St. Albert BMX cranked it up as hosts for the Grand Provincials and Alberta Championships.
More than 400 riders competed on Saturday and Sunday’s turnout was the same at the world-class BMX track at the Riel Park recreation area.
“Not only has the turnout been great but the racing has been good too,” said Ross Vickery, president of St. Albert BMX for seven years, prior to Sunday’s time trials for male and female junior and elite riders. “We have the top riders in Alberta here, and some of the top riders in the world actually. One of the girls here won a W3 at the worlds in Copenhagen.”
Calvin McRae, the 2011 national junior men’s professional BMX champion from St. Albert, gave the event two thumbs up.
“Everyone did a good job of hosting it,” said the junior provincial points champion and time trial winner. “I just love the atmosphere around these races. You get to race all these people from Alberta and there are some fast guys here.”
Vickery said the St. Albert venue is the best of the bunch among the 11 tracks in Alberta.
“This is the only C3 UCI facility in North America. With the co-operation of the city, and bringing in a world track builder, we’ve built an absolutely amazing facility that can host an event like this,” Vickery said. “I’ve had track guys coming up from all the other tracks in Alberta saying, ‘Great job. Wonderful facility.’ It’s great to hear that and very fulfilling. I’m just glad to be a part of it.”
The first stages of the multimillion-dollar ongoing remediation project at Riel Park to address leachate seeping into the Sturgeon River from a former sewage lagoon and landfill included capping and grading the sites occupied by the BMX track, Kinsmen RV Park and rodeo grounds and the multi-use sports field. St. Albert BMX had its track moved to a different location in the recreation area and it was upgraded substantially with all the bells and whistles.
“It’s taken us a little over a year and a half to build. We lost basically a season and a half when we did the switchover, but once the track was built, it’s been amazing,” Vickery said. “It’s flat. It’s fast. It has the tallest start hill. It’s also only rideable pro section in Alberta for our juniors and elites.”
Vickery believes the average person doesn’t understand how technical the course is.
“We used to have [the old track] open to the public all the time but now that it’s become basically a world-class venue, it’s just too dangerous. You need some skill-set to ride this. You can’t just come off the straight on a BMX bike or on a mountain bike and expect to just fly down that start hill. We’ve already had a broken leg and a couple of concussions.”
More than 30 volunteers devoted their time and energies into putting on the last big weekend of the year on the provincial BMX circuit. The Alberta BMX Association also assisted in running the races.
“Our volunteers have done a great job. We’ve got lots of people who work behind the scenes to make sure we have a great weekend. We do whatever it takes to make it go. We’re not paid either. We just do this for the fun of it. We do it for the kids. It’s nice to see the smiling faces,” Vickery said. “The track has certainly been well taken care of. We’ve worked on it all summer long to get it into shape. The makeup of the dirt is what really makes it special. The clay has been instrumental in the track staying as well as it has.”
McRae, 16, is a huge fan of the track.
“I love it. I’m here pretty much every day. I have it dialed up more than anyone else,” said the Grade 11 Bellerose Composite High School student.
Vickery estimated between 1,500 and 1,800 people stepped foot inside the BMX compound on a sweltering Saturday. He noted the economic spinoffs from the event benefitted the entire city.
“The Kinsmen RV Park, for instance, is absolutely packed with a waiting list, and a lot of them are our people.”
Sunday’s cool and windy conditions didn’t stop the spectators from watching riders in 48 age divisions catch air while racing for provincial honours. The thrills and spills started with the introduction of the time trials into the weekend format. McRae was the fastest of the junior male riders at 35.760 seconds after completing the first run in 37.280 seconds.
“I felt good in the time trials. It was one of my main goals this weekend,” McRae said. “I just had a bad lap overall with my first one. My second lap, I kind of dialed it. It felt good but I still didn’t have the fastest lap. Matty Cadle is an elite rider and he had the fastest time out of all of us [at 34.990 seconds].”
Visit www.albertabmx.com for the weekend results.
