Idea of urban bike parks gains traction along Front Range

By Jason Blevins
The Denver Post

Posted: 08/04/2009 01:00:00 AM MDT

Updated: 08/04/2009 06:13:02 AM MDT

Logan Watson, 13, jumps a bump at Bohn Park in Lyons. As urban mountain-biking parks become more numerous on the Front Range, their rugged terrain can also attract BMX riders. (Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post)

BOULDER — Skateboarders have their own concrete courtyards. Kayakers enjoy whitewater playparks in dozens of riverside towns. Now mountain bikers are getting their own in-town places to play.

A $4.1 million bike park under construction in Boulder, a half- dozen others already open, and circuits proposed for Golden and Denver mark yet another step in the park-and-play progression that has brought high-country sports to Colorado's downtown landscapes.

The concept is simple: Bring the playground to the people, where skills can develop without a drive deep into the hills.

"It's bringing the backcountry or action sports experience to the front country," said Ryan Schutz, Rocky Mountain regional director of the International Mountain Bicycling Association, which promotes the urban bike park as a gateway to mountain biking.

Colorado has been quick to embrace the concept of a one-stop spot to learn and compete. There are 26 whitewater playparks in the state, about a quarter of the nation's total.

Schutz expects something similar to happen with bike parks.

"The active lifestyle is so important here, and I see the bike park taking off in Colorado before anywhere else," he said.

A decade ago, Colorado's ski resorts began sculpting mountainside trails into bike-ready singletracks, with many resorts, including SolVista, Keystone and Winter Park, adding downhill-specific trails with ramps, elevated paths and obstacles that cater to the new-school "freeride" cyclists.

Cities along the Front Range co-opted the concept. Lyons, Castle Rock and Lakewood have set aside areas for trails training and freeriding, and the Colorado Mountain Bike Association is asking Golden to approve a bike park in the city's Tony Grampsas Park.

Fort Collins a freeriding first

Fort Collins went first, dedicating a portion of its 100-acre Spring Canyon park for freeride bicyclists in 2007.

Spring Canyon riders pilot their bikes over logs, rocks, ramps and berms. The area is connected to Fort Collins' web of regional trails.

Craig Foreman, Fort Collins' park development director, said Spring Canyon is heavily used and local riders have become its stewards, volunteering to maintain trails and features.

A $200,000 grant from Great Outdoors Colorado jump-started construction of the $4.1 million Valmont Bike Park in Boulder, a 45-acre complex that will include a clubhouse, singletrack trails, a terrain park, a cyclocross race course and viewing plazas for competition spectators. The park will include terrain for riders of all abilities.

Plans for the park began in 1996, when the city of Boulder acquired a former chicken farm near its eastern boundary.

Boulder's biking community shifted planning into high gear nearly three years ago, lobbying local leaders with their never-been-done-before idea.

"No one had ever built a cycling facility like this," said Bobby Noyes , a Boulder cyclist who helped sculpt the Valmont park plan.

Pedaling big dreams

Through the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance, local pedalers have raised $158,000 to fund the park's construction and maintenance.

Already, cyclists are dreaming big.

They think the Boulder park could anchor a national mountain bike racing league. It could regularly host school kids and provide a venue for teaching bike safety, delivering lessons that could ultimately dilute the growing animosity between cyclists and drivers. It could be the home to national cyclocross championships, which appeals to the Front Range's 2,500 licensed cyclocross racers.

"The potential is huge for what we are about to create here," said Chris Grealish, a Boulder bike racer who promotes and stages international cyclocross races, which feature off-road racing on short, muddy, obstacle-riddled tracks.

It's not just for cyclists, though. Planners hope that as the state's whitewater playparks evolve into spectator-friendly riverside hangouts, the Boulder park's appeal will reach beyond pedalers.

(And for the record, the park's plans include a dog park and traditional playground equipment.)

"We are hoping this becomes a community amenity that will be used by more than just cyclists," said city parks planner Perry Brooks.

