One of the last remaining dual slalom races in the pro circuit, for us oldies who remember them being everywhere! The Crankworx Dual Slalom is a fun event, notorious between riders who race each other head to head in a serious racing atmosphere with all the laughs of riding between friends. The weather here in Whistler was a little questionable with the sun peaking out momentarliy before the rain started coming down, not heavily but consistently. Both of the pump track winners, Barry Nobles and Caroline Buchanan were racing today, would te BMX bandits be a dark force?
As racing rolled on it did apprear those two would be a force to be reckoned with, looking very quick, as was Mitch Ropelato and Jill Kintner. As the finals came around all of these names were involved in them. At the end of racing Jill Kintner and Mitch Ropelato walked away on the top step.
Barry Nobles was looking very quick!
Mitch Ropelato was so quick that he had time to throw in some styleRacing couldn’t be much closer
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There isn’t a lot to say about the Whip Offs here at Crankworx except it got wild! Finn Iles took out the men and Casey Brown took out the womens. Instead of writing a boring piece about how sideways everyone got, we thought we would just show you! So here is a mega collection of images, enjoy:
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Victoria Armstrong was looking good over the first section of jumps
Welcome to Whistler, BC. The home of the world famous Crankworx. And the worlds largest bike playground. With this in mind, we at Downhill247 need to get some riding in too, so for the crankworx reports we are going to keep it short and sweet with a selection of banger shots and a quick write up with the key ingredients such as results and key points. We hope you enjoy the stories from Crankworx and we will see you on the hill!
Claire Buchar slaying some corners
Fox Air DH is run on the all famous A-line track, lots of jumps, lots of bumps and plenty of high speed. Todays weather was verging on ordinary, with drizzle all morning and as racing bagn the rain was on and off, though never heavy it was enough to make lots of the corners very greasy.With the ladies coming down the hill the speed increased quickly with Claire Buchar looking very fast, only really being beaten in speed in the sections we saw by Tracey Hannah.
With the men beginning it was all a question of speed or style, lots of riders were scrubbing the jumps, buts a few were throwing in some whips, perhaps practicing for tomorrows whip offs. The start lists seemed to be slightly skew with plenty of listed started not seeming to take to the track. Sik Mik was looking quick, and very confident for his first race back on the bike, look out world champs!
Pro Men:
1. Mick Hannah
2. Chris Kovarik
3. Danny Hart
Tracey Hannah throws in some style on her way down the hill2 or 4 wheels, its still fun!Travis Pastrana flip……did not go to planChoo, Choo!! David McMillan comes up caboose on this trainIts not Whistler without drunk spectators, Right?!Fastest and most stylish rider through the rocks definitely goes to this guyAline living up to its standards of wild whips
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Today we wanted to do something a little different for everyone, so we aren’t writing this report, today we are handing over the reins to Max Warshawsky, our fastest Junior of the day, the words are his and the images will be picked by him also.
Riders were greeted to a even dustier and blown out course today, with the rain staying away overnight and throughout the day. Although it didn’t seem to make the track any slower, just more sketchy and wild with some big ruts and holes forming in most sections.
Greg Minaar looking forward towards the finish
Racing kicked off with the Junior Men’s category which saw times drop a lot quicker from qualifying yesterday. The crowd was pretty nuts from early on in the day with chainsaws being a regular down the hill. I managed toA� have a clean run down the hill and it was just good enough to hop into the hot seat andA� bump Andrew Crimmins into second with 7 riders left to go. I didn’t end up staying there too long but still stoked to end up in 6th and Andrew in 7th. The Brit Taylor Vernon ended up putting together a pearler for the win, in front of the homeboy ‘merican Luca Shaw and Loris Vergier in third.
Taylor Vernon on a missionLuca Shaw looking spent and dissapointed not to take the win on home soil
The women came next with Teegan coming down first and taking the hot seat, but only quickly as the women started crossing the line, the times were very tight throughout the women until it came to the top ladies, then the times started spacing out, with the top girls taking large chunks out of each others times. Micayla Gatto had a huge crash which closed the track and got Tahnee Seagrave a re-run, it also meant that Manon Carpenter put a 6 second gap on her closest competitor. Emmeline Ragot came down to take the hot seat, and Rachel Atherton couldnt better her time, leaving Emmeline with the win for the day
Emmaline Ragot slaying the rocks
This left only the men, the main show, right for the start the times were really close with the hot seat changing lots and the gaps being sub 1 second. Mick Jones came down on a flyer and took the hot seat for quite some time, edging out both of his team mates. He stayed on the hot seat until Sam Blenkinsop came down and knocked him off, this started the hot seat swap again, with Troy Brosnan taking the seat and then Aaron Gwin, leaving just Josh Bryceland to try and take the win. Times were close at the first split, sub 1 second again, but by the second split Josh ahd increased the gap to over 2 seconds almost ensuring he took the win. This makes Josh this seasons first repeat winner.
