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Crankworx 2011: a spectator's guide

Who to watch and where
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The thing about Crankworx is that it doesn't let up; it just builds and builds until the premiere Red Bull Joyride event on July 23 - and then it keeps going the next day with the revamped Canadian Open Enduro.

You may have noticed that the Crankworx festival jumps around the calendar, taking place in mid-August one year and in mid-July the next. That's not the result of any indecision on the part of the organizers, but rather an attempt to accommodate the always-different UCI World Cup schedule and national championships. They want the best in the world at the start gate when the tires hit the dirt, and they usually succeed.

This year the events get underway this Friday, July 15 and run straight through to July 24, with $164,000 in cash and prizes to be awarded. The biggest share of that is at Red Bull Joyride where $45,000 in prize money is up for grabs, including $25,000 for the overall winner.

As a spectator there's a lot to do and see. If you plan ahead you can probably catch everything. And while many races can be hard to watch because only the last few hundred metres of the course are visible from the village, a partnership with GoPro cameras will mean top to bottom coverage for two events this year, the Jeep Air Downhill and Canadian Open Downhill - a new element that will do more to bring spectators into the races.

And if you can't be there in person then you can watch every event online. Links are at www.crankworx.com, and events will be carried by Freecaster.tv and RedBull.tv, as well as PinkBike.com and other mountain bike sites.

 

July 15 - The main event Opening Day is the revival of the Fat Tire Criterium to Whistler, with mountain bikers going shoulder-to-shoulder on a closed 800-metre loop at Whistler Olympic Plaza. The women race first and the men second, with each race lasting around half an hour.

Each race gets underway with a mass start, but riders will be pulled off course that aren't keeping up or are getting lapped by the leaders. Eventually, only the top eight riders will remain to slug it out over the last five laps.

The cost is $30 to enter and to sweeten the pot there will be some prize money on the line - $2,800 for the top five men and $2,050 for the first five women, with five $100 primes per race handed out on designated laps.

If you've never witnessed a criterium in person, this is a must-see event. Come out to cheer on the riders.

If you want to take part, registration is open until 5 p.m. on Friday. The course is open for training from 5:30 to 6:25 p.m., with the women racing at 6:30 p.m.

After the event, the stage at Whistler Olympic Plaza will open for two live musical performances - Whistler's own Kostaman will open, followed by international recording star K'naan (who wrote the "Wavin' Flag" song that was the official song of the 2010 FIFA World Cup).

 

July 16 - The main event on Saturday is the now-annual dual slalom, an event that joined Crankworx three years ago and has quickly become an annual tradition. The course features two parallel courses in the Boneyard at the base of Whistler Mountain, packed with berms, bumps, jumps, gates and other features. There's $8,500 up for grabs this year.

The time trials take place from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., where riders get two timed runs down the course to try and qualify for the finals. The amateur finals run from 3 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and the pro finals from 6 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.

The format in the finals is head-to-head racing between two riders. The rider with the lowest combined time after two runs - switching courses after the first run to keep things even between - moves on to the next round until just two riders remain to contend for first place.

This is a spectator-friendly event, and the entire course is visible from start to finish. It's exciting to watch close races and riders closing the gap on their second run, and it's never over until both riders cross the finish line.

There are also two concerts to catch afterwards at Whistler Olympic Plaza with Current Swell at 8 p.m. and indie champions Hot Hot Heat from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

 

July 17 - The main bike event of the day is the Canadian Open Downhill, a World Cup-style downhill race with traditional rock gardens, rock faces, pedal sections, jumps, tight tree sections and more.

The Canadian Open DH kicks off the downhill component of the festival, with three downhill race events in four days -the Garbanzo Downhill on Tuesday and the Jeep Air Downhill on Wednesday. There is $8,000 in prize money in the pot for each event.

