On Sunday, CBS Colorado sent reporter Dillon Thomas out to learn more about the community push to bring a bike park to Fort Collins. At the 1/2 acre Spring Canyon Skills Park, Dillon was greeted by roughly 75 riders of all ages and abilities riding the pump track, drops, and other beginner-level features. The chaotic scene showed both the overwhelming appetite for a bike park and the shortcomings of the current park facilities. It didn’t take long before younger riders were frustrated by the sheer volume of other kids, and older riders were bored by the limited features. The community needs a safe place where novice riders can fall in love with the sport and more advanced riders can continue to hone their skills. The 45-acre Valmont Bike Park in Boulder has grown into a community gathering place where everything from birthday parties and days off from school are celebrated on the jump lines and pump tracks to hosting grassroots and national-caliber bike races on the singletrack and cyclocross features. Now that we have a council that favors a bike park somewhere in Fort Collins, a perfect location (Hughes), and a potential funding source (the passing of Issue 2A), we need to bring this to fruition.
According to Kevin Krause with the Wolfpack, “We have to get the city to love bikes at every age, every stage, every ability and really elevate the bike culture we already have to a new level.”
