February 18, 2007 (Valparaiso, Chile) — The 4th edition of the Copa Contrapedal urban downhill race in Valparaiso, Chile goes off today at 11am in Valparaiso, Chile. Riders took to the non-closed course yesterday and dodged cars and people as they worked their way from the top of Cerro Allegre.

Built on 24 hills, Valpo is a UN heritage site with a thriving art community that has managed to turn the entire town into a mural from 10′ down. This provides a stunning backdrop for riders as they blast past and slide their way down slick cobblestone streets and narrow stairways.

Highlights of the course include a large road gap, a tight high-speed pedaling section through a narrow concrete storm drain in an alley, and a highly technical 300m long section including a series of three drops, large 12+ stair sets, and about 1,000 screaming Chilean fans.

Team Honda/Iron Horse (USA) rider Duncan Riffle had this to say following practice. “We all show up at the planned time ready to ride and find that our biggest obstacles are actually the massive numbers of yelling children, people, dogs, cars (moving), and anything else you could think of. The course designers have been hard at work trying to make everything suitable and safe to ride with quite a bit of input from us riders,” said Riffle.

“The course is shaping up very nicely now. I’m not a huge fan of “˜downtown’ racing as it’s just so different from what we usually ride, although its slowly but surly growing on me. My prior experience with “˜downtown’ racing was in Lisboa, Portugal last year and it was a bit of a shock to say the least. The course here is quite a bit different, a lot faster with larger obstacles, drops, ramps and what not. It’s pretty cool, everything has a good transition and there are some good high speed bits, and even a bit of pedaling. It should make for some good racing. Whoever is smart enough to go slow and fast at the right times on the course will take it, unless there’s a crazy local who ends up pinning it and keeping it in the tape”¦should be fun either way,” he added.

Jeff Beatty with team Orange/Mojo is the lone Canadian DH rider and is enjoying his first trip as a member of the team. “It’s a completely different sport racing on the pavement, it’s awesome. The course is pretty intimidating and I almost had a heart attack,” said Beatty.