Stevie Smith Bike Park is about to host its first world-class event.
This week the world’s top ranking professional pump track riders will arrive in Nanaimo to compete in the international Red Bull Pump Track World Championship Series.
The event, that runs Friday and Saturday, Aug. 3-4, brings more than 150 professional riders from around the world to compete in the qualifier.
This is the first major international level event hosted at Stevie Smith Bike Park since it opened in 2017.
“This is the first and only one in Canada,” said Michelle Corfield, founder of the Stevie Smith Legacy Foundation.
The top four riders from this event will go wheel to wheel in the world final event being hosted this year in Springdale, Ark., in October.
Red Bull first announced Nanaimo was chosen for the event in February.
“I look at the riders and where they’re coming from; multitudes of countries. It’s insane,” Corfield said. “We will be seeing top riders for sure.”
The Stevie Smith Bike Park pump track is paved and was constructed by Switzerland-based Velosolutions, an internationally recognized bike park design and construction firm. Only Velosolutions-designed and constructed pump tracks are selected for the series.
“I’m the one that said, no, I didn’t want a dirt pump track. I wanted a paved pump track and who would have thought, a year later, this is where we would be, right?” Corfield asked. “I was just doing it from a common sense perspective because we get so much rain and now this is the first time Red Bull has an event in Nanaimo.”
Red Bull hasn’t run a cycling event on the Island since the Bearclaw Invitationals were held on Mount Washington in 2013.
The pump track event isn’t just for professional riders. Children, 30 in all, will receive their first bikes during an intermission Saturday through Pink Bike’s Share the Ride program, which raises donations to provide underprivileged children with their first bicycles.
The BMX style bikes and helmets, supplied by GT Bikes and Fox, will be presented to children chosen through the Nanaimo Aboriginal Association.
This is the second year bikes have been presented to children during a major Stevie Smith Bike Park event. Last year bicycles were given to children in foster care.
“The significance of giving away bikes is putting kids on wheels and giving them the freedom to explore and the freedom to participate in their city and their place in different ways than if they had no opportunity to ride a bike,” Corfield said. “Getting a bike is special and it means a lot and those kids whose parents are struggling or can’t afford that extra, this really helps them out.”
To learn more about the weekend’s events, click this link.
photos@nanaimobulletin.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter