Steve Wyer is not expecting any three-wheelers to line up for the start of the inaugural Prince George Cyclelogic Tricycle Race on Sunday, Sept. 29.
What will transpire is a relay race for teams and individuals that combines the elements of road cycling, cross-country mountain biking and downhill racing.
"The cycling club supports all aspects of cycling in the city, so we advocate for road cycling, downhill mountain biking, and urban community cycling and one of the things we've never done is put on an event that pulls as many forms of cycling as we can together," said Wyer, the race co-ordinator.
"Other than at our board meetings they don't interact very often, so you don't see a road cyclist with the mountain bikers, but we're all doing the same sport and we need to come together more often."
The tricycle race starts at the Hart Community Centre on Austin Road, following a route west of the city on Chief Lake Road to Nukko Lake store. Riders will then turn around and go to the upper parking lot of the Pidherny recreation area near Vellencher Road. After 40 kilometres on the roads, team riders will tag the downhill mountain bikers, who will take a two-kilometre plunge down a trail called Carcass to the skills park on Pidherny Road. The cross-country riders then take over and will ride two 6.5-kilometre loops to the finish. The course follows the new single-track trail, Green Eggs and Ham, then climbs up Pidnerny Road on the Ten Dollar and Valve Job trails, leading back to the skills park.
The race is a season wrap-up event for the club to help celebrate the opening of its new trails at the Pidherny recreational site. There is one other club event in the works, tentatively set for Sunday, Oct. 6 -- the 40th annual Koops Bikes Purden to Prince George road race. Originally scheduled for June, the race had to be postponed due to Highway 16 road construction near Tabor Mountain.
"Prince George is unique because most cycling clubs are separate, based on the types of events they run," said PGCC president Jillian Merrick. "They have their road groups, they have their mountain groups and they're all separate organizations. Prince George is the only community we know of where all of them are encompassed in one organization and we think there's strength in that."
The club used to stage an annual downhill mountain bike race at Tabor Mountain known as the Gutbuster. There hasn't been any downhill racing since the Mountain Madness Friday evening races at the Tabor ski hill in the summer of 2006.
The winners will share a cash purse estimated at $2,500. Riders can register for the race through the club's website, pgcyclingclub.ca. The cost , which includes the post-race barbecue, is $35 per entrant. A cycling club membership, which costs $25, is mandatory for all riders to cover insurance liability.
