A mountain bike club south of Rocky Mountain House is gearing up for its biggest season yet. After securing $500,000 in new funding, one year after using a $115,000 grant to rebuild a historic Canada Cup downhill track.
Baseline Mountain Biking Club vice-president Rory Johnson said the new money will help the volunteer-run society expand beyond its hard-charging reputation and make the hill more welcoming for more riders.
“We have been promised a $500,000 investment from local not for profits, which has been fantastic,” Johnson said, adding the funding is tied to a local program supported by forestry companies including West Fraser.
The club, which sits on Crown land, has become a fixture for Alberta gravity riders. It also has a history that stretches back to the early days of Canadian downhill racing.
From rogue lines to Canada Cup history
Baseline Mountain started as a patchwork of steep lines cut by local riders in the early 1990s, Johnson said. The place grew a reputation for trails that were raw, tight and fast.
“It started, I guess, as just some crazy local riders just putting full line trails in wherever they wanted,” he said.
By the mid to late 1990s, that energy turned into something official. Johnson said Baseline hosted the Canada Cup downhill in the era when the sport was still finding its footing and race records were not always carefully archived.
“It was one of the official racetracks there,” he said. “I want to say three years if not four so I wanna say 95 to 98.”
The club still hears from riders who raced the track back then but Johnson said digging up documentation has been difficult.
“It’s really hard to find any records of it because small towns and stuff like that, they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, we don’t, we haven’t got any more records of that,’” he said.
A $115,000 rebuild and a wider, faster track
Last year, Baseline received its first major grant, $115,000, aimed at rebuilding that historic Canada Cup downhill line. The club hired Scott Thornhill Enterprises, a trail-building outfit Johnson said has worked on projects across Alberta and B.C. and has also been involved with major events.
The rebuild shifted the track from old-school, handlebar-width singletrack into a modern downhill trail that can handle more traffic and more ability levels.
Now, he said, riders will find wider machine-built sections, better drainage and features designed to keep newer riders from feeling shut out while…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Canadian Cycling Magazine…