Source: Ryan Kuhn

Saddled up and whippin' it!

Back in the day – 2001 to be precise – Kicking Horse was a raw, untamed beast. There was a brand new gondola spanning a sparse base area to an upstart and elegant Eagle's Eye Restaurant at 7,700 feet – Canada's “most elevated dining experience.” It was the infrastructure of dreams, linking 3,700' of raw alpine, sub-alpine and densely treed vertical. It was, by all accounts, a wild stallion.

Source: Simon Stevenson

Well summer is here and as the temperature starts to heat up so does the race season. The Arduum Challenge was held this past weekend and the challenge was to get down the course without damage to bike or body. On Saturday I heard the count on toasted wheels was up to twenty and there was more added to that list on Sunday. I know at least one frame got broken and I did see a couple of people in slings. The good part is that if you talk to any of those people I bet every one of them will tell you they had a great time on and off the race track and are already planning their returns for next season.

Mountain bike road trips are the best thing ever. There is nothing better than driving somewhere with a bunch of friends, cramming a hotel room full of bikes, bags and bros. For the 2008 road trip season we started off heading down to Vail Colorado, host of the 2008 Teva mountain games. Along for the ride with me is Mike Reid who is taking all the photos. I'm heading down to ride in the two contests present at the event.

*Adam's winning run video has been added*

Creston BC is the place to be this coming weekend with the Goat Style Bike Festival rolling into town. The crew has been building like mad and it's looking to be an amazing show this year.

Have a look at some of the shots Gord and his crew sent my way:

Source: Danice Uyesugi

After walking the DH course at Mont Tremblant, my first thought was: this could be painful. It was considerably longer and rougher than Bromont, with rocks and roots everywhere, and mud everywhere else. This was not a course you wanted to fight your way down – it wouldn't be shy, it would probably hit back.

Well the BC Cup race series officially kicked off this past weekend in Kamloops with Race the Ranch. It brought racers from all over Alberta, British Columbia and even racers from Washington State came out to rip up the new course at the Kamloops Bike Ranch. Unfortunately the race seems to have attracted some low lifes too in the sense of BIKE THIEVES!

Fellow riders do what you can to ward off the bad people and keep your bike yours, but even the best preparedness is no match for criminal thieves. Our good friends at Dunbar Cycles were attending the race this weekend and had their team trailer broke into and this is the note I just got from them: ($2500 Reward for the return of the bikes)

May 31st to June 1st. Those dates lay only two weeks away. Why is this important? Unbelievable skills thrown down by riders that are trying to stand tall. Tricks so big, talent taken to an unthinkable level, bikes tweaked perfectly, trusted by their “masters” to guide them through the air. It's Goat Style Bike Festival. An event that has risen from simplicity to an outrageous depiction of where mountain biking has gone, in such fashion that it has become one of the bigger slopestyle events in Western Canada.

Building a Brand Spankin' New Bike Park in a Month at Canada Olympic Park: COP Hosts 1st Inaugural Volunteer Bike Park Trail Day

Canada Olympic Park (www.canadaolympicpark.ca), owned and operated by the Calgary Olympic Development Association in Calgary, is home to Southern Alberta's only gravity fed mountain bike park. Having served the bike communities of Southern Alberta and beyond as a venue for extensive mountain biking programs and regional, provincial and world level events, COP has been well known to mountain bikers as a bike park with a mish mash of stunts piled into a small geographical region ...until now.

The Arduum Challenge is back this year with a vengeance. Last year's race was an absolute mudfest, and an absolute blast. In a short amount of time we organized a race and pulled off a very exciting event. I don't know of anyone that didn't get worked over riding the course and still come out grinning from ear to ear. Check out last year's race coverage at Arduum Challenge 2007.

Federau is chasing a spot on the Canadian team for the Olympics in Beijing. In order to qualify for selection, Ricky needs a top 16 placing in World Cup competition in one of the first 5 World Cup events prior the end of May 2008. If he is able to secure a spot in the pool, he then needs to show the selectors that he is one of the 2 fastest Canadians in order to attend the Olympics. Already qualified are Geoff Kabush of Comox and Seamus Mc Grath of Victoria. “When I compare my results to the other guys, I know that I am as fast or faster then any of them on any given day. Seamus had that awesome result (16th) at Mount St. Anne last summer and Geoff is one of the best in North America. When I look at lap times from St Felicien where I was 21st and less then 2 minutes out of the top 16, I know that I am capable of a good result.”

Day 8-

Waking up on Sunday morning for the last breakfast at the holly Woodward West was a painful one for most people, physically that is. All the riders were beat and as well were the organizers and photographers from the Supersession so it was a foggy morning and great ending for the 3 day stop of our trip. After breakfast we stayed a couple extra hours and rode the enterprise skate park and the hanger with the rest of the Canada crew, then packed ‘er up and started our drive up North. We drove (actually just I drove) for hours until we couldn't see anymore because of how tired we were and then ended up stopping in a little town about 30 min south of Aptos and spent the night at another motel 6.

The main stop of this trip is Supersessions 3 presented by Atomlab at Woodward West in Tehachapi, CA. Although this is California we are stopping in, it is probably colder than Vancouver Canada the majority of the time we are there. As you drive up, you're going through a residential area and then all of a sudden you hit two big parking lots on your left side and a bunch of big buildings/hangers with HUGE “WOODWARD WEST” billboards painted on them. This is Disneyland to way more people than just us mountain bikers; BMXers, skateboarders, fruit-booters, gymnasts (the little girls that bounce on the trampolines in the Olympics), and whatever other sports you can think of that would use this place. None the less there are 3 major categories at Woodward that we are going to cover: Business, Injuries, and Parties… everything you need to know will be covered in one of these 3 categories.

Day 5- The Price is Wrong Drew!

Yesterday, my childhood dream came true. I got to go watch a taping of The Price is Right. We were all pretty beat from falling and I was beat from clicking my shutter button a few too many times (I was pretty trigger happy from the nice light in Reno) so we thought taking a day off would be a good idea. Since I was 8 years old watching Adam Sandler fight Bob Barker in Happy Gilmore, I've wanted to go watch the show. Myself, Ryan Meyer, Nick Meyer, and Joe Perrizzo attended the show. We spent 7 hours waiting in line starting at 6 am to try and get a chance to be on the show. It was worth of ever second.

When future bike zealots erect their parts-enshrined pantheons to the gods of mountain biking no doubt the first temple they build will be in the name of (two-time world and 10-time national champion), John Tomac. Unfortunately, the legacy of mountain biking's first mullet-wearing rock star fell into a marketing vortex after his bike brand was purchased by American Bicycle Group—who promptly shelved production in favor of filling the world with more titanium road bikes. Last year, JT regained control of his namesake brand and is re-launching it in 2008 with three new state-of-the-art rigs: an XC race bike, a DH bike designed by Manitou founder Doug Bradbury, and a 140-mm dual suspension trail bike accurately named the Snyper.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of my bike commuting in Calgary photo project, The Daily Ride. This means that over the last year, I rode my bike to work 170 times, or a rough estimate of 1,700 kilometers.

And what a ride it has been! Brutal cold, rain, and heat.... a crash that destroyed my helmet bruised my hip.... beautiful sunrises and sunsets... dodging cars... detouring around parked trains... trying not to hit feral rabbits...