The inaugural Golden 24, which will see more than 300 registered riders take part in eight and 24 hour races on Golden’s Mt. Shadows trail network, will begin on Saturday.
Riders, who will race by themselves or in teams, will be arriving in Golden on June 17 and camping overnight at Keith King Memorial Park before the race begins at 11 a.m. the next morning.
Those participating in the eight hour race will finish by 7 p.m., while the 24-hour riders will have until the following morning to complete as many laps of the 14.5 km course as possible.
With such a large number of campers at the baseball diamonds, notices were sent to Selkirk Hill residents last week to give locals the full run down on the race and expected quiet hours.
“The nature of the event is very different to that of a baseball tournament…because it is a 24 hour race, the majority of the participants who are coming out need to be well rested, they need to be ready to go, so we’re not anticipating it to be a big rowdy party,” said Jordan Petrovics, the manager of recreational services with the Town of Golden.
The 24 hour race will wrap up on Sunday morning with a Lions Club pancake breakfast and an awards ceremony.
The race is being organized by Trans Rockies, who will also host two stages of its annual Single Track 6 event in Golden later this summer, and the company will be donating $5 per rider to the Golden Cycling Club.
“This being the first year, we’re just building the following for it,” said Andy Brown, communications and social media coordinator with Tourism Golden.
“We’ll get people out here viewing the trails and getting to know the biking in Golden better. Ultimately that will put it on the map to come out when they’re not in a race, when they want to go on a vacation and spend some time in the mountains.”
Going forward, Brown hopes that both Tourism Golden and Trans Rockies can work together to grow the event, not only through promotional material but also through word of mouth.
“We want to have a great event for everybody so that they turn around and they sign up the day after the event’s over for next year because they enjoyed it so much,” he said.
Look for full coverage of the Golden 24 throughout the weekend on The Golden Star’s Facebook page, Twitter feed (@goldenstarnews) and website (thegoldenstar.net).
