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Crankworx rolls into Whistler

World’s best on deck for nine days of competition

In the world of mountain biking, Whistler occupies a special place at the top.

Not only is the town the epicentre for lift-assisted mountain biking, with a bike park and model that resorts around the world are trying to match, it’s also on the forefront of freeriding, and the birthplace of the mountain bike slopestyle. In the five years since the first slopestyle even was held, contests have cropped up around the world to create an actual tour for the top athletes. Whistler’s event is still the biggest, drawing an estimated 15,000 spectators to the base of the mountain.

Whistler is also home to the world’s biggest mountain bike club, WORCA, with more than 1,000 members each year, and there are more than 300 km of trails to enjoy in the valley, including 160 km of singletrack. The Bike Park adds another 200 km of lift-serviced trails, and is constantly being upgraded and expanded.

For nine days in August, Aug. 9 to 17, Whistler celebrates mountain biking with the Kokanee Crankworx freeride mountain bike festival. That’s nine days of music, expos, demos, and industry parties, but the main attraction has always been the events.

This year the festival features 10 bike events, with three downhill races, three slopestyle/trick contests, two dual slaloms, a trials competition, and a team cross country race. This year there is a cash purse of $70,000 available for the pro riders, plus a huge number of prizes for competitors racing in the age categories.

For good measure, Crankworx also features the debut of the Canadian Cheese Rolling Championship — competitors rolling two wheels of specialty cheeses down the slopes at the base of Blackcomb.

Registration for most events is available online at www.crankworx.com, or by going straight to the Karelo site at www.karelo.com.

 

Aug. 9 — Dual Slalom

The first dual slalom event of the competition takes place from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the base of Whistler Mountain on the new Double Vision course. The contest is open to everybody, with a prize purse of $6,500 for the top four pro men and pro women. The competition is extremely spectator friendly, as riders make their way down through a set of parallel gates to the finish. Each pairing of riders goes twice, once in each lane, and the rider with the lowest combined time moves on to the next round.

 

Aug. 10 — Garbanzo DH, Ken Quon Ride On

The Monster Energy Garbanzo Downhill is one of the longest downhill races in the world, as riders descend more than 1,000 vertical metres and 10 km of trails in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. Reigning World Cup downhill champion Sam Hill took more than 14 and a half minutes to reach the bottom last year in wet and slippery conditions, and was clocked in one section at about 63 km/h.

Kids as young as 13 take part, with the competition getting underway at 4:30 p.m. The pro riders will split a prize purse of $6,500 while the winners in the age categories will win prizes donated by Crankworx sponsors.

The Ken Quon Ride On is the only cross-country race of the festival, with a family ride, a recreational ride, and a team race event, all taking place out of Riverside Campground. This is the third year for the event, which has been raising money to purchase life-saving monitoring equipment for local ambulance crews.

The format for the race event is simple — pair up with someone, male or female, and then you each make three laps of the race course in Lost Lake. The team with the lowest combined time wins the category. While some groups will be competitive, the majority will be racing for fun.

The after party includes a barbecue, silent auction, and other events and activities to raise money for the cause. More information is available at www.kenquonrideon.com.

 

Aug. 11-12 — Womenzworx

Back for a second year, Womenzworx includes hugely discounted clinics in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park, 100 free lift tickets each day to the first 100 women at the base of the mountain, and a judged Gala Competition event. The Gala Competition has four stations where riders can be judged — Technical Descent, Air, Jump and Slopestyle. At each station riders will be judged on style, fluidity, tricks, amplitude, and creativity/originality. The top riders will share a $3,200 prize purse.

 

Aug. 13 — Jim Beam Air Downhill

One of the longest running and fastest events in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park, the Air Downhill is a high-speed race down Whistler’s A-Line trail — easily one of the most popular and most ridden trails in the world. The trail features more than 100 jumps and features from top to bottom, and the fastest riders take just over four minutes to reach the finish line. The event is capped at about 200 riders, and always sells out.

The race runs from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. and the top pros will divide up a prize purse of $6,000.

 

Aug. 14 — VW Trick Showdown

This is a new event for 2008, with a list of invited riders going toe-to-toe in the Boneyard at the base of Whistler Mountain to see who can land the best trick. The format is two 45-minute jam sessions on two different features, with judges giving a score for every trick landed. The first feature is a wooden jib and quarterpipe, and the second feature is the grand finale in the slopestyle — a step up jump onto a wood ramp with a very aggressive jump at the end.

The contest runs from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., with $8,000 in cash up for grabs. The overall winner will get a big cheque for $6,000, while the announcer will be presenting $1,000 for each feature in “Let’s Make a Deal” style, awarding riders cash in increments of $20 to $100 for impressing the crowd.

 

Aug. 15 — Giant Slalom, Kidsworx

Giant Bicycles is sponsoring this new dual slalom event, which will take place on a different, and much bigger course than the dual slalom earlier in the week. The format is the same, with riders going head-to-head in two runs, switching courses between runs to keep things fair, and the riders with the fastest combined times moving on to the next round.

The event is wide open to the masses, and the prize purse is $6,500 for the top four pro men and pro women.

Kidsworx is the first of two trials biking competitions, this one geared to kids 10 and under. Participants will follow three short courses around the village, seeing who can complete different lines without touching their feet down. The riders with fewest dabs after the three lines are the winners.

 

Aug. 16 — Slopestyle, Trialsworx

The main event of Crankworx for the past five years is the Monster Energy Slopestyle, which takes place in the Boneyard at the base of Whistler Mountain. The event is invite-only, with a list of 27 riders taking part this year.

Competitors will have free reign to pick their own lines through the Boneyard, using the dirt jumps, rock drops and wooden features to their best ability. They will be judged on speed, air, the degree of difficulty of their tricks, their ability to link tricks, style, and creativity. Around 15,000 spectators will line the course on all sides, with screens at the bottom so people can see entire runs.

Each rider will get two runs in the qualifier, with the top-eight advancing to the two-run final.

The prize purse is $30,000, with the overall winner taking a cheque for $15,000.

The competition gets going at 6 p.m., and should wrap up around 8:30 p.m.

The main Trialsworx event is a trials competition, with up to 100 of the best trials riders in Canada and from around the world expected to take part. Participants will face off on six different lines, three in the village and three in Fitzsimmons Creek near Ross Rebagliati Park. Depending on age categories, the competition will run from about 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

If you’ve never seen a trials competition, prepare to be amazed as riders hop, bounce, jump, pedal and drop their bikes up, down and around obstacles that most people would have trouble walking. Like Kidsworx, riders get penalty points for every dab, and the winners are the riders that put their feet down the fewest times while riding the six competition lines.

 

Aug. 17 — Canadian Open DH

This is a classic downhill race, as riders challenge a World Cup calibre course through the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. Most of the top World Cup racers will be in the start gates, as well as amateur riders of all ages.

The course is technical, following Joyride to a new line under the Fitzsimmons Chair, back onto Joyride, over the Monkey Hands, and over a new feature at the bottom to the finish line.

Competitors only get one run of the course, with a prize purse of $6,000 for the pro riders.