Featured Stories

Bromont Makes Impressive Course Upgrades

by Chris Redden

June 25, 2009 (Bromont, QC) – Several years ago, in the days of Team Ritchey domination, the Bromont ski hill in Quebec held the world’s attention by hosting the MTB Worlds as well as several world cup races. Always a great facility Bromont is back in the racing lime light again as it once again hosts both a Canada MTB Cup race (July 4/5) as well as the Nissan UCI MTB World Cup “triple” event (Aug 1/2) for all three disciplines: XC, DH, and 4-cross.

To take on this challenge Ski Bromont and race director Richard Deslandes have committed a lot of time and resources to revitalize Bromont as one of the leading race and riding destinations in North America. According to Deslandes the ski hill has “Committed to over $200,000 in course improvements over the past 2 years.” There are eight full time employees working on the courses as well as two excavators and they have made substantial changes to all three courses.

For the XC course they created a completely new 5.5km trail last fall and it features a bridge over the DH course. This new trail for the World Cup XC race will remain as a permanent Olympic-style course. While the XC trails at Bromont have lots of technical features none of them have been given names yet. This will have to wait until the MTB World Cup race comes to town Aug 1/2.

The 4-cross has also been upgraded on a grand scale from the past year, even though it was considered the best 4X race course on the World Cup circuit last year. Phil Saxena who is the UCI 4-cross course designer came to Bromont this past spring and helped redesign the 4X course. He worked with the trail crew to help make the newly designed 4X course even better. Lots of new jumps and berms were added and the excavators were put to good use to move the soil around and help compact it as well. The new 4X course will be a permanent feature at Bromont. During the regular season there will be ‘Easy Outs’ over some of the larger jumps, so riders of all abilities can come and ride.

Deslandes is most excited about the new 4X course, “It features a new start and finish area, and is the only permanent 4X course in North America. This is a big improvement over last year, when we were voted the best course by the UCI. Racers will love the new course this year!”

The first test will be for the Canadian 4X Championships later this year. One of the unique features of all the courses at Bromont, is that they all come together for a 10 meter section in the middle of the hill at the start of the 4X course. This is feature for spectators as they can watch several different races all from the same vantage point.

The rest of the venue has also seen some upgrades, as the XC start-finish area has been widened, and the parking lot has added over 500 car spaces. This will be needed for the crowds expected for the upcoming MTB World Cup races.

With the upcoming Canada Cup on July 4/5, National 4X Championships, and UCI MTB World Cup Event Aug 1/2 , these trails will get a major work out while Bromont will shine even brighter as a key race and MTB destination in North America.





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