MTB News and Notes: Freeriding at Winter Park; Firecracker 50 to host marathon nationals

By Fred Dreier

Crankworx Colorado
Whistler Resort, home of the Crankworx Freeride Festival, has partneredwith Colorado’s Winter Park Resort to produce Crankworx Colorado. The eventwill be held at Winter Park, Colorado July 5-7, 2007.
 
Like the Canadian event, the Colorado Crankworx will feature a cross-countryrace, a downhill event modeled after Whistler’s notorious Air Downhill,a Super D and a Big Air competition. The Colorado event will also featurea Slopestyle competition, which combines dirt jumping and on-bike aerobatics.The Winter Park Slopestyle course will be designed by famous course designerJohn Cowan, known best for having built San Diego’s Hell Track.Winter Park Resort is located approximately 50 miles west of Denver.Whistler’s 2007 Crankworx festival runs July 21-29 and is sponsored byKokanee beer.
 
“Every year Whistler’s Crankworx outdoes itself,” said Rob McSkimming,VP of Business Development at Whistler Blackcomb. “We are committed toproviding the ultimate forum for the evolution of freeride mountain bikingand we are stoked to work with Winter Park’s crew to bring Crankworx toColorado. The freeride mountain bike terrain at Winter Park is gainingmore and more recognition in the mountain bike community and CrankworxColorado will introduce their epic single-track to even more riders.”For more information see www.crankworxcolorado.com.Quebec to Host Second UCI World Cup for 2007
Saint Félicien, a small resort town located northwest of QuebecCity, Quebec, will host the fifth round of the 2007 UCI mountain-bike WorldCup. The event will be held Sunday, July 1, the week after the fourth roundof the UCI World Cup, held at nearby Mont-Saint-Anne, Quebec June 23-24.After the cancellation of the American round scheduled in Angel FireResort in New Mexico, the UCI rushed to find a replacement venue. SaintFélicien, a small ski and snowmobile destination, was the UCI’spick. Unfortunately, the event will not host a downhill for four-crossWorld Cup.Saint Félicien has a history with hosting cross-country events,and has held a stop on the Quebec Cup regional series since 2000. The Canadian Cycling Association, Fédération Québécoisedes Sports Cyclistes and Gestev, organiser of the Mont-Sainte-Anne race,will all help organize the Saint Félicien race.Intermountain Cup Announces Dates
Organizers of the Intermountain Cup Mountain Bike Racing Series have released the series’ 2007 schedule. Based in Utah, the series closes up with two late-season races in Wyoming. For more information on each of these events call 801/942-3498,e-mail icupracing@yahoo.com orvisit www.intermountaincup.com

Firecracker 50 to Host U.S. Marathon National Championships
Breckenridge, Colorado’s Firecracker 50 mountain-bike race has beendesignated as the 2007 and 2008 USA Cycling Mountain Bike Marathon NationalChampionships, the national governing body announced.The July 4 event will host national championship races for men and womenin numerous categories: Pro/Open; 19+, 19-29, 30-34, 35-39, 40-49 and 50+for men and 19+, 19-29, 30-39 and 40+ for women. Each category winner willtake home a stars and stripes jersey. The event will be held independentlyof the USA Cycling Mountain-Bike National Championships, held July 17-22at Mount Snow, Vermont. That venue could not hold the Marathon nationalchampionships due to land availability.Athletes will complete two 25-mile laps around the event’s rocky course.The event will once again begin with a neutral start through downtown Breckenridge,and will be part of the town’s annual Fourth of July parade on Main Street.In its seventh year, the Firecracker 50 will also host non-nationalchampionship bike races for juniors, beginners, sport racers and expertteams. A complete schedule of the event is available at www.mavsports.com.Reeves to host TransAlp Tour
Marathon national champion and Two-time TransAlp Challenge winner GretchenReeves will host a weeklong mountain-bike instructional tour of the TransAlpregion June 23-30, 2007.The cross-country tour will hit the French cycling towns of Morzine,Les Gets and Megeve. For more information, email whiteroomadventuretours@hotmail.com 
 
 
 

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