Just two more sleeps until the 2014 King of the Canyon race! Here's everything you need to know for Sunday.
The course this year is at Mt McIntyre, which is why we are calling the race King of the Rocky Canyon. The long course (King/Queen) is approximately 45km. The short course (Prince/Princess) is approximately 25km. You can see the routes on the map below and yes, I have demonstrated my best MS Paint skills here.
All riders will start at the Dirt N' Soul bike park. Because so much of the course is singletrack this year (90% ish) we will be having a hot lap on mostly double track right at the start so that we separate out riders. Riders will circle the dirt jump park and come back through the start, hopefully to cheering fans and high fives. On the map, this starting lap is marked in red. From there, everyone heads off to Can-Can and Porcupine Ridge.
In the spirit of honesty and being able to laugh at myself, I have to tell you that I thought this lap was being referred to as the "preen" lap by our chief of course, Kristenn. You know, an opportunity for racers to swing by spectators and present themselves looking fine and going fast. I loved the idea of Yukon racers as peacocks riding proudly through the dirt jump park. But no. It's a hot lap "prime" (pronounced preem) and I should have known better. We will award some sort of prize to the rider that wins this starting lap.
The big picture is that the course is essentially made up of two loops. The "A" loop is the loop that is closer to Dirt Jump Park (ie. more North), and the "B" loop is further out (ie. more South), and the loops are ridden in roughly a figure 8 pattern. The long course riders will do loop A, then B, then A whereas the short course riders will do loop B and then loop A (minus a few trails). An easy way to think about it is that the short course riders will go out to Hawk Ridge first whereas the long course riders have to ride the 24 hour trail first. The course is well marked and we will have marshals at the two choice points for long/short courses.
You don't have to be an insured cmbc member to participate but, if you are, this race will only cost you $5. Non-members pay $20 to cover the cost of event insurance. Everyone is welcome.
Registration runs from 11am-11:45am and race start is noon. There will be a BBQ after and we will crown the winners and award some prizes once all of the riders come in.
Hope to see lots of you there!