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Crankworx starts with a bang

Huge crowds for opening events; freeride festival continues through Sunday
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okaaaaaayyyy! Riders show off their whip skills on Tuesday at the (un)Official Whip Off World Champs, a new event for Crankworx Whistler. Photo by Blake Jorgensen

While some might say the best is still to come, the opening to Crankworx Whistler has been pretty spectacular already with a huge crowd at Whistler Olympic Plaza for the Fat Tire Crit, the sold-out Canadian Open Enduro and the debut of two new events — the Dual Speed and Style presented by Avid on Saturday night and the (un)Official Whip-Off World Championships on Tuesday to a big audience of freeride fans. Wednesday's Air Downhill was also sold out (results to be posted next week).

The competitions continue tonight (Thursday, Aug. 16) with the Teva Best Trick Showdown at the base of Whistler Mountain from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., followed by the Ultimate Pump Track Challenge presented by Rock Shox at Whistler Olympic Plaza at 8 p.m. Friday is the Giant Dual Slalom and the start of Kidsworx/Trialsworx, Saturday is the Canadian Cheese Rolling Championships and Red Bull Joyride — the biggest slopestyle contest of the year with a $47,250 prize purse — and Sunday is the Jeep Canadian Open DH, which promises to be one of the biggest downhill races of the season with a prize purse of $30,000.

For more information and live webcasts, visit www.crankworx.com.

Here's what's transpired so far:

American riders top Fat Tire Crit

Strategy was key in the opening Fat Tire Crit event of Crankworx Whistler this year, with both winners having small crashes and coming from behind to take the titles.

The women went first, racing for 15 minutes plus three laps around an 800-metre loop of Whistler Olympic Plaza that included cobblestone sections, some gravel, some tight turns, a chicane and a wood ramp/jump feature.

A lead group of national and World Cup-level cross-country racers took over early, and at about the halfway mark Jean Ann Berkenpas made a break that looked like it might last. She had about eight seconds on the field at one point, but the chase group, with the ability to draft and conserve energy, bridged up to Berkenpas in the final few minutes.

With three laps remaining, Oregon's Kelli Emmett — an all-mountain world champion — pulled into the lead, and held onto it to the finish. New Zealand cross-country champion Rosara Joseph was second and Berkenpas, who won two primes, rallied to place third.

If she had a strategy, it quickly went out the window for Emmett.

"I went too fast to catch that first prime, and then I needed to sit back and recover after that. Then I clipped my pedal in the corner and took myself out. That bumped me back to fifth, but I slowly worked my way back up," she said.

"I was just trying to make jumps, keep up to the other girls. "I got a bit nervous riding with four other girls, I didn't want to crash in one of the turns or something, so I pulled away as soon as I could."

The highlight for Emmett was the crowd, which lined the entire course on both sides and came armed with cowbells and noisemakers.

"It was awesome," she said. "There were a lot of people here and that made it really fun. I don't get to race crits, or in front of this many people that often."

Interestingly, the winner of the men's event also rallied from a fall.

Carl Decker, another all-mountain champion, took over the men's race at about seven minutes in to the 20-minute plus five-lap race and never looked back. At one point he built a lead of 13 seconds over the rest of the pack, which held together for most of the race but split up in the final laps.

Cody Canning placed second, while Sid Taberlay, a five-time Australian champion, rallied back from a huge crash — and the threat of being lapped by the pace motorcycle — to bridge up to the chase pack and even take the lead for a few laps near the end.

For Decker, taking the lead early was the safest strategy.

"I thought that was the safest way to do it," he said. "It was a little hectic out there with all these guys going for it. The first chance I got, I took it — I'm always better off when I get out by myself and nobody can follow me."

Both Emmett and Decker are sponsored by Giant.

Clementz, Strand take Enduro titles

The Canadian Open Enduro wrapped up in Whistler Village on Saturday afternoon, after a sometimes hellish day for racers in the sold-out event.

The race included four timed singletrack sections with an emphasis on downhill skills. The first stage was basically Crank It Up, both Upper and Lower sections, before heading out to Lost Lake Park and a mix of Central Scrutinizer, followed by Treacherous Cretins, Toads of the Short Forest, Gee I like Your Pants, Son of Mr. Green Genes and Jelly Roll Gum Drop. Next up was the climb up to Golden Boner followed by Roam in the Loam, across the fire road to the Magic Trails and down to Blackcomb Base. The final stage started at the peak of Whistler and included Top of the World, No Joke, Little Alder, Expressway, Too Tight, Angry Pirate, Samurai Pizza Cat, up B Line Connector to Colbeck's Rock, Lower Whistler DH, Lower Hornet and GLC Drops.

