Hundreds of mountain bikers from all over the Lower Mainland and Washington State invaded 麻豆社国产on Saturday (May 5) for the grand opening of the Full Nelson trail.
Mountain bikers began lining up to be shuttled well before the 10 a.m. trail opening and the lines swelled throughout the day. Freestyle riding star Brandon Semenuk was one of the featured guests for the opening and said it was a positive opening for the new trail.
"It was a wicked day," he said. "It was nice to see that many people come out and ride. I talked to people who came down from Seattle and the Washington area and of course there was lots of people locally, so it was pretty awesome."
Semenuk helped out with some of the construction of the trails but praised designer Ted Tempany and his team for their fine work.
"Without Ted we wouldn't have half the trails we have today," said the Whistler native and current 麻豆社国产resident. "Trail builders, in general, are the unsung heroes of mountain biking."
As for the trail itself, Semenuk admitted he didn't have an opportunity to ride the entire trail on Saturday but said he received a lot of positive feedback from riders he spoke to.
"I think the trail is great," he said. "My attitude has always been the more trails the better. Our riding community out here is great and it's nice to have more places for riders to go and spread everyone out. I think Half Nelson saw something like 100,000 riders last year, which is pretty insane, so we obviously have a big riding community here and the new trail is great for Squamish."
Riders who actually got to experience the trail seemed to agree with Semenuk.
"Just an awesome trail," said Jon Kirkpatrick from North Vancouver. "It was a little wet in some places and there were a lot of kids up there today, but it was a lot of fun."
"It was pretty fast in some places but overall a really fun ride," said Jenna Laurent, who made the trek from Coquitlam. "I heard about the trail opening from some friends and it was totally worth the drive."
In addition to the trail, riders could check out several merchandise booths, have a barbecue lunch and listen to some of the tunes supplied by Red Bull. Later in the evening, the film Strength in Numbers was shown at Quest University. All proceeds raised from the event went to the 麻豆社国产Off-Road Cycling Association (SORCA).
Semenuk will continue training and is planning a busy summer with several videos and competitions planned. He noted that he's planning on again compete at Crankworx in Whistler and plans to defend his Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour title in many events during the warmer months.
