Breadcrumb Trail Links
The track, which cost $140,000, is the first of its kind in Greater Sudbury
Published Jun 04, 2026 • Last updated 6 hours ago • 6 minute read
Austin Kurtis, 11, flies around the pump track at the Levack bike park in Greater Sudbury on Wednesday. Kurtis said he is excited to learn some new tricks this summer. Photo by John Lappa /Sudbury StarArticle content
Austin Kurtis is looking forward to learning a few new tricks this summer.
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The 11-year-old brought his bike – and helmet – on Wednesday to the new pump track in Levack for its official opening. His mother, Chantelle Gorham, helped bring the bike park to fruition. They were joined by a couple dozen people who were celebrating the new park under blue skies and a delightfully warm sun.
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Kurtis said he is really excited about the new track, located at the rear of the tot lot at Beech Street and Fourth Avenue. The black oval track includes a number of rolling bumps and berms that teach riders to pump their bodies up and down to maintain momentum. The track is also suitable for skateboards, scooters and inline skates.
“I’m very excited,” Kurtis said. “I’m very confident everyone will love it and take care of it, and it’ll be a place to connect and just have fun.”
Kurtis is still working on learning tricks, but he said he has ridden the track “a lot and it has been very fun.”
He hopes to spend some time this summer learning tricks.
“I am learning to experience new things; experience how to do more stuff on pump tracks and stuff like that; and really just expand to different varieties of things,” he said. “It might take a while, but I am hoping to (learn).”
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Kurtis acknowledged it will not be all smooth sailing. He said he is ready for a few cuts and bruises.
“There are going to be mistakes,” he commented.
Gorham was emotional as she thanked the community for its support.
Chantelle Gorham, of the Levack CAN, makes a point to the crowd at the official opening of the Levack bike park on Wednesday. The pump track came to fruition as a result of community and city support. Photo by John Lappa /Sudbury Star
“I’m relieved, mainly, because this didn’t start as entertainment. It started as a safety concern,” she said. “I’m glad that we gave our youth an option for a meeting place, for something fun to do, and just to get off the roads.”
Gorham said during her remarks that she decided to take action after seeing children doing wheelies and bike tricks along Municipal Road 8, the main thoroughfare that runs from Highway 144 through Levack. She knew they needed a safer option.
It took more than four years, but with a little help from the community, the funding came together.
The city contributed $68,000 to the $140,000 project through the Healthy Community Initiative fund; however, several businesses and groups also came forward, including Desjardins Ontario Credit Union, which donated $50,000; the Sudbury Credit Union; the Day Group; Glencore; and the Sudbury Community Foundation.
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“I got emotional talking about it, because literally when Desjardins phoned, I couldn’t speak because the tears were just flowing,” Gorham told The Star. “(Tears) don’t come easily to me, but it meant that maybe, finally, this could come to fruition.”
Gorham is used to planning community events, but she normally works solo. This time, she said she could not have done it alone.
“I had no idea how long it would take,” she said. “It was a community-led initiative. I might not have fully understood it, but the gist of it is that the community has to come up with the bulk of the funds, and that’s kind of a daunting thing for somebody who’s done community events for 20 years and never asked for outside help until now.”
Gorham said without the donation from Desjardins, “it could very well have been another four years.”
There were synergies at play. Gorham said other, smaller contributions created leverage and helped encourage the Desjardins contribution.
“A $5,000 or $10,000 donation is significant, but when you’re looking at a $125,000-plus project that kept growing — the more time passed, the more expensive the project became — I just never felt we would quite get there,” she commented. “So I put in an application to Desjardins and I didn’t think too much of it until they called, and then the waterworks started flowing, because I thought we’re finally there. But they may not have contributed that amount had the previous sponsors not been on board. If this had just started, things might have looked very different, but they knew it would complete the project, and it did.”
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Greater Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre said Wednesday the bike park is a testament to the power of community. Photo by John Lappa /Sudbury Star
Mayor Paul Lefebvre and Ward 3 Coun. Michel Brabant attended the ceremony. Lefebvre said it was a celebration of community, as well as sport.
“A community came together. When community comes together and asks the city for something, it’s much more powerful, right?” Lefebvre commented. “It’s important that we invest everywhere. But I think it’s a testament — a community coming together and saying, how can we benefit everybody? And that’s what it’s about. It’s about everybody benefiting, and now the kids in this area have a very unique pump track.”
The track in Levack is the first of its kind in Greater Sudbury, Lefebvre said. He expects it will draw visitors from other areas of the municipality. A pump track is a purpose-built track for cycling. It has a circuit of rollers,[a] banked turns and features designed to be ridden completely by riders “pumping” and generating momentum by up-and-down body movements, instead of pedalling or pushing.
Brabant said the tot lot attached to the pump track was also recently refurbished as part of the playground revitalization plan.
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While the pump track had been installed for more than two weeks, Brabant said hosting an opening ceremony during Bike Month was “beautiful and a great idea.”
The pump track is a step in the right direction, but there is more work to be done, Gorham said. Greater Sudbury’s outlying communities are still routinely overlooked, in her opinion.
“Outlying areas still deserve to be properly funded. While we’re grateful to have it, I don’t know if it would have taken four years if it was an inner city project,” she said. “(Outlying communities) need to be properly represented. It’s a lot, but I guess that’s what was taken on during amalgamation.”
Gorham said the disparity between the inner city and outlying communities is still a problem. She would like to see more equity, so that residents do not “need to claw for every bit of funding.”
Jaxson Overvelde, 7, tries out the pump track at the Levack bike park on Wednesday. A ceremony was held to mark the official opening of the track. Photo by John Lappa /Sudbury Star
But she is pleased her community has a new asset that will keep kids entertained, busy, active and safe.
“If you look at the way the money’s being spent in Sudbury, they don’t do community-led projects for their arenas. The money is just found,” she said. “I wish this could have gone differently, that there didn’t have to be the fight, but it’s done now.”
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As mentioned, June is Bike Month in Greater Sudbury — the perfect time to unveil a bike park. Cycle North has organized a number of activities and initiatives to celebrate two wheels, including weekly community rides, a Father’s Day ride and a bike exchange.
John Lalonde, president of Cycle North, said he was “very excited” to learn Levack would be getting a pump track.
“Our community needs more initiatives like these, and places for youth to ride their bikes. A pump track, like they’ve created, makes a safe space for kids to cycle, a place to hang with their friends and a place to build a community,” Lalonde said. “We don’t have a ton of places in town that are accessible to youth — where they can ride their bikes in a safe environment without risk of cars. We’re extremely happy for the community of Levack for creating that space for their cycling community.”
Lalonde said he hopes the track in Levack will set a precedent.
“We hope this inspires other communities to look into initiatives to build their own safe spaces for cyclists,” he said. “Whether it be trails, pump tracks or cycle tracks — it’s about having a place where someone can bike to, and use their bike, without having to transport the bike. This removes barriers for youth and we will see more future cyclists and a healthier community for it.”
To learn more about Bike Month, please go to tinyurl.com/mrypfvse.
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