What is a mountain biking town without a mountain bike festival? The Rubberhead returns

Come Labour Day weekend, local kids, adults, seniors along with pros, semi-pros and average Joes, will be bringing out their two wheeled ponies for a weekend of heavy pedaling good times.

 

“The sport itself has changed so much and so fast. People are riding differently and riding more and in different ways than they might have the last time we had the Rubberhead, which was more of a cross country bike race,” explained a stoked Tyler Merringer of Revolution Cycles. “Cross country racing is still something that’s legitimate, but we’re celebrating more of the current trends and new styles of riding now without forgetting about where we came from.”

 

Bringing competitive mountain biking back to Red Mountain last year, the Fat Tire Festival was a huge hit in the eyes of both the organizers, spectators and participants with events selling out in advance and large crowds showing up to take in 360 drops to truck windshields and scaffolding launch pad back flips.

 

“Last year went way better than we expected,” added Deanne Steven of Tourism Rossland. “We had a lot more people in town than we expected and a lot more people participating.”

 

This year the festival is temporarily changing locations to Centennial Park while construction takes place on the Red Resort base lodge. That change has brought some additional benefits to the local free-riding scene as improvements to the advanced skills bike park below the Centennial ball field will be able to remain as an event legacy.

 

The spectator friendly Huck ‘N Berries free ride event (thanks to countless hours of volunteer efforts from riders, local contractors and sponsors) has put shovel and bulldozer to dirt and literally ramped up the park’s jumps.

 

Rory Belter, who’s been heading up the Huck ‘N Berries, described this year’s park setup.

 

“It’s more of a dirt jump-style design this year, with more gap jumps. We have a scaffolding tower for the start ramp from the upper parking lot down to the bottom. The main line will have three big hits with dirt gaps of 10 to 15 feet. Each jump will have multiple lips as well for bigger or smaller airs.”

 

“We’ve got an intermediate line also that is for the younger guys or for the older guys that don’t want to hurt themselves. They’ll have a little smaller line. The intermediate line has three table tops and it finishes with a small gap.”

 

Showcasing Rossland’s premier trail, the typically sold out Seven Summits Poker Ride returns this year, hoping for better weather than the snowstorm they faced last September. Organized by Tyler Merringer of Revolution Cycles, the poker ride is all about costumes and fun in a non-competitive atmosphere.

 

Also on Saturday, the recently refurbished downhill course on Red Mountain plays host to the uphill/downhill Dread Head race. Bringing together the armored up eight inch suspension crowd with the uber fit uphill cross country crowd, the unique event poses the question to riders of just which bike to choose. Event rules state that the same bike must be used for both the long slog up the Red Head trail and the downhill course.

 

Extending the reaches of the event this year into the pre-school crowd, a new addition sees a grom-fest pump track-style race for kids four and up on a newly-built track in Centennial Park.

 

“The young kids are always so fun to watch on their bikes. I mean we’ve got kids younger than school age that are tearing it up. At the same time we’re trying to keep it really fun,” explained event organizer Pam Shirley. “For some kids that might mean just making it around the track, or making it around for two laps. Or for some, it’s about who has the best decorated bike.”

 

The other new addition this year is a mountain bike polo tournament. Mirroring the sport of kings, riders mount their generally single geared steeds, mallets in hand for a new take on the age-old sport.

 

“We’ve been doing that for five weeks now,” explained Merringer. “That’s going to be a new event at the festival this year that’s pretty easy for people to get involved in if they are not at the level for racing or jumping. Bike Polo is hopefully a little more social.”

 

The return of the classic festival signals an official return to Rossland’s formerly self-proclaimed title as Canada’s Mountain Bike Capital. If that’s going too far, one can surely claim that Rossland’s summer sport of choice continues to grow and adapt with the times as more and more people get out on the trails pedaling, jumping and poloing their way through our impressive natural terrain park.

 

“The resurgence of a bike festival here is really a great thing to see for the sport and for the city itself,” concluded Merringer. “The old festival faded away when cross country racing was dying out and now once again we’ve got a legitimate and well-organized bike festival happening, so it’s really good to see. It shows the strength of Rossland's mountain bike community and the strength of Rossland as a mountain bike destination for tourists and locals.”