VIDEO: U.S. mountain bike champ takes on Kelowna trails

KELOWNA – A four-time U.S. mountain biking champion, who splits her time between living in the Okanagan and travelling the world, posted a video online recently of her training in Kelowna for one of the toughest races in the world.

Sonya Looney, 31, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico but went to school in Boulder, Colorado. After marrying a Canadian she and her husband moved to Kelowna a year and a half ago.

“Boulder is considered the Mecca of mountain biking and cycling,” she says. “But the trail riding is actually pretty average compared to Kelowna.”

Looney, who has her own marketing and business consulting company, says Kelowna holds up against even the most popular riding destinations in the world.

“I made the video because I wanted to show people how cool the trails are here,” she says. “I want to bring more mountain bike tourism to Kelowna and raise some awareness of how good it is.”

The video, which was posted June 4, shows her blasting through a trail in Myra-Bellevue, one of Looney's favourite places to ride.

“There are plenty of trails and it’s not super crowded,” she says. “It’s perfect.”

Looney will be back in Kelowna June 22 to continue training for the Iron Bike in Italy at the end of July.

“It’s the hardest mountain bike race in the world,” she says.

%%Embed1%%

To contact the reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw at aproskiw@infonews.ca or call 250-718-0428. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.