Sun Valley Hosts the Ultimate Mountain Biking Festival

7th June 2012 | Josh Cooley

News Regions: Sun Valley

Dates

June 29 - July 8

Cost

See the events page here for race registration fees; Sun Valley Shakedown music festival: $34.

Highlights

USA Cycling’s XC Mountain Bike National Championship; free guided/shuttled Local Stoker Rides; Sun Valley Shakedown music festival July 7 at Sun Valley Festival Meadows; Technical Expo at River Run—total gear heaven for mountain bikers

Insider Tips

Get close-in camping in the River Run Parking Lot for $25/day—call 208-726-2777 to reserve; races fill up quickly, so register online at www.ridesunvalley.com and www.usacycling.org. Get your bike worked on over a burger and a Belgian beer at the Power House in neighboring Hailey, a unique bike shop/pub.

The Scoop

USA Cycling holds its XC Mountain Bike National Championship in Sun Valley, Idaho, for a good reason. The Sun Valley/Ketchum area is the hub of a vast network of continuous singletrack trails—400 miles in all—that radiate outwards into the surrounding wilderness. This is a mountain biker’s happy hunting ground.

The Ride Sun Valley Bike Festival exemplifies and celebrates mountain bike culture. While elite mountain bike racers gravitate here, the festival is designed for mountain bike lovers of all abilities, whether to compete in festival races or simply enjoy the scene.

2011 July 14 Fat Tire Criterium Ride Sun Valley

The Fat Tire Criterium is a unique bike race that will draw quite the crowd on the eve of Independence Day. Photo by Alpinfoto.com.

The Sun Valley All Mountain Competition, one of the marquee events, is a stage race that combines racers’ times in the Galena Grinder XC on June 30, the Super Duper Downhill on July 1 and the Fat Tire Criterium on July 3. In the Super Duper Downhill, racers descend 5,000 vertical feet on creamy singletrack trails from the summit of Sun Valley’s iconic Bald Mountain (elevation 9,150 feet).

On July 7, J.J. Grey and Mofro, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and DJ Logic will perform at the Sun Valley Shakedown music festival to round out the weeklong celebration of the fat tire lifestyle.

Ride Sun Valley 2011 July 14 Fat Tire Criterium

Some of the ridiculous relay teams (biking in a pair of Chucks, huh?) are what make the Fat Tire Criterium so much fun. Photo by Alpinfoto.com.

Sun Valley, Ketchum and Hailey have dozens of coffee shops, restaurants, bars and pubs for your dining and drinking pleasure, and the paved Wood River Trails system that connects the valley from north to south means you can park the car and bike everywhere. After this festival you may never want to drive again.