In the past couple of years, the urban bike park concept has gained traction nationwide. One is under construction in Grand Rapids, Mich. Bike groups in Portland, Ore., San Francisco and Orlando, Fla., are jockeying for city approval and funding to develop urban bike playgrounds. A park in Chicago and Seattle's new Interstate 5 Colonnade Mountain Bike Park — tucked beneath an interstate overpass — have become international models for what cities can do for local off-road cyclists.

Ski operator eyes Denver

In Denver, Winter Park ski area operator Intrawest is developing plans to build a 4-acre downhill bike course at North Barnum Park, a sort of summer equivalent of the ski resort's winter activities at Denver's Ruby Hill park.

Intrawest's idea is to groom the next generation of riders who might someday visit Winter Park's expanding network of downhill and freeride trails, while a dilapidated Denver park gets an upgrade.

"This could be a well-structured spot for riders to develop their skills," said Bob Holme, manager of Winter Park's bike park, "and it's a chance to reach out to kids in the city and get them involved in the sport of cycling."

Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374or jblevins@denverpost.com

Valmont Bike Park Awarded GOCO Grant!

Valmont Bike Park Awarded Great Outdoors Colorado Grant!
Additional funding of $200,000 from GOCO

We are thrilled to announce that Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) has awarded $200,000 to Boulder Parks & Recreation for construction at the Valmont Bike Park (VBP). Forty-five applications were submitted requesting more than $7 million - so VBP was among some pretty tough competition!

Boulder Mountainbike Alliance (BMA) played an integral role in the grant application, and our partnership with City of Boulder Parks & Recreation Department helped strengthen the proposal immensely. The community support for a bike park at Valmont, as well as more than $150,000 in individual donations from over 500 people and businesses also made our application competitive in GOCO's process.

This generous grant from GOCO will bring us much closer to the vision of a world-class bike park at Valmont City Park.  This grant will be used to supplement the City's construction budget to help build a cutting-edge bike park, and also help us seek additional funding from local foundations that hold GOCO's decisions in high regard.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the Valmont Bike Park - your volunteer time and generous donations have truly paid off!

The PRO-ness of Valmont Bike Park

I just wanted to share with you a little sampling of what’s coming. What people need to understand is that this project is literally at the tip of the spear in many aspects…from the way we organized to push the concept in 2007 with the City of Boulder to the aggregation of the most professional resources possible to ensure this park is world class.

One such example is Tarras Landscape Innovation. This is the team which was selected by the Valmont Park Committee after they submitted their designs  held during an open competition and clearly blew the team away. Their contributions will be to look conceptually at the space we have allotted to us (45 acres) and look specifically at the ‘details’ of the Park itself to balance aesthetics with usability/sustainability all the while keeping the theme of cycling and cyclists at the core of their usable designs.

It’s worth a look at this brief snapshot they’ve provided.

Get excited!

Valmont Bike Park is a GO!!!!!!!!!!

Board OKs first phase of Valmont park construction

45-acre parcel to include bike park and disc-golf course

By Zak Brown (Contact)
Thursday, June 4, 2009

Photo by Marty Caivano

Jasmine Wong plays with her dog, Bella, on the south side of Valmont City Park on Thursday.

Photo by Marty Caivano

Trucks dump dirt at Valmont City Park on Thursday. The dirt will be used to shape the bike park planned for the spot just south of the Boulder County Jail.

 

BOULDER, Colo. — After more than a decade, a plot of land Boulder voters envisioned as a park with community-wide appeal took a major step toward reality Thursday night.

The site review for the first, $4.5 million phase of the Valmont City Park was approved unanimously by the Boulder Planning Board, clearing the way for a 45-acre section of the park that will include a bike park, trails, a dog park, a “tot lot” and a disc-golf course.

“When the idea for this park first started, it was meant to be an active park that could be a place for several different activities,” said Alice Guthrie, a superintendent with Boulder Parks and Recreation. “And we really think we’ve accomplished that with this plan.”

Voters approved a tax to pay for the park in 1998.

Construction is expected to start this summer or fall on the first of three phases of Valmont City Park, which in all covers a 132-acre parcel in northeast Boulder. The first phase is expected to be finished in about a year.

