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Great day of racing and celebration at the new Valmont Bike Park. The Boulder Mayor came and dropped words on the mic along with many other heads of state in this area. Look forward to this becoming a place where all cyclist can come and have a good time on and off the bike.

2009 Valmont Bike Park Results

Photos
Bryan King Photography
Jan Schelling - Juniors Race
Mark Woolcott Photography

Photographers! Send us links to your Valmont Bike Park Collection Drop us a line

Videos

I entered this race not really knowing what to expect. It was billed as a cyclocross race but the venue and course description sounded more like a mountain bike race. There was also a good mix of mountain bikers racing. I would say 15% of the people racing were on mountain bikes. In my category we did 2 laps and each lap was described as being around 10 miles. Here is a brief description of the course:

We are very excited to use a new course which encircles the entire Bear Creek Lake Park. The course is approximately 10 miles in length and features a taste of all types of terrain, with one big climb, rolling hills, lots of singletrack and exciting descents. This will not be just another mountain bike race, as there will be barriers, dismounts and run ups throughout the course. There will be a neutral support feed zone at the end of each lap. The Start/Finish venue will be at Coyote Crossing.

To give a little more detail on the course there were 2 sand pits, 1 river crossing, a tiny bit of pavement, 1 relatively long double-track climb and 1 long run up. This course had a little of everything and was a blast! It was refreshing change to a typical cyclocross course. The purists would probably hate this course but for me the fun meter was pegged.

Photo Credit Bicycle.Net

"Call the cops because we have a jail break folks!" If you've attended many of the big Colorado cross races then you could not have missed the voice of David Towle. The Phil Liggett of Colorado Cyclocross, David Towle has been entertaining crowds and racers for 7 years now. Recently 303Cycling caught up with Boulder native to learn more about the Man behind the Mic....

[303Cycling] How long have you been announcing at races and How did you get started doing this?

[David] This is my seventh year. I had been around races working as "staff" for a few years before I ever picked up a mic. I was working for Saturn doing what they called "CyberBike" which was for all intents and purposes a virtual reality bike race we'd take to the auto shows around the US as way to connect people to Saturns team . It was the Saturn Cycling Classic (aka the Zinger) where I was doing "CyberBike" and the regular announcer was late, so I got a shot. It was the year that Chris Wherry won and I knew right there and then that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. It took a few years to get some traction though! What I do describes a niche job for sure.....

[303Cycling] You seem to know a lot about the racers, how much studying do you do for an event or throughout the year?