Biking groups eager for new pump track

By KELLEN TANIGUCHI on June 12, 2021.

ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi

The City of Medicine Hat is down to two locations for its new pump track, which the president of the 670 Collective Mountain Bike Club says will bring in tourists and give bikers a new place to get out and work on their skills.

“It’s going to be a nice little place for kids and adults to get out and experience a little bit of biking, work on their skill sets, their balance and their efficiency on a bike and it really does get a lot of usage once people are aware of it and start using it,” said Ben Roscoe.

Roscoe says a pump track is built with hills, berms and other features to help riders work on their balance and maneuvering skills. He adds mountain bike riders, BMX riders and even walkers will be able to frequent the trails.

The 670 Club has been in communication with the city on the project.

“The city really is the lead, of course, on it, but they’ve definitely reached out to us on any mountain bike trails that have been put in within the city limits,” said Roscoe.

The club will also be putting in some maintenance work into the new track when it’s built, says Roscoe. He says the nice thing about the multi-use trail is it will require little repair and keep up after the initial build – drainage, ecological and environmental concerns are all considered while designing the new trail.

“You compare usership to a hockey rink and the annual maintenance fees to run a hockey rink or a baseball diamond in comparison to a built trail, the maintenance is pretty minimal,” he said.

Roscoe says you can look as close as Elkwater to see how popular its pump track is. He says there are kids on run bikes all the way up to adults on full-sized mountain bikes at all times.

We have a huge shoulder season here, pushing early spring and late fall. Mountain biking is a huge thing, like if you start looking at the different communities that are putting trails in, it’s really changing the way the community is viewed and people travel to come to ride these things,” said Roscoe.

Medicine Hat BMX is not involved with the pump track, but director Nicole Giesbrecht says riders will be able to practice skills there.

Giesbrecht says they are currently in the process of getting a five-metre start hill built at their own track.

“Our current hill is just over two metres high – now to potentially hold races on a national level you need to have a five-metre start hill,” she said.

“Some other tracks do have that and that’s what we’re looking to build at our own track, essentially to let kids train and be able to train at that level if they want to, but that we can also bring in those large-scale races and have that kind of calibre of riders come to our track as well.”

Giesbrecht says there are no plans to tear down the two-metre start hill, but the track will be re-configured to have the five-metre hill as the main starting point. She says they have been told they have the funding for the new hill and are just working on getting all the paperwork in place with the city. Medicine Hat BMX is also fundraising to complete necessary projects that will go along with the new hill.

Registration is currently open for Medicine Hat BMX and people can sign up via its Facebook page. Giesbrecht says the club currently has coaching in place that’s starting up next week and they plan to start hosting local races at the end of June, or early July.

“It’s sure great to be able to see some of the kids coming back and getting on their bikes again, it’s awesome,” she said.