Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Valley vies for cycling championships

Application made to host 5-day mountain-biking event in 2011 and 2012


By TREVON MILLIARD
Express Staff Writer

Photo by Tim Gillies, courtesy of USA Cycling A men’s cross-country race begins at the 2010 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships on July 15 at Granby, Colo. The competition lasted from July 15 to 18, attracting 1,400 competitors and their families, serving to double the town’s population for the week. Sun Valley is vying to bring the championships here in 2011 and 2012.

Aug. 1 could be unusually monumental this year.

That's the day when USA Cycling is supposed to announce the location of the 2011 and 2012 Mountain Biking National Championships, spanning five days in late July of each year.

And Sun Valley has its name in the hat.

USA Cycling is the national governing body for competitive cycling in America, is a member of the United States Olympic Committee, and is recognized by the International Cycling Union as the sole sanctioning body in the United States.

This makes USA Cycling's championships the premier mountain bike races of the year in all of American. And Sun Valley could be home to the weeklong activities bringing 1,400 athletes and their families from around the country to compete in Cross-Country Olympic and Short-track Cross-Country categories.

The Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau put in the bid to host the championships, according to Marketing Director Carrie Westergard, who went to this year's championships in Granby, Colo., last weekend to show Sun Valley's commitment. Sun Valley Mayor Wayne Willich also went.

Westergard said organizers informed her that four contenders remain in the running.

"And we're in there," she said. "We are."

She said Sun Valley Resort is also on board with the event. Resort spokesman Jack Sibbach said race organizers from USA Cycling have made two site visits and felt Dollar Mountain would be the ideal venue for constructing courses. He said they liked that it was spectator friendly and close to a lodge.

But, Westergard said, the mountain would need about five miles of course construction to host the event. Not to mention, about 250 volunteers needed during the event.

Being ready for the five-day event takes about nine months of planning and labor, according to USA Cycling's Director of Communications Andrea Smith. She said USA Cycling would advise the championship's host as to what requirements the courses need to meet.

"But trail building will be up to the venue," she said.

For this reason, Smith said, USA Cycling wants to announce the location as soon as possible.

"The sooner the better, because you want to start planning," she said.

Westergard said that besides liking the potential for racecourses, the USA Cycling representatives were impressed by the off-bike activities, such as lodging, restaurants and entertainment all nearby.

And this is what will benefit the area.

Granby hasn't calculated the economic impact of the championships but Bend, Ore., did for USA Cycling's National Road Cycling Championships held there in 2009.

This event drew in about 2,800 people specifically for the championships, equaling $1.4 million in tourist spending while there. The average event visitor spent $63.20 per day, two thirds of the usual non-event summer visitor, but they stayed longer, meaning their total spending was about twice as much as the average visitor.

The economic analysis was done by compiling 443 written surveys completed in person during the event—50 percent of race participants—and 260 more post-event surveys filled out by e-mail.

Bend found that the average participant stayed for the event's entire six-days plus a night, meaning 19,600 nights total for all visitors. And 80 percent of these stayed in the host town in Oregon. Participants came from all 50 states, with only 5 percent coming from Oregon.

This potential one-time windfall is noteworthy for the Wood River Valley, but returning visitors is the true goal.

"We're ultimately looking for people falling in love with it and coming back," Westergard said.

Bend found that the championships gave it tremendous exposure.

The analysis found that 59 percent of championship attendees had never been to Bend before. When West Coast residents were excluded from this question, 70 percent of attendees were first-time Bend visitors.

And half of all attendees—which were on average more likely to be have high income—said they'd consider moving or buying real estate in Bend.

"By attracting visitors, from origins untapped by non-event tourism, the championships may have a disproportionately large impact on new immigration and real-estate purchases," the analysis concluded.

Trevon Milliard: tmilliard@mtexpress.com




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