A large crowd gathered at the Laughing Loon Pub Monday evening to welcome home Williams Lake’s own 2017 Aspen X Games Snow BikeCross gold medalist Brock Hoyer.
Longtime racer and announcer John Wren emceed the event, while speeches were made by Williams Lake Mayor Walt Cobb, Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett, Hoyer’s father-in-law, Paul French and by Hoyer, himself.
“We live in a great community,” Hoyer said, who was joined by his wife, Jenni, two sons, Deakin and Asher and several other family members. “It’s great everyone comes together for this gold and it’s pretty cool to have everyone come out to celebrate.”
Hoyer, who won the inaugural snow bike event at the X Games on Friday, Jan. 27, dedicated the victory to his late friend, Derek Christianson.
“From day one I knew this was about him,” Hoyer said. “He was the one who inspired me to start snow biking and opened the door to do this. If he didn’t do it, or buy that bike, who knows? It might have been a different story. The number one goal was to win this for Diggler. He was there on the podium with me that day and I knew he was smiling from above and God bless his heart and I miss him every day and I can’t thank his family enough. We all miss him very much.”
Marcus Deausy, a 12-year-old motocross racer Hoyer has taken under his wing, said he couldn’t be more happy about his coach’s win.
“I think it’s awesome he did it for Williams Lake,” Deausy said. “He’s been my coach for six years and he’s my idol.”
Hoyer, meanwhile, thanked everyone who made the trip to Aspen to help him out on the journey.
“I knew I was very confident going in, I knew I had the product, the team and the support crew with me,” Hoyer said. “Those guys made life so much easier.”