The course starts off on Joyride, crosses under lift tower below Schleyer drop, continues down the Fitzsimmons Chair lift line until it reconnects with Joyride and down Heckler's Rock (one of the best on-mountain places to watch if you're up for the hike or have a bike park pass). Next up is the road gap, which brings riders to the top of the Canadian Open Downhill route and a new finish feature built for this year.

Registration is open to all riders aged 13 and older, and spots were still available at press time. Amateur categories ride from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., followed by the pros from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

While the top World Cup racers will likely make an appearance, all eyes will be on Nanaimo's Steve Smith. Smith is having the best season of any Canadian in recent downhill World Cup history and comes into Crankworx ranked fourth in the UCI standings - behind Aaron Gwin, Gee Atherton and Greg Minnaar, and ahead of riders like Danny Hart, Sam Blenkinslop, Brook Macdonald and Steve Peat.

Other solid racers to watch for include Andrew Mitchell, Chris Kovarik (an Australian who lives part-time in Canada), Kyle Sangers, Dean Tennant and Remi Gauvin - and you can never count out local riders that know the course forwards and backwards.

On the women's side, top Canadians to watch for include North Shore rider Micayla Gatto, ranked 15th in the world, Squamish riders Miranda Miller and world junior champion Lauren Rosser, and local athletes like Claire Buchar (on hiatus from the World Cup this year), Sarah Leishman and many others.

 

July 19 - The annual Garbanzo Downhill is one of the longest and most technical races of its kind in the world with roughly 1,100-metres of descent on a course that demands all of a riders' skills and fitness to complete. The top men take over 13 minutes from top to bottom, and the top women around 15 minutes.

Work crews had to physically shove snow off the top of the course to get it ready for Crankworx, but as of this week most of the Garbanzo zone is open for riders.

The course is the same as last year - Original Sin to Dave Murray Flats, Blue Velvet, In Deep, Container, No Joke, Duffman, Golden Triangle, World Cup Singletrack, Ho Chi Min, Longhorn and Monkey Hands to the finish feature.

$8,000 in prize money is up for grabs.

The best place to watch is at the bottom of the course as riders literally collapse from exhaustion. If you can get up the course there are lots of places to watch, including the junction where riders go from Original Sin to Blue Velvet, the exit of In Deep, the Golden Triangle exit, the exit from World Cup Singletrack, the flats at the bottom of Ho Chi Min, etc.

 

July 20 - The Jeep Air Downhill is a Whistler classic on the iconic A-Line trail, following a route with over 100 features - berms, tables, drops, step-ups, step-downs, etc. There are so many features that it's a challenge for riders to fit in more than a few pedals in between features, with the result that chainless riders during Phat Wednesday races aren't that far behind their chained friends. A sold-out field of 400 riders takes on the course every year.

American rider Brian Lopes has won the event the previous five years, and will be in the field once again to defend his title. The women's title will be closely contested as well. Last year Lopes finished in four minutes and 15 seconds and French rider Anne Caroline Chausson - not racing this year - was at the finish 23 seconds later.

There are cameras all over the course and a live broadcast in the village on the official Crankworx screens.

 

July 21 - Thursday is a busy day for freeriders with the Red Bull Joyride qualifying taking place in the Boneyard from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. The invite list includes 16 world-class mountain bike freeriders that are competing for one of six spots in the finals.

It's followed by the Teva Best Trick Showdown, where 25 invited riders - including many of the same athletes from the Joyride qualifier - session different features of the slopestyle course. $10,000 is up for grabs.

Performance in the Teva Best Trick Showdown also counts towards the selection of those six riders for Red Bull Joyride. The two features in play for the showdown are the large step-up booter near the top of the course and the Kokanee Cabin at the bottom.

This is an easy event to watch. You might want to hike up to watch the first feature, but the second feature is visible at the bottom of the mountain.

While the crowds won't be as big as the Red Bull Joyride on Saturday there could easily be over 10,000 spectators watching.

