There were a pair of new faces atop Crankworx' Official Whip-Off World Championships podium this year.
In a close, jam-style contest where judges claimed they could have chosen "15 different riders" as the winner, two athletes in particular owned the Crabapple Hits on Thursday afternoon, Aug. 15 to earn their very first Whip-Off World Champs wins.
New Zealander Vinny Armstrong took home the women's championship belt—and the $2,000 cheque—putting an end to second-place finisher Casey Brown's six-year winning streak in the process.
So what tactics did Armstrong (who previously edged out Brown at the Official European Whip-Off Championships in Les Gets, France in 2018) use to finally wrestle away the title of "sovereign of style" from Crankworx Whistler's long-reigning Whip-Off queen?
"Just sending it, I guess," said Armstrong following the event. "It's such a hard push up [back to the start], you get so tired but I just think the stoke is so high—real big crowd—it just amps you up to, like, keep going, running up the hill, and trying to get as sideways as possible."
More than 3,000 people showed up to the Whistler Mountain Bike Park's Fitzsimmons zone this year to watch some of the world's best fly high above the dirt jumps and whip their bikes well past 90 degrees before turning their wheels straight down the fall line—then head back uphill to do it all again.
Armstrong may have competed in Whistler's Whip-Off event for the past few years, but thanks to her win, she said the 2019 edition was, "Definitely one of the best I've had—so sick."
Pemberton's Jaime Hill rounded out the podium in third, a repeat of her 2018 performance.
Nineteen-year-old Kade Edwards of the United Kingdom took the men's win, rising one step up the podium from his second-place finish at in the 2019 Official European Whip-Off Championships at Crankworx Innsbruck in June.
When asked whether he had any strategies heading into the event, the reigning downhill Junior World Champion replied, "Not really, just give no f--ks and send it."
Clearly, the strategy, or lack thereof, worked.
"I rode [the course] last year for the first time, and then [to win] this year, I'm stoked," he said. "[There were] so many good whips, I wasn't expecting anything."
New Zealand's Billy Meaclem, also 19, finished in second, with American Ryan Howard following in third.
Check back for more results to find out how Whistler locals fared.
