COP

Mountain bike enthusiasts help build new trails for a massive overhaul at COP during a volunteer day held May 3

After Calgary Olympic Park’s recently completed $250,000, six-week overhaul of its mountain bike park, local enthusiasts can save themselves a fair amount of travel time — and a subsequently painful trip to the gas station— and enjoy the fact that they now have access to a world-class facility right in their backyard. “There’s no other bike park [of this kind] within a city of a million in the world,” says Sarah Leishman, COP mountain bike school supervisor.

Unlike the old park, the new one will accommodate riders of various skill levels, from beginners who just want to ride easy trails, to experienced riders looking to hit the big excavated jumps, says Leishman. “All the trails are top to bottom and they flow,” she says. “You can do a full run without stopping, and that’s brand new.”

According to Leishman, when COP first opened there was no plan for a mountain bike park because it wasn’t perceived as a revenue source, but simply as another activity to offer its clients. This led to a patchwork of trails, jumps and burms that didn’t flow and caused a number of bottlenecks in certain areas of the park.

With mountain bike technology improving by leaps and bounds in recent years, and an estimated 10,000 riders and growing visiting COP each season, Leishman says the park needed an upgrade to keep it interesting and to keep riders coming back. “We’re losing [riders] to B.C. all the time. Riders from Calgary generally don’t ride in Calgary, and we really wanted to find a way to inspire them to stay here,” she says. “The big thing with mountain bike, and free-ride mountain bike in particular, is that there needs to be evolution.”

COP brought in Gravity Logic, which was responsible for designing and developing the Whistler Mountain Bike Park, to consult on the project. “What Gravity Logic knows how to do [is] build some really good flow into the trails,” says John Franzky, an owner of Bow Cycle. “It’s going to make it one of the premier parks for the elevation of the hill.”

Those itching to ride the new park will get their first opportunity to use limited trails on May 17. The grand opening takes place May 24, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and will include contests, demos, DJs and the video première of Krank 7.