With hopes of making the race more attractive to community outsiders, Pocatello Pedal Fest board members are upping the ante for this summer’s mountain bike race by offering over $2,000 in cash prizes to those who finish high enough in their event.
It’s the most ever offered in the event’s nine-year history, race board members say.
The fastest male and female bikers will both receive a $500 prize in addition to what they already get for winning the race. Board members say the increase in winnings will serve as an incentive for mountain bike enthusiasts from across the region to attend the Pedal Fest activities, which will be held on June 8 and 9.
Last year, board members said the race saw about 140 participants, meaning if Pedal Fest is able to cap its 200-participant permit, it would mean a 43-percentage point increase in participation from the previous year, representing one of the starting inclines in Southeast Idaho’s recreational economy.
“The recreational economy is the untapped potential of the west,” said Martin Hackworth, a Pedal Fest board member.
The Pedal Fest board has been at the forefront of promoting Southeast Idaho’s recreational economy to the Rocky Mountain region. They put on races such as Pedal Fest and help organize other races in the area such as the Pocatello stage of the Idaho Enduro Series, a type of event that only times the downhill portions of the race, which comes to Pocatello on June 23.
With an abundance of high quality trails in the area, including the City Creek Trail System, where the race is primarily held, board member say that Pocatello is on the cusp of becoming the next hot tourist destination for mountain biking. Part of the reason the City Creek trails so desirable is because there is an abundance of high-quality trails that are easily accessible to the public, which are typically free of other riders.
“These trails were designed and built by people who knew what they were doing,” Hackworth said. “It’s not like some goat trail that somehow got in a travel plan somewhere and turned into a mountain bike trail. These are trails that were designed to be multi-use trails. The switchbacks, the climbs, the descents: all of it make sense.”
Unlike its regional powerhouse competitors such as Park City and Jackson Hole, Pocatello is a relatively affordable place to live, and a 2018 Singletracks.com list ranked Pocatello as the third-best mountain biking town with the lowest cost of living in the U.S.
“As far as mountain biking is concerned, it is absolutely blowing up,” said Tommy Gwinn, a Pedal Fest board member. “I think people are spending more money than ever on their equipment and traveling. It really is an up and coming sport.”
Hackworth said that outdoor recreation could be the next economic boost for Idaho, a state that still hasn’t recovered from the dismissal of its old industries. He added that Idaho could follow state such as Colorado, California and Utah in marketing its outdoor recreation activities, a much more stable industry he says, than farming, ranching and mining.
“Idaho is still in these early stages where we are trying to figure it out,” he said. “It’s not a mature and well-developed operation, but it is moving forward and there are some good people moving the ball.”
The fear is that the trails will become overcrowded, which will eventually turn into something that can no longer be promoted in the same way it currently is, showing off the old adage to “keep Idaho the way it is.”
“That’s great, but that’s an unobtainable model,” Hackworth said. “You can’t have things that are static in a changing world.”
Pedal Fest begins June 8 at Centennial Park with a pump track racing series, where the goal is to get all the way around the track without peddling using only gravity and momentum.
The following day, mountain bikers ascend into the City Creek trails beginning at 8:40 a.m. with a three-mile junior race. The longer adult races begin at 10:20 a.m. and include excursions of 27, 17 and 12 miles. Awards will be handed out at 2:30 p.m.
