Joyride ’04 – Sun Peaks

“We’re out of eggs… we’ve just had the biggest breakfast rush ever”, explained the girl behind the counter at Bagg’s, Sun Peaks’ best breakfast joint. The day was going to start off rough, up unusually late I’d just missed the hill’s military 10:30 am breaky deadline, no matter how hard I’d tried I couldn’t get fed.I hit the slopes with a stomach begrudgingly laden with lunch to watch Joyride Production’s self titled venue, this year premiering at Sun Peaks Resort, four hours drive from Vancouver in B.C.’s interior just north of Kamloops, and for once this season the weather was surprisingly co-operative. The unusually unseasonable rain gave way to warm temperatures and an overcast sky, with occasional sunny breaks, a nice change from last week’s weather front that played hell with events all over western North America, including the UCI World Cup in Calgary.


This year Sun Peaks has opened up a few new trails, the list now totals twenty-six, not including the newly constructed biker-cross course. The new 4X runs under the Sunburst Express chairlift, at the base of the mountain, and has to be the best course I’ve seen in a long time; it’s just the right length with perfect elevation gain that requires its steeply burmed corners to keep riders on track. It’s much steeper than Whistler’s and considerably longer than the 4X constructed at the bottom of Grouse for last year’s World Cup. With the weather behaving the way it was the dirt slope was firmly ridden in for the event with just the right amount of moisture to provide traction tackiness.


With serious cake up for grabs, the Sun Peaks Joyride made the right stop over for those making their way to Whistler the following weekend. The atmosphere was laid back, even with the presence of Cedric Gracia, Brian Lopes, Kirt Voreis and Mike Kinrade, there was no sign of the World Cup’s seriousness, or the trademark “Rampage Jitters” in the air, just a hill load of pro riders here to hang out, rip it up and have a good time. The healthy competitive casualness came out during the second heat of the Pro Mens’, the riders could be heard jokingly heckling each other ‘round every berm and over every jump all the way down the course.

Best of wishes to Brad & Family, expecting their second born shortly

The Big Air wasn’t quite as thrilling as last year’s Slope Style, this year there were two fairly large dirt jumps back to back and despite the riders stepping it up right ‘til the end, the DJ Kings didn’t have the creative palate to work with that they did at Whistler; I guess we’ll have to wait for the CrankWorx Gravity Series next weekend for that. Still the riders threw down and did more than their share of entertaining, I suppose the pictures say more than words.

Kyle forgets to take the bike backflipping with him and...

has to comfort his twig and berries after a rough touchdown.

The Results are as follows;


Pro Men

1st - Brian Lopes
2nd - Cedric Gracia
3rd - Tyson McCrea
4th - Chris Powell

Pro Women

1st - Jill Kinter
2nd - Sabrina Jonnier
3rd - Lisa Lefroy


Junior Men

1st - Everett Hoath
2nd - Ross Measures
3rd - Dan Csokonay
4th - Mike Wallis

Open Men

1st - Ryan Newman
2nd - Mason Mashon
3rd - Justin Terweil
4th - Cam Smith


In the cool of the afternoon the Big Air ended, the awards were presented and with no more eye candy left to distract my stomach, I was desperately in need of food.

“There’s about a forty-five minute to an hour wait for food, we’re swamped right now”, an answer I was growing accustomed to as I listen to the hostess at Baggio’s while trying to get seated for dinner. An hour earlier two tour busses loaded with resort Looky Lou’s showed up and taxed Sun Peak’s resources to the limit.

After I finally managed to find some food for the second time I made my way down to Mack Daddy’s for the post Joyride party. It wasn’t nearly the barn burner that Brad Ewen had promised it to be, few people showed up, but then again can you blame them? There was a world class hill to ride the next day… if they could only get the food situation dialed.

For All Joyride Photos Click Here

Cedric Gracia, A.K.A. Inspector Clouseau

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