Ben Yeager figures it's been 10 years since Prince George last hosted a cross-country mountain bike race.
For the 20-year-old Yeager, that's half a lifetime ago.
That's way too long for Yeager's liking, considering all the off-road trails the city has to offer as a mountain biker's paradise. When he's not spinning wrenches as a bike mechanic, chances are he will be riding the trails of Cranbrook Hill, Otway Nordic Centre and Pidherny recreation area. As a lover of downhill racing, Yeager is eager to test his cross-country racing skills in the expert class for the Hot Day at Otway race on Aug. 23 on the single-track trail network at the Nordic Centre.
"I'm a bit of a downhill racer myself but it's always cool to see a new event come to Prince George and I'm stoked to take part in it," said Yeager. "Otway has some really cool terrain and I don't think a lot of people know what's out there, so this will expose the trails to people and give them more of an understanding of the great riding we have around here.
"There's 25 or 30 trails out there and they're a lot of fun. Lots of guys from Prince George go out of town to race cross-country and do quite well through the province so it will be cool to see them race at home."
Hot Day at Otway will include on-site DJs, a live band after the race (Bright City Heights), and a food truck from White Goose Bistro to feed the hungry masses. It's the start of what organizer Andrew Steele foresees as an annual event. He and his society plan to work together with the local bike shops, Tourism Prince George, Integris Credit Union and the OVERhang climbing gym to organize a competitive mountain biking, white water kayaking and rock climbing event for 2018 in what will be known as the Adventure Throwdown Festival.
"It will be a full-blown festival with every aspect of local culture involved - art, music, food, beer, all kinds of good stuff that seem like the factors for a good time," said Steele. "I feel like there are a lot of people who might be involved with climbing and they might be avid mountain bikers but they have never given it a try, so we're just trying to bring these groups of people in sport together into one place. We're putting a real focus on keeping this local and really celebrating everything our community has to offer from a cultural perspective."
For the past five years, Otway has been the site of the Otway Challenge, a six-hour event which followed a cross-country route, but it was more a test of endurance than a race. Hot Day at Otway will be more of an all-out, pedal-to-the-metal speed event, one that caters to riders of all abilities.
"Prince George has always been the geographic hub of northern B.C. and I feel it's time for the community to take that step and be the hub for active living as well," said Steele.
For the novice and intermediate riders, the 7.5-kilometre course has no technical riding involved and follows mostly flat terrain and gentle slopes with one big climb. Beginners do one loop and intermediates go twice around.
The advanced/expert course is a bit of a monster laced with steep downhills, gut-crunching climbs, and high-speed corners and straight stretches along narrow trails over bone-jarring roots and rocks which leave little margin for error. Advanced riders will cover the nearly 11km course once and the experts will get to ride it twice.
"It has lots of technical features but it never borders on free-ride terrain - no big drops or man-made structures (other than a few bridges)," said Steele. "All of the more technical trails except Tree Hugger are involved on the advanced/expert course. We're trying to showcase the diversity of trails at Otway, the trail-builders there do an amazing job and they deserve to get recognized."
The course will take riders on Curves, Espresso, Java, Far Corners, Gnarly Girls, then up Inside Passage and AC-DC and back down Cyclone, Tornado Alley and Karma to the finish.
"I've never actually been in a cross-country race," said Brendon Lehmann, 21, who plans to enter the expert category. "This is set up similar to the Otway Challenge but this one is not nearly as long. Some guys might be able to bang it off in two hours.
"Cyclone and Tornado Alley are some of the coolest trails Prince George has seen in a long time. They're really flowy and there are a couple of smaller jumps and some climbing but it's more downhill. Cyclone has a bunch of big berms that are a lot of fun. It's probably the best course they could have picked."
Steele is hoping to expand the race next year to include four mountain biking disciplines - cross-country, enduro, downhill, and dirt jumping (trick riding and stunts) - over two or three days.
Start times for the beginners/intermediates is 10 a.m. and the advanced/expert riders follow at noon. The registration fee is $20 per rider, accepted at four of the city's bike shops - Cycle Logic, Ruckus, Koops, and Evolve.
