The Grizzly XC- King of the Forest

darren · Post by **darren** » Wed May 10, 2006 4:09 pm

The Grizzly XC- King of the Forest

McLean Creek September 2006

We have been putting a lot of hours into the course last fall and this spring, and with great imput from vet juniors, vet masters, pros, intermediates, and juniors the course seems to be getting laid out in a reasonable fashion...grizzly fashion.

Anybody that wants imput must make the effort to contact me and swear to a life of secrecy.

Cheers
Darren

srpiasta · Post by **srpiasta** » Thu May 11, 2006 5:10 am

is it going to be a scantioned race or can you just come out to race?

Rob

MotorEd · Post by **MotorEd** » Thu May 11, 2006 7:22 am

The Grizz is a CMRC event....ie you need a licence from CMRC.

darren · Post by **darren** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 8:16 pm

This race (hopefully) is going to be a yearly competition. So we've named the first one "the King of the Hill" and then the thinking is that next years will be something different, and so on.

So far myself and company have been scouting and cutting a lot of trails. Things have been going really good. My initial thoughts was to do a 45km loop and have beg/ladies A do it once, every one else do it twice, and then have int, vet A, and pro do a 10km nasty finish. That has more or less changed and am leaning towards the Porky's layout with a difficult 45km loop and a 45km easier loop. This works well no matter the conditions. If it rains than vet b and jun and below do only easy loop. If dry jun and above do hard and easy loop. What ever the case (if you don't understand my jumbled words) things will work out well and the race will be better suiting for all styles. Every one will be challenged.

Some thoughts have been:
-let's make this thing the Canadian Erzberg!!! (congrats Marty!)
-make the intermediates and above work HARD to finish and help the rest enjoy
-can anyone actually clean this hill?
-what's 'bulldog' mean?
-how many tries until I finally make this?

darren · Post by **darren** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 8:16 pm

Been riding with the guys that used to race in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, and they have all given similar feedback: back when they raced it was mainly XC's, not HS. A 100km race was not unusual. Five hours was not unusual. Pushing, pulling, and swearing were all mandatory. They also say that they don't race anymore because all the races are too tame. I have shown a few of them some course layout for the PRO, INT, and VET A loop and the response has been very good.

I have reflected that it is sad that our races are geared more towards being generic than being challenging. We only have three XC's on the roster for CMRC including the GRIZZ! I am making it my mandate for this race to challenge every one at the level they like to be challenged at. So hardcore riders and tamer riders all have fun.

The GNCC races down south are all fast and more hare scramble like, it would be sad to see our beautiful and original terrain used only for HS. For a generic HS less that 10% of the beautiful untaimed wilderness of Mclean is being used, why not use it all. Travel across some beautiful and challenging course you might have never seen, open your eyes to where you can ride if you will yourself.

Anyways, I hope this XC will be exciting and challenging for all.
Darren

buggo · Post by **buggo** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:04 pm

I enjoy a great challenging race myself.
I thought the Livingstone and Porkies are some of the best ever.
But I would question some of the "old racers" reasons. Maybe their interest just isn't there anymore.
Porkies this year proved to be a great race, with moderate/ intermediate dificulty.
The old Livingstone format was also great.
It would be disappointing to me to see the cheapest form of motorsport racing suddenly become out of reach for the average person, simply because he beats the s**t out of his bike every race.
That's when I will finish my racing.
Just my thoughts!

darren · Post by **darren** » Tue Jul 04, 2006 9:49 pm

Yah I don't want anyone to wreck their bikes either. Riding with these guys that used to race our stuff don't wreck their bikes either. A hard race doesn't wreck the bike, but merely challenges the rider. Intermediate, Vet A and Pro will ride very technical terrain, where junior, vet jun, beg, and ladies A will have more of a porkies XC layout that is still challenging, but still very fun.

No worries, your bike and yourself will be fine, no matter what class you ride. Cheers and thanks for the feedback.

d

crazy2wheeler · Post by **crazy2wheeler** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 12:05 pm

Well - after riding Darren's HS, I am sooooo looking forward to the XC!!!

That was a FANTASTIC course you put together. Thanks for all your work on the HS, and I can't wait to ride the XC!

Cheers!

darren · Post by **darren** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 5:42 pm

Hey Derek, ya thanks for the response, however Brent takes the cheese for this one (he was the organizer). Seeing how everything worked out and the amazing response we had on Brent's layout, I think we can say that the XC will be very similar in format...just not doing loops.

Brent put a lot of effort into the course, and the feedback was enormous! So he will and has been helping out with layout and design for the XC. I'm getting very excited about the whole thing.

D

crazy2wheeler · Post by **crazy2wheeler** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 10:16 am

Oooops!!

sludge! Sorry Brent!! Yes - YOU put together an absolutely fantastic course! Thanks for ALL of time and effort, and also to all the others - Dennis, Darren, Michelle, Dobi, Dave, the spouses and everyone else who contributed a lot. Definately a top notch event. ... 'cept maybe next year there'll be t-shirts!

D.

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 9:34 am

the shirts got gobbled up pretty quick, I had 30 of them made, that just goes to show the amount of volunteers out there. there were other voly's like you Derrick that never got a shirt, I guess 40 would have been good.

crazy2wheeler · Post by **crazy2wheeler** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 11:58 am

I mean T-shirts for the competitors! Why is it that we do them for XC's, but not for HS's?

I'd pay an extra few bucks for the entry if there was a t-shirt involved!

As for the volunteers - it SHOULD be the volunteers who aren't also racers who are first priority to get the t-shirts!! They are the ones who have really gone out of their way to help US - the riders and racers!

YouTube · Post by **Dobi** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 1:48 pm

With such an interest in the T-shirt I may have to throw mine on Ebay to raise some extra funds for bike parts. I'll send you the link when it goes on sale Derek.

crazy2wheeler · Post by **crazy2wheeler** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 8:04 am

Oh YEAH!! DON'T wash it first!

darren · Post by **darren** » Tue Jul 25, 2006 4:57 pm

Good Day,

Because of some personal events that took place this summer I am sad to announce that I will not be organizing the Grizzly XC. I talked to RMDRA president Dennis Kaltenbruner and he is open to having some one else organize the event. If you are interested please pm me or Dennis and we can talk.

Anyways, I hope that you will all understand and pass on the information for me.

Sincerely,
Darren

Rocky Mountain Dirt Riders

The Grizzly XC- King of the Forest

The Grizzly XC- King of the Forest

Organizers