SUNDRE – Cyclists of all ages came out this past weekend to put their mountain biking skills to the test on Sundre's Snake Hill during the season-opening race in a circuit sanctioned by the Alberta Bicycle Association.
The third annual Snake Hill Slither mountain bike race was held May 24-25, with the main event on Saturday drawing out 120 contenders, said Felix Lee, an organizer who is also a member of the Sundre Bike n’ Ski Club as well as the Central Alberta Bicycle Club based out of Red Deer.
“It is part of the Alberta Cup for mountain biking,” said Lee, adding the circuit has a total of three events.
Additionally, he said the U17 category was a qualifier for the provincial team in the lead-up to the Canada Games.
“It’s the U17s who have the fastest time ever on that course,” he said. “It’s quite impressive that our younger racers are really fast, and they’re tearing it up on that course.”
There was also an informal event dubbed Pedal for Pints that evening for children to offer participants a chance to explore Sundre a bit more, followed by a relay race on Sunday featuring eight teams of five, said Lee.
“I really wanted to give the Alberta racers a chance to experience that and start talking about it and working on it,” he said about relays.
The weekend wrapped up on Sunday with a non-sanctioned Trailblazers race to encourage participation from younger riders.
“We had a very good turnout for that,” he said, adding more than 60 participants above and beyond the 120 from the main event took part in both the relay race and the Trailblazers.
“That was a big increase over last year,” he said, adding there would normally be upwards of 20.
“But by putting it on its own day and then having a few other things, we got quite a few more people,” he said, adding organizers expanded this year’s event to also include food trucks, a DJ and a beer garden area.
Already looking forward to next year, he said organizers plan to keep growing the event with hopes of providing opportunities for non-racers as well.
“If you just like riding but you don’t want to be in the race, we’re building on doing some more things for the residents to just bring their kids out and have some fun on bikes.”
Offering his thoughts on Saturday during the Slither amid clear blue sunny skies, he told the Albertan, “It was fairly wet for the week.”
While some sections of the course that are more exposed to the sun had largely dried up, conditions were “still a little bit slick in places in the trees, which is nice to have a variety of conditions in here,” he said.
“But out here on the halfpipe, it’s fantastic,” he said, referring to one portion in particular where racers snake their way down a halfpipe feature with a jump that launches them out at the end.
“Everyone’s loving the course,” he said, adding it remains the same as previous years.
“There’s probably not going to be a lot of changes to it,” he said, adding it boasts a good variety of terrain challenging riders’ technical skills.
“It runs really well the way it is. It’s a nice mix of double track and single track – places to pass, places to go fast, places to see how much skill you have in the trees and how much pedalling you can do during the day because there’s not a lot of places to rest on this course.”
Lee was grateful not only for the beautiful day but also the community’s receptive nature.
“Sundre residents have been fantastic about supporting this,” he said.
While there are other events lined up throughout the province this summer, the next race being hosted in Sundre will be the annual Snakes and Ladders Cyclocross on Oct. 26, which is the last sanctioned race of the season in that discipline, he said.
“There are two venues that do both disciplines. And one’s the Canmore Nordic Centre, which is renown for being a big venue,” he said Monday during a follow-up interview.
“The other one is Sundre; it’s the only other place that we can do two races and two disciplines.”
Sharing his thoughts on the terrain, he said, “It’s sort of like an older-school kind of trail network. It’s not machine built. It’s not flowy, it doesn’t have a lot of berms.
“It’s more natural features and has that more rustic sort of hand-built game trail kind of feel to it,” he said.
“For the older riders, it’s sort of nostalgic. But the newer riders love it too because it requires a different set of skills and it’s different than other venues,” he said.
“Your technical prowess could come into play here … but you need to have the energy for the short, hard climbs that Snake Hill is known for, and then there’s just nowhere to really rest like there are on other races,” he said.
“You just have to be really fit and be on top of your game for this. And that’s tough to do early in the season.”