July 22 - The main event on Friday is the Giant Slalom, sponsored by Giant Bicycles. In the past the format has been head-to-head, but to avoid crashes on the course the organizers are going with a single rider format this year. The winner will be the rider with the lowest two-run time on the course, which incorporates huge berms, rhythm sections and lots of different airs. The prize purse is $8,000.

Amateurs race from 11:45 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the pros from 4:45 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Friday is also the start of the Kidsworx and Trialworx schedule, which includes trials riding workshops for kids and contests for all ages. On the first day, all of the action is by the gazebo at Town Plaza. Kidsworx for kids 10 and under is from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., followed by the Beginner and Sport categories.

 

July 23 - This is a big day for biking, with Trialsworx Expert, Master and Elite athletes competing from 10 a.m. to noon at locations in and around the village. Mill Bay's John Webster, seventh in the world championships last year, should be on hand to defend his Trialworx title. If you've never watched a trials competition or seen Webster compete, it's nothing short of incredible.

From noon to 4 p.m., the fourth annual Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival will take place at Base II, with hundreds of people chasing wheels of cheese down a steep slope. It's free to enter and the top male and female each win two season passes to Whistler Blackcomb. There are also competitions for the kids, cheese sampling and other fun events to keep the crowds entertained between the downhill heats.

But the big event - the biggest event of its kind in the world - is the Red Bull Joyride. Between 20,000 and 25,000 spectators are expected to be on hand to watch it live, and at least as many tuning in online.

Red Bull enlisted the athletes to help design the course this year with the goal of representing all types of freeriding - big mountain riding, North-Shore-style riding, dirt jumping, cliff drops, urban riding, wood stunts and more. While you need to be a pro just to get to the bottom of the course in one piece, the top athletes in the world will also be looking to add tricks at every opportunity; back flips, double backflips, front flips, tail whips, flip whips, rodeos, 360s, switch 360s, 720s, superman airs, superman seat grabs, x-ups, can-cans, and every combination of tricks that you can imagine. There's no shortage of videos on YouTube if you want to discover what mountain bike slopestyle is all about.

Every rider in the competition is capable of winning it, but Whistler's own Brandon Semenuk is coming in as the favourite. He is currently leading the Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour standings with wins at Jump Ship, 26Trix and the Claymore Challenge, and a fourth place finish at Chatel Mountain. He was one of the leading riders at Crankworx in 2010, but under-rotated his backflip on the last feature and had to pull out of the finals with an injury.

Other B.C. riders to watch include Casey Groves, who was third last year; veteran Darren Berrecloth, Mitch Chubey (fifth in world) and Geoff Gulevich (seventh in world).

 

July 24 - Last, but certainly not least, is the Canadian Open Enduro. While this isn't a new event, the format has been completely changed to mirror European-style enduro events.

Riders (and registration is open to everyone) will ride five downhill courses during the competition, and will be ranked by their cumulative time. They have to ride from the bottom of each course to the top of the next within a certain time limit, but that part of the ride isn't timed.

 

All of the events except for Joyride and the Best Trick Showcase are open to everyone 13 and older, and registration is available online at www.crankworx.com.

If you're a spectator, there's also more to do than watch events.

The Deep Summer Photo Challenge is at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20 with six photographers showing off what their pictures from the previous three days.

The Ryan Leach Trials Show will be in the village doing daily shows at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on July 20, July 21 and July 24, and shows at noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on July 22 and July 23.

For parties there is the Kokanee Aftershock party at the Longhorn, which includes daily DJ shows, the Kokanee Silent Disco on Friday, July 22 at 9 p.m. at the GLC and the Kokanee After Party on Saturday, July 23 at 9 p.m. at the GLC.

As well, there's the Joyride at Night parties starting on July 19 at 8 p.m. The party moves from venue to venue - GLC, Moe Joe's, Tommy Africa's and Garfinkel's, with the official Joyride after-party at Merlin's on Saturday night.

The village will also be a busy place with demo tents, expo tents and a heavy presence by sponsors.