One of Canada's largest mountain biking festivals will race into Horseshoe Resort again in 2024.
The Crankworx Summer Series Canada event is an international bike festival that was founded in Whistler, B.C. It’s part of the World Free-ride Mountain Bike Tour that hosts events in Austria and Australia.
The Summer Series travels through Quebec City, Silver Star Mountain, B.C, and earlier this month it stopped in Ontario for the first time — at Horseshoe Resort in Oro-Medonte Township.
Jonathan Reid, chief operations manager at Horseshoe Resort, says the disciplines of free-ride mountain biking are like the ones of downhill gravity events, such as skiing and snowboarding.
“It really goes along with some of our core business,” he said. “We are an outdoor recreation business, so skiing, biking, and outdoor activity is really our niche.”
The Crankworx Summer Series Canada wanted to host the event at Horseshoe Resort because it’s the only lift-access mountain bike park in Ontario, he explained.
“The resort fit what they needed for accommodations, infrastructure, from the hill itself, and everything you would need to service and host an event like that,” Reid said.
On-site at the events vendor village expo were industry distributors, manufacturers, and live DJs.
“There was a full atmosphere of entertainment and biking,” Reid said. “It went very well.”
The event drew nearly 5,000 people to the resort and it featured the highest number of competitors in the history of the Summer Series.
“The parking lot looked like it was a winter ski weekend,” he said. “It was a great success.”
Hosting the event was a "great honour" for Horseshoe Resort, Reid said.
“Hosting an international branded event, perhaps the best riders in the country, and some of the best from the U.S., it really brings a lot of credibility to Horseshoe Resort as a bike park, our biking business, our team, and the product that we have as a business,” he said.
Horseshoe Resort will play host to the event for at least the next three years. Next year’s dates have yet to be announced, but more information will soon be available here.
“We are super excited to watch the event and festival grow over the coming years,” Reid said.