Junior Men
1. Taylor Vernon
2. Luca Shaw
3. Loris Vergier
4. Niel Stewart
5. Thomas Estaque
We woke up to another cracker of a day, with the sun shining and the clouds hiding you would not of guessed that last night it rained heavily for a few hours, on the lift up the hill before practice it would appear looking at the track you wouldn’t know either, with the track looking just as dry as it did yesterday. Inside the woods was more damp than it was by the end of yesterday, but the open areas were almost as we left them. As the riders bega to flow down the hill we realized that times today were going to be very tight and very quick. Qualifying would be a challenge for everyone involved. It would appear that lots of riders felt the same way, pushing very hard, with lots of crashes in early practice, many over the bars, with a few serious incidents.
It doesn’t matter how fast Dave McMillan is going, there is always time for style
As practice for the A group wrapped up we were astounded at the speed some of the guys were going, Aaron Gwin was especially impressive through the rougher sections, looking good as a local favorite to be on the podium tomorrow.
The juniors started rolling down the hill and Luca shaw looked quick, as always. He took the hot seat, and never left it, yet again, qualifying on top. Something to note is that Aussie Junior Max Warshawsky placed 8th and that makes him the fastest Australian Junior today.
Max Warshawsky was looking on pace all day
This had the women coming down next, with Manon coming down first as usual, however she didn’t sit on the top spot for very long, with country-woman Rachel Atherton coming down to knock her from the top spot and claim the last run down for the women tomorrow.
Rachel Atherton was looking cool, claml and collected. Not to mention ridiculously fast, much like the Rachel of old
This just left the Elite men to come down, and did they come down! We were absolutely blown away at the speed these guys are riding, they were all so fast it was extremely hard to distinguish a faster rider from where we sat, we had to listen to the echos of the announcer to get any indicator of who was riding fastest. Josh Bryceland took the las run honours, followed very closely by Aaron Gwin and Neko Mullaly, two local USA Boys.
Ratboy getting foot loose, and claiming the top qualifying spot again
Qualifying results are as follows:
Junior Men:
1. Luca Shaw
2. Thomas Estaque
3. Ferran Jorba Prats
4. Loris Vergier
5. Taylor Vernon
Sam Hill waits for the lift in the early afternoon sun
Today we arrived to the Windham track with the top of the hill covered in a dense cloud. The wind was blowing quite hard at the top, but we felt the cloud would clear quite quickly and reveal another lovely day. The riders began to roll down the hill with the fog still over the top of the hill, but not far from the start gate it thinned and cleared, leaving a lovel blue sky, with patches of the low cloud blwoing through. The cloud had left the track a little damp on the surface, but it only took a couple of riders to clear the slightly moist top layer to reveal a skatey lower layer that stayed for the remainder of the day. The surface was slightly deceptive as it looks very grippy, but many riders reported it was in fact not tacky at all.
Casey Brown was looking very quick in todays practiceManon Carpenter watched a few go past this section, also looking very quick today
The sun came out and the forest to open area contrast was a challenge for the riders, but the sunw as drying the track further, and it was nice to not stand in the rain for once. By the time B practice had finished the track was starting to look a little worse for wear, with the juniors having plenty of energy and throwing in heaps of runs, leaving the track with some ruts in some of the corners that were a little more challenging due to being flat.
Ben Hill pushes through the rocksNiel Stewart styles the road gap
By A practice some cloud had rolled in, but it hadn’t dropped any rain, it just reduced the air temperature a little, but the cloud then became patchy and was very similar to this morning. The wind was picking up though, with many riders having to contemplate off some of the jumps due to the gusts. Something to mention is that all the riders seemed to climb right up to ace pace almost instantly, there was no real warm up, just one scouting run and then everyone turned up the speed dial, if there is one thing we are sure of its that this race will be fast and likely to be tight too.
A lift full of happy AussiesDean Lucas drops into the marvelous afternoon sunNick Beer navigates one of those flat corners
Thats practice all wrapped up, Qualifying tomorrow. We hope you join us for all the qualifying action!
Sam Hill was looking quick today, no doubt boosted by his win last yearMore signature Steve PeatA happy downhiller is a fast downhiller!
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One of the last remaining dual slalom races in the pro circuit, for us oldies who remember them being everywhere! The Crankworx Dual Slalom is a fun event, notorious between riders who race each other head to head in a serious racing atmosphere with all the laughs of riding between friends. The weather here in Whistler was a little questionable with the sun peaking out momentarliy before the rain started coming down, not heavily but consistently. Both of the pump track winners, Barry Nobles and Caroline Buchanan were racing today, would te BMX bandits be a dark force?
