When the 1199 track opened two years ago, Creekside became Crankworx Whistler's premier downhill destination…but some missed watching the festival's fastest riders come through the Boneyard. Organizers granted that wish by returning the original Canadian Open (abbreviated as the OG CDN OPN DH) to its home in the heart of Whistler Village.
Mack Manietta won the U15 expert boys' division: quite frankly an unsurprising outcome. The real story is that his time, 2:50.459, was just four-odd seconds behind Dane Jewett's result to lead all pro men in seeding.
Instinct Development's Owen White was well back despite his runner-up placing (3:00.695) and Xavier Harrisson of Pemberton finished third (3:03.060).
"I was just patient this run," Manietta said. "I didn't want to push it too hard because my last two races, I crashed in. I just wanted to get a decent run down. It wasn't the quickest I could ride, but it was good."
Those words, if accurate, do not bode well for Manietta's opponents.
About the OG venue, he remarked: "It suits my style of riding. It's really technical and you have to be really precise, which I really like about it, and also some good high-speed sections. These were some of the best race conditions you can have. The dirt was pretty good. It wasn't too dusty and it wasn't wet."
'I had a few mistakes at the top, but otherwise it was good'
Tyler Swain locked up gold among U17 boys (3:07.293). Archer Henness grabbed silver (3:09.371) and Micah Enskaitis went home with bronze (3:09.427).
Swain is no stranger to competition. He was part of this year's North Shore banner-winning Whistler Secondary School (WSS) mountain bike team alongside the likes of Sawyer Munn-Gotto, Caius von Raven, Owen Levitt, Ben Carriere, Max and Reed Murray, Leo Pullen, Jeremy Smerychynski, Cooper Olson and Hayden Keam—the latter of whom placed eighth in the OG DH.
"I had a few mistakes at the top, but otherwise it was good," said Swain about his efforts. "Pretty scary track…going fast in the rocky bits and there's one really steep bit, but after that, it's pretty much home free. This is not like most tracks. I'd say it holds up pretty good because it's super rocky, but it was getting a little blown out.
"It's nice being on the podium with my friend Micah. Seeing all my friends come down is good, and it's nice to drop early in the day too."
Pretorius prevails
First to tackle Whistler's OG course on Saturday morning was Megan Pretorius. Her result (3:20.411) stood up to the challenge of eight other athletes, with Keira Burborough-Murphy (3:23.300) and Madeline Lloyd (3:25.183) rounding out the U15 girls' podium in that order.
Pretorius did have her fair share of excitement, though. Her bike's mud guard began folding into her front wheel at the top, ultimately snapping off.
"I was really scared that it was my brake cable, my front brake, that had gone into my tire," explained the Kamloops resident. "But then I realized that my front brake worked, so I was a little distracted at the top but later I just forgot about it and focused on the track. Can't stop and fix it.
"The top was a little messy, but the whole lower section was just how I'd practiced and really clean."
As one of five U15 girls cleared to ride the 1199 track last year (and ending up second behind Ruby Wells), Pretorius is a burgeoning talent and the reigning Canadian national champ from Sun Peaks last month. However, even she found the OG DH venue to be a worthy foe.
"Honestly, I struggled on this one more than 1199 and all the other hard tracks," Pretorius admitted. "Especially on the first day of practice, it was pretty slippery. I knew the top half from the BC Cup, but the lower half took me quite a while to get good at.
"[I'm] not really focusing on getting a good result or beating other people. Just trying to have a nice, clean run—feel fast, pedal hard. Last year, I just thought a lot about beating all the other kids and that didn't work for me."
Other winners from the OG DH's Group B include Zach Eaton (senior 19-34 men), Matthew Tongue (masters 35-39 men), Shane Gayton (veteran 40+ men), Isabella Roeleveld (senior 19+ women), Hamish Sherman (U15 sport boys) and Willem Peters (U19 sport men). Visit https://www.crankworx.com/results/ for more details.
