Top bikers hit local slopes

When crews first began building the course for the inaugural Big White Invitational Slopestyle biking event 93 days ago, there was still three metres of snow on the ground.

With lots of hard and favourable conditions from Mother Nature herself, the course was completed just in time for this weekend, and on Saturday, 30 of some of the best downhill riders in the world will push the seven giant features to their limits.

On Thursday, four amateur riders qualified through to Saturday's gold event. Originally, a gold qualifying event was scheduled for Friday, but windy conditions forced the cancellation of the qualifier, and all 30 riders will be competing at the main event Saturday.

For a resort that only began offering lift-access downhill mountain biking last summer, hosting an official Freeride Mountain Bike Association Slopestyle World Championship event is pretty big step up.

“We've gone from zero to 100 in a very short period of time here so we're now at the level of a lot of these established events that have been going on for years, in some cases for decades,” said Trevor Hanna, vice-president of hospitality at Big White. “We're really only going to get better from here.”

Competitors at Saturday's event come from all over the world – as far as France, Italy and Switzerland, and as close as Kelowna.

Riders are competing for the $17,500 USD grand prize, along with a spot at the renowned Crankworx Joyride competition in Whistler in August.

While riders generally earn spots at August's main event through accumulated points on the FMBA Slopestyle circuit throughout the year, a single Joyride wildcard qualifying position is up for grabs Saturday.

“This being the only North American gold event, it's a big deal to the riders in this sport,” Hanna said. “You can essentially have a walk-on amateur snag the spot for Saturday's gold event and then win the wildcard spot to go to Crankworx.

“So technically you could have a ranked amateur qualify for Joyride, which is really, really exciting.”

Practice runs will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, and the competition is expected to begin at 1 p.m., weather permitting. Updates on possible weather delays can be found on Big White's website.