Canadian Mountain Bike Downhill Championships.
“It’s a world-class facility, so we can put on an event that’s pretty similar to the World Cup stage,” event organizer Henry Pejril said.
“For this level of race, you need a fairly technical course, so there have been changes made leading up to the event.
“You have to test the skill of the riders. It can’t just be who can let the brakes go and go down the track the fastest.”
National champions in elite and junior-expert categories will be decided on Sunday, when riders hit the trails from 12:15 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
There is only about a one-minute gap between riders starting their runs down the mountain, so action comes fast and furious all day.
The event, which doubles as a B.C. Cup race, is one of a few in Canada that is internationally sanctioned, meaning Union Cyclist International (UCI) points are on the line.
Elite riders need to amass UCI points to be considered for selection to the national team.
Racing will be open to the public this weekend, with event passes available to anyone who wants to try out the course and test their time against the nation’s best.
On-site registration will be available Friday and Saturday beginning at 9 a.m. each day.
Training and seeding runs will be held all day Saturday. Spectators are invited to watch the action all weekend.
“You can take the chairlift up and hike down to just about any part of the course you want and there are a lot of sections on the course that are pretty exciting to watch,” Pejril said.
“People have their favourites, stake themselves out and have a bit of a picnic.”
Sun Peaks hosted nationals last year and they will be staged again in the resort’s bike park in 2016.
The resort has made an effort in recent years to make its bike park more manageable to the average rider, having garnered a reputation of being on the higher end of the difficulty scale.
Course designer Tony Nordee and Sun Peaks mountain-bike park co-ordinator James Jeffries have been working hard to alter the course for nationals, making sure it provides a stiff challenge for the country’s best.
“That’s been the challenge,” Pejril said.
“Being a bike park, it’s hard to have a dedicated downhill course, so you have to stretch together sections of the bike park itself.
“We’ve modified it quite a bit from last year.”
Resort brass enjoys the national exposure it receives when it hosts the Canadian championships — and the riders seem to enjoy the mountain.
“It’s a bit of a festival atmosphere up here,” said Pejril, who has been organizing mountain-bike races at Sun Peaks since 1996.
“In the cycling world, Sun Peaks is pretty important and this is an important stop on the circuit.”
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