On the men's side, French enduro star Jerome Clementz — in town on holiday before he found out about the event and decided to enter — took the win with a combined time of 36 minutes, 46.23 seconds, 35.1 seconds ahead of Curtis Keene and 46.2 ahead of Brian Lopes.

Dan Atherton and Aaron Bradford rounded out the top five. The climbing sections weren't timed but with tight schedules in before stages two and three it might as well have been.

"This morning we knew before we started that it would be tight, but it was really, really tight," said Clementz. "Between Crank It Up and Lost Lake, I didn't stop, I kept racing and I made it to the next start with one minute to go."

Clementz's favourite section was the last, starting with the new Top of the World trail from the peak, and all the different styles of training towards the bottom. It also helped to be going into the last section in first place.

"In Europe they have really long stages, so coming in I knew I could do well on the last section."

He earned $2,500 for his efforts.

On the women's side, Whistler's own Katrina Strand took the win in 45:23.52, followed by New Zealand's Rosara Joseph 2:02.98 later and Katherine Short of the Sunshine Coast a minute and 40 seconds after that. Kelli Emmett and Megan Rose rounded out the top five.

Strand also raced hard to make her start times.

"It was hard," she said. "I didn't stop racing from stage one to the end of stage three. I knew the transitions were going to be pretty tight, but I almost missed the start time for stage two. It was really one of the hardest cross-country races I've been in, in a way. The first two stages I was falling all over the place, so i was pretty happy to get to the last stage in the park."

Although she's a former national downhill champion, racing the Enduro course on a cross-country bike made things a little more interesting. "What I did was make my cross-country bike a little bigger — bigger tires, a bigger fork, which made me a little more confident to let my bike go a little more. And I loved the Top of the World trail to start (the last stage), it was pretty new to us, but it was so awesome to be up there."

Results (Top 3 only)

Amateur Women 19-Plus

1. Michelle Dignon — 52:42.82

2. Sam Shook — 55:06.75

3. Genevieve McKew — 58:19.90

Boys 13 to 15

1. Jack Iles — 41:57.35

2. Galen Carter — 46:03.28

Junior Men 16 to 18

1. Spencer Wight — 48:43.65

2. Mahon Lamont — 54:37.88

3. Jordan Hodder — 58:55.83

Master Amateur Men 30-Plus

1. Greg Grant — 41:28.89

2. Nick Gibson — 41:40.65

3. Andrew Gunn — 42:31.91

Senior Amateur Men 19 to 29

1. Shaun Fry — 39:51.32

2. Berend Boer — 41:29.30

3. Adam Bowey — 41:47.07

Pro Women

1. Katrina Strand — 45:23.52

2. Rosara Joseph — 47:26.50

3. Katherine Short — 49:04.93

Pro Men

1. Jerome Clementz — 36:46.23

2. Curtis Keene — 37:21.33

3. Brian Lopes — 37:32.50

Fairclough takes inaugural Dual Speed and Slalom

British rider Brendan Fairclough caught a few lucky breaks on the way to the podium of the inaugural Dual Speed and Style presented by Avid on Saturday night, with a huge crowd of fans lining the course to watch some of the top freeriders in the world face off.

The course was similar to a dual slalom with riders going head-to-head on a course that included jumps and berms, with a few added features thrown in — namely a wall ride, and a few bigger jumps where riders could throw tricks.

The race is timed, but riders could earn deductions by throwing the biggest trick on each feature. If you had the best tricks you could deduct up to 1.2 seconds from your time, and still win even if you were second to the finish line.

At the end there were just two riders remaining: Brendan Fairclough and Andreu Lacondeguy. Lacondeguy had the style while Fairclough had the speed — and a bit of luck.

Lacondeguy disqualified himself after he missed the mandatory wall ride. His two backflips were easily the best tricks, but he also crashed in the gates in a cloud of dust that covered him from head to toe. He also scraped his arm in the fall, but didn't seem too concerned — and fans can probably expect him to be at the Teva Best Trick Showdown and Red Bull Joyride.

Fairclough was excited by his win: "I got lucky in a few (heats), but I rode hard and had a good day," he said. "It was a shame for Kyle (Strait), a shame for Andreu, but I needed some love.

