Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/1390196
anywhere," said Brook Watts, FayetteCross race director, in an article by the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Besides the world-championship quality of the cyclo-cross course, the park also features a mountain bike race course of equal caliber. Experience Fayetteville hosted the Oz Trail US Pro Cups in April, back-to-back weekends of international mountain bike racing that gave riders a chance to qualify for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo by providing needed UCI points. "To be able to have both courses of that caliber in one park is huge," Rawn explained. "We very intentionally built from the ground up these courses according to international specs, and that's never been done before. They're a first in their kind for the U.S.," said Pack. UCI expects the host city to be well funded and able to pay all the fees and expenses. "While it's not a pay to play, you have to have the funding. Quite a lot of money goes into these races. Without the venue you can't have the event," Rawn said. The Walton Family Foundation and the City of Fayetteville stepped up to provide funds for Centennial Park construction. Fayetteville Parks and Recreation leadership, Mayor Jordan, the city council, the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, Bike NWA and other partners all contributed significant levels of support. In addition to investing in the 228- acre park, the Walton foundation awarded Experience Fayetteville a $2.3 million grant to hold a series of cyclo-cross events that in the eyes of UCI "gives us the rights to host a world championship," said Pack. The first in the series was FayetteCross, a two-day cyclo-cross race held at Centennial Park in October 2019, drawing athletes from 31 states and 3 Canadian provinces. The highly anticipated World Cup in October is a first for FayetteCross. "Basically, the UCI is testing our community – the race course, the facilities. We're developing all these partnerships (Front to back) Aubrey Drummond, Brad Schrag and owen dixon Practice riding the centennial Park cyclo-cross course. Photo by Brian Huntley 18