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My city's "Cycling Coordinator" recently flew to the MSA world cup to "scout out the possibility of bringing an event here"
Now, I haven't spoken with him. I only saw that he was there on his Instagram and talked to someone else I know who works for the city and is into biking, and that person told me the above.
I could definitely see Fayetteville making a play for a World Cup XC weekend (already hosted a US Cup XC Event and Cyclocross Worlds), but I see zero possibility for a DH track in the immediate vicinity, unless you're going to make the shortest DH track in existence.
But I did think the timing was interesting with ESO probably starting to look for new venues and such. It could have also been a totally informal junket where he was just going up there to check things out and learn about hosting larger events of this nature.
We actually do have the elevation for a DH track in the region, (something similar to Windrock) just not near the existing XC/CX venue, so there would be no infrastructure in place at this point for a DH track.
He's likely still got a contract with redbull so won't lose any money until it lapses.
I'm worried that they'll pull out a retired soccer player to do the commentary, but there's a hope that It might get better.
The Wyn comment on the last page doing commentary might be the only glimmer of hope in my eyes. I can see Claudio making the move as there's been very little I've heard out of him about what's going on, maybe I missed it though. Wyn and Claudio might work. Might not.
I suppose the Walmart heirs could just buy a mountain and transport it to Arkansas. A Walmart DH track could be quite something – riders would have to deal with the usual drops, gaps, etc, but also watch out for falling prices.
The latest rumor I've heard is Queen Wilhelmina State Park, which just received a large grant to develop trails there. It also DOES have adequate prominence from what I understand. Rumors at US Nats amount the Arkansas contingent was that they may be making a bid to host Nats there in a few years.
Finally, the real shame is that a little south of Fayetteville along the i49 corridor and along old 71 has tons of amazing, steep terrain with lots of elevation. There just doesn't seem to be any interest by the powers that be in developing that areas, though. There has been some private development of a DH track there, but they only have 400ft or so of the mountain. The trails are solid, though.
It was Sam Hill's least favorite world cup ever. There's legit two road crossings, one of which is into a neighborhood.
I think with running Crankworx for the past 17 years the events team likely could do it no problem
Fayetteville - XCC/XCO
It does at least have some tree canopy now. The reason it was so bare is the 2003 bushfires.
This has been posted on Chatel bikepark FB page.
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