Fairclough noted that he wasn't picked to race for Great Britain at the UCI World Mountain Bike Championships, and was focusing his efforts on the Jeep Canadian Open DH on Sunday, which offers a $10,000 prize for first place and one of the biggest cash purses in the world this year.

Kyle Strait won the small final against Martin Soderstrom to claim third place. Prize money included $2,500 for first, $1,500 for second, $1,000 for third and $500 for fourth.

Smith fastest in Garbanzo DH

First, three B.C. women thrilled Crankworx fans. Then Whistler rider Steve Smith took the excitement up a notch by winning the men's Garbanzo Downhill race on day three of the mountain bike festival.

Casey Brown of Revelstoke rode the 12k course down Whistler Mountain in 14 minutes and 28 seconds to knock Whistler's Claire Buchar off the top of the leader board and Brown's time held to the end.

Miranda Miller of Squamish was the 16th rider down the course, one spot behind Brown and her time put her in second spot, bumping Buchar down to third place.

Brown's time was a full nine seconds faster than Buchar's winning time in 2011.

A total of 80 men rode in the professional category and it was the 80th person down the track who stole the show.

While the men's event was missing some of the usual top World Cup racers, the women's event featured a couple of top French riders — Emmeline Ragot and Myriam Nicole, who are currently ranked second and third in the world.

Smith, from Nanaimo, thrilled the crowd by ripping down the racecourse and his time was fast enough to knock Marcelo Gutierrez Villegas of Columbia from toppodium position. Whistler's Chris Kovarik held that top spot for about ten minutes but he lost it when the Columbian bumped him. Smith's time was 12:33.27.

Mark Wallace of Duncan held the top spot for much of the competition and at the end of the day he finished in fifth place.

Smith thanked his sponsors and the Whistler fans for cheering him on.

"This is the first I have had a clean run in competition on Garbanzo and I took the win," said Smith. "It is a long race so you don't absolutely 'kill' anything. I just kept a good pace all the way; I wasn't really slow and I wasn't really fast."

Not a bad strategy, as most races at the World Cup level where Smith competes are between three and five minutes, while the Garbanzo drop was over 1,100 metres and 12 kilometres in length.

Smith arrived in Whistler a few weeks ago to prepare for Crankworx, with an eye on the Canadian Open DH on Sunday, and the $10,000 first prize purse.

Results (Top 3 only)

Junior Women

1. Camila Noguiera — 18:44.74

Amateur Women 19-Plus

1. Lina Skoglund — 16:28.11

2. Genevieve McKew — 16:40.94

3. Alyssa Lyons — 16:42.61

Boys 13 to 15

1. Jack Iles — 13:31.86

2. Rhys Verner — 14:24.05

3. Felipe Swerts — 14:43.08

Junior Men 16 to 18

1. Zander Geddes — 13:41.89

2. Lee Jackson — 13:52.94

3. Martin Jijon Villalba — 14:00.93

Master Amateur Men

1. Jesse Murphy — 13:35.46

2. Tim Coleman — 14:02.02

3. Steve Murphy — 14:04.72

Senior Amateur Men

1. Jeremias Maio — 13:37.22

2. Nick Herbert — 13:41.61

3. Denis Courchesne — 13:43.19

Pro Women

1. Casey Brown — 14:28.74

2. Miranda Miller — 14:31.97

3. Claire Buchar — 14:32.00

Pro Men

1. Steve Smith — 12:33.27

2. Marcelo Gutierrez Villegas — 12:38.75

3. Chris Kovarik — 12:48.67

Tyler McCaul takes tail whip title

While Tyler McCaul is perfectly comfortably throwing backflips, tailwhips, double tailwhips, 360 tailwhips, he does a pretty nice whip as well.

At least the judges of the (un)Official Whip Off World Champs on Tuesday thought so. McCaul earned top points in the competition, followed by North Shore rider Thomas Vanderham and, tying for third, Cam Zink and Brendan Fairclough, who also won the prize for Best Overall Lines.

Whistler's Ian Morrison won the prize for the Lowest Whip/Scrub — kind of a signature move for the young rider — while Bernard Kerr won for Best Whip Not Brought Back (e.g. crash).

The whip is a stock move where riders push their back wheel out to one side while airborne. Riders can add variations by wiggling the bike in the air or by bring the bike up until it's parallel or steeper to the ground, and a few riders on Tuesday tried variations with flips and seat grabs.

The event was new to Crankworx, and while it took place up the mountain at the Crabapple Hits, hundreds of fans still turned out Tuesday afternoon to watch the action.

—With files from John French