The bike park — which includes several different levels and types of terrain, such as dirt tracks and a cyclocross course — is already being designed with help from the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance, which has donated $70,000 to the project.

The bike park is “the first built anywhere, that we know of,” Guthrie said.

The development of Valmont City Park has been a long and sometimes-complicated process.

Between 1999 and 2003, the parks department tried to find private or nonprofit partners to help develop the park. But after those attempts fell through, staffers went back to the drawing board.

The Valmont City Park Advisory Group was formed in 2007, and it restarted the process of trying to formulate the park.

After the group submitted a concept plan, the Planning Board made some suggestions, such as trying to reduce auto congestion and increase vegetation, and the City Council approved the concept last summer.

The parks department found much of the money to pay for the first phase of construction from the sale of two parks properties, which netted a little more than $3 million.

Teva and The Outdoor Foundation Support Valmont Bike Park!

(Note the generous donation Teva and the Outdoor Federation will be making to the VBP!)

Teva Partners With Outdoor Foundation and IMBA, Introduces B1-G Air Contest

Teva, a division of Deckers Outdoor Corporation, and the Outdoor Foundation have announced a new partnership effort aimed at broadening the outdoor community by engaging new audiences and industries in nature-based activities. Teva has launched the Teva B1-G Air Contest, which will invite contestants to create a short video of their biggest-air trick and try to win a trip to the 2010 Teva Mountain Games.

The effort also includes a cause-related component where a donation from Teva and The Outdoor Foundation will be made in the winner's name to IMBA to help build the Valmont Bike Park in Boulder, CO.

Valmont Clean Up a Success!

Valmont Clean Up a Success!

A Post Volunteer Work Day Report by Pete Webber

The future home of the Valmont Bike Park got a spring cleaning this weekend thanks to 60 volunteers who spent their Saturday afternoon working to clear trash, junk, and old fences from the site.

The plan was to clean up the 40-acres in anticipation of official construction to begin later this year. By the end of the day, piles of trash included car tires, lumber, innumerable plastic bags, and unexpected discoveries like a shopping cart, golf bag, rusted bed frame, lawn furniture, and 11 different shoes.

The crews also dismantled 700 feet of barbed wire fences that were hold-overs from when portions of the property were a farm. Along with the barbed wire came nearly 100 fence-posts that had to be pried out of the ground.

The vibe was super positive as young and old got dirty and pitched in to do their part for the project. Everyone also got a close look at the park plans and toured the site with some of the team involved in the planning and design.

The event was organized by the Boulder Mountainbike Alliance and the City of Boulder Parks and Recreation Department, with help from the International Mountain Biking Association.

Since day one, the public support for this park has been unbelievable, and this weekend's event was no different. Stay tuned for future events later this year and come join the fun!

See the full set of images here, or enjoy them in the slide show below!


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Valmont Bike Park Work Day!

Valmont Clean-Up Day, May 9th

We are getting closer to construction for the Valmont Bike Park,
and we need your help!

When: Saturday May 9th, 2-6pm
Why: Site prep    
Time to begin site prep for the Valmont Bike Park!  We hope to begin construction over the summer, but first work needs to be done this spring. We will meet at the site at 2pm, Saturday May 9th, to get the ball rolling on construction.  The site has been neglected for years - there are downed fences, windblown debris, and invasive weeds that need to be removed. We are partnering with BMA for this Valmont Bike Park work day, but we also need your help. BMA work days are rewarding and a good chance to meet other like minded members of the community, so pitch in, it is cool to help out. 
We scheduled the clean up so you could ride in the morning, and help out in the afternoon.  After breaking into groups of ten, we will learn about the park while prepping the site for construction.  This is your first opportunity to see the plans on site, ask questions and help out.  We will provide the materials, just bring work gloves.   
We have to limit the number of volunteers to 60, and there has been a tremendous outpouring of offers to help.  Please click here to register; register early because once we reach 60 volunteers, we will respond that the event is full.    
The Valmont Bike Park will be a model civic bike project for years to come.  Come out, watch it unfold, be a part of it.