Last year, the Gold Rush Cycling Club had a successful downhill mountain biking race, and that cascaded into the what went down on the trails this past weekend. The first-ever Lhtako Dene Mountain Bike Festival turned Quesnel into a clear hub of this growing activity.
Downhill mountain biking is a casual activity, if you want it to be; a full-tilt extreme sport, if you want it to be. Quesnel has the outdoor facilities to accommodate both, and that was showcased at the festival. It was organized by special request of the City of Quesnel, whose officials were inspired by last year’s modest race, and sponsored by the Lhtako Dene Nation, whose officials saw a natural and healthy recreation that families could appreciate and take part in.
“If we were going to host a festival, it needed to be a multi-day event,” said one of the lead organizers, Michelle Klapatiuk. “We started to work on the schedule with the City staff and came up with a lineup of events that, in the end, all went really well.”
When the Lhtako Dene Nation signed up as title sponsor for three years, Klapatiuk said, “we really had to roll up our sleeves and ensure that the event was worthy of the title sponsor’s generosity.”
The post-event feedback was excited and exciting. With music, food trucks, swag bags, a pump-track challenge, and specialty event for kids, all the elements brewed up a successful launch, partly at the Wonderland Trail Network and partly at the Quesnel Bike Park.
“Saturday was the enduro race day at Wonderland Trail Network, part of Rec Sites & Trails BC infrastructure,” said Klapatiuk. “We had never hosted an enduro race before but knew that if we could pull it off, it would be a great event showcasing our fabulous network at Wonderland. The event went off flawlessly and I don’t think anyone knew that we were rookies at hosting an enduro. The trails were in tip top shape and the smiles - in between the fatigue - were huge.”
That was followed by a Saturday night social reception at Barkerville Brewing Co. with live band No Big D.
“Bright and early Sunday morning in the fog, we set up at the Quesnel Bike Park and pulled off a flawless two-run DH (downhill) race with amazing draw prizes and we even gave away two bikes,” Klapatiuk said. “We had an amazing crew of volunteers that worked tirelessly to ensure that the over 90 participants walked away with sore muscles, great memories and awesome prizes.”
The Saturday enduro results were broken into several age, gender, and distance categories. For the full six-lap category, the overall Top 6 best times were earned by Wyatt Herman, Brandon Barker, Jacob Paul, Isaiah Moody, Jordan Kaleta and Wade Foreman on the men’s side. The four female competitors were, in order of best times, Kira Lewis, Jenna Foreman, Anika Ortner, and Brooklyn Peacock.
The Sunday two-race downhill overall Top 6 male winners were Isaiah Moody in first, followed by Jacob Paul, Brandon Barker, Jordan Kaleta, Wade Foreman and Taykoe (Damien) Gaetz.
The Top 6 female winners were Jenna Foreman in first followed by Kira Lewis, Autumn Knudson, Erin Gagne, Lynda Foreman and Lyndsay Blair.
All race results can be seen by clicking the link on The Observer’s online version of this story. CLICK RIGHT HERE for that.
READ MORE: Peddling a new summer event for Quesnel…Lhtako Dene Mountain Bike Festival takes first leap
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