Mountain biking moves to interior BC

Valemount has been chosen to hold the 2009 B.C. High School Provincial Mountain Biking Championship and hopes to include Jasper students in the event.

In its 12th year, this is the first time the race will be in interior B.C. as it has previously been held in North Vancouver, Whistler, Squamish and down on the Sunshine Coast.

Coordinator Les van der Roest, Valemount Secondary science and physical education teacher, called it a “privilege” to be hosting the event as “it’s the first time it’s been out of those hotbeds. It’s always been in the southwest corner of B.C., so this is pulling out into more central B.C.”

Van der Roest believes that the one-day event, which will take place May 23, is a great way to bring the community together. “We hope to do a dance and a dinner and we want to do a Friday night dirt crit (criterium, a bike race on a short course). So it’s lots of organization: tonnes and tonnes of volunteer hours from people in the community,” he said. “Just even the trail itself being built is a big deal. The trail is roughed in and there’s been quite a bit of work done on it.”

The trail was designed by Andres Tony, an ex-provincial rider for Valemount Secondary School, with help from “some of the high school kids, some of the parents, and students who graduated from here are putting back into the community which is really neat to see,” van der Roest said.

Both Tony and van der Roest said they would like to include their cross-provincial neighbours in the race. “We do lots of cross-province sports,” van der Roest said. While Jasper students could take part, they would not be eligible to win the competition.

This was the inaugural year for a similar event for Albertan high school students in Edmonton. Roddi Lega, BMX and MTB program co-ordinator from Cycling Alberta, was the organizer of the event and is “working towards and trying to build each year”. He hopes that the organization can work with the community to give students an Albertan provincial championship each year. He has plans for an event to be held next year again in Edmonton but “kids from all over Alberta are welcome to come.”

The organizers of the B.C. event try to keep costs to a minimum, with each racer paying just $15 for entry and insurance. The event is affiliated with B.C. School Sports and B.C. Cycling which assist with organizing the insurance coverage. Van der Roest said the school will also receive a “bit of money from the province for helping us order medals and trophies to kind of start that, but mostly we have to self fund. We kind of do a dinner and movie night. The community has really supported the mountain biking team well and businesses and organizations have generally helped us quite a bit.”

Lega encourages anybody who would like to take part in an Albertan Provincial High School Championship to contact him or Kipp Kaufmann at Cycling Alberta on 780-427-6352.