Jones Center, bike track perfect match

How was a bike park in Springdale selected to host the finals for a world championship?

Brannon Pack, executive director of Ozark Off-Road Cyclists, says the idea for a bike park came up in 2016 when The Jones Center’s leaders asked the club for ideas for what to do with 2.75 acres the center had acquired.

An area for teaching kids to ride bicycles made sense, given that The Jones Center serves more than 10,000 children a year with swim classes in the junior-Olympic size lap pool and ice skating at the yearround ice arena.

The Walton Family Foundation, particularly Tom and Steuart Walton, joined the club and the center to assist with the project and provided a $1.1 million grant.

As Pack describes the project, the goal was to design a facility that would take kids through a progression of bicycling skills. First would be an independent environment where those age 6 and younger could begin learning balance and agility. Then the park would offer a series of progressive features designed to mimic conditions young cyclists encounter once they begin riding the area’s soft surface trails.

Velosolutions — a worldwide pump track design and construction firm based in Switzerland — joined the project in 2017 to help design and implement the plan. Construction began in June 2018, followed by a soft opening in September.

The Jones Center Runway Bike Park includes a separate entry-level playground tailored to 6-yearolds and under, a park with purpose-built skills features that include three progressively challenging lines, and for the final step in the skills progression, the largest built pump track of its kind in North America.

— Bob Robinson