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Persistence pays off for Lacondeguy

Double backflip nets $15,000 as Crankworx goes into overdrive
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Another First U.K. Rider Lance Mcdermott does a no-hand front flip off the Kokanee kicker on Saturday, landing another first for Crankworx. Photo by Justa Jeskova, coastphoto.com

One of the world’s biggest bike festivals is also one of the busiest, with one or more events taking place every day for the second half of Crankworx. With the world’s best mountain bike riders in the start gate for every event, the races came down to hundredths of a second, while the judged events came down to fractions of points.

Some of the highlights include: Andreu Lacondeguy finally nailing the double backflip at the top of the slopestyle and celebrating all the way to the bottom; Greg Minnaar stopping mid-race in the finals of the Giant Slalom to make sure fellow racer Brian Lopes was okay after a crash; Lopes three-peating in the Air Downhill; Greg Watts’s unbelievable flip-whip in the VW Big Trick contest; the surprising performance of Kelowna’s Casey Groves; Sam Hill blowing the field away in the Canadian Open DH, Rachel Atherton outracing the boys in the first ever Death Ride after the Canadian Open DH, and trials rider John Tester’s nearly perfect lines on a challenging course.

Jim Beam Air Downhill

A-Line is one of the busiest and burliest bike trails in the world with over 200 features — berms, jumps, step-ups and step-downs from top to bottom.

The Air Downhill is also one of the longest running downhill events in Whistler, and this year attracted a field of over 300 riders.

All eyes were on Brian Lopes, one of the world’s top four-cross racers, and the reigning champion of the event for the previous two Crankworx festivals. Lopes did not disappoint, as the last rider down the course on Wednesday.

His time was four minutes, 22.1 seconds, edging out Greg Minnaar of South Africa who was previously in the hot seat with a 4:23.42. Whistler’s Chris Kovarik, who had a solid Crankworx all around, was third in 4:27.60.

“A-Line is a really great trail to ride, but when it comes to racing on it, you need to be on point,” said Lopes. “It’s a technical race and with the levels of riders here, every mistake counts.”

For the pro women, Whistler’s Rebecca McQueen placed first in 4:51.05, followed by Micayla Gatto of West Vancouver in 4:51.82 and Stephanie Nychka of Alberta third in 4:53.59. Showing how much home field advantage played, World Cup stars Fionn Griffiths and Anneke Beerten were fourth and fifth respectively.

Squamish riders Jessica Allouche and Lauren Rosser were first and second in Junior Amateur Women 13 to 18, with Holly Feniak of Sechelt in third.

Carolyn Kavanagh of North Vancouver won Senior Amateur Women 19-Plus, followed by Jerusha Millar of Vancouver and Emma Lewis of Australia.

Nick Geddes of West Vancouver — and Whistler in the summer months — won the Boys 13 to 15 category by almost two seconds, followed by Luke Stevens of Calgary and Cullen Watson of Surrey. The top Whistler rider was Andrew Doarty, eighth out of 46 riders.

Columbia’s Marcelo Gutierrez won the Junior Amateur Men 16 to 18 race in 4:37.10, edging out Whistler’s Tyler Allison by 0.68 seconds. Kyle McDonald was third out of almost 70 riders in 4:38.34.

In Master Amateur Men 30-Plus, Mathieu Hebert and Adam Wright of Whistler were first and second, while Matt Patterson of Snoqualmie, Washington picked up third place out of 40 racers.

Whistler’s James McSkimming won the Senior Amateur Men 19 to 29 race by almost 11 seconds, beating out Whistler’s Mike Hickman and Tim Pearson. There were 66 riders in the category.

In the 4 Wheel category, Whistler’s Stacey Kohut took a break from commentating the races to continue his unbeaten streak in the Air Downhill. Blair Jones of Kamloops was second.

Complete results are available online at www.crankworx.com.

VW Trick Showdown

The VW Trick Showdown was a new event to Crankworx, and involved riders tricking out a dirt jump at the top of the Boneyard and the “Kokannee Kicker” at the bottom of the mountain. Each stage had a first place prize of $3,000, plus another $1,000 in cash for the announcers to present to the riders as a reward for going big.

This year it would take a combination trick to win, as riders broke out 360 variations with tabletops or bar spins, can-cans to supermans, and superman backflips, but the trick that people will be talking about until next year was Greg Watts’s step down flip-whip on the Kokanee box — the first ever on a step-down jump.

“I knew the first time I saw the jump that it was perfect for it, so why not?” he said. “I’ve done it on (dirt jump) doubles, but off a drop it’s a lot different — less air time, a different rotation because you’re going down most of the time, but it was all right.”

It was so good that most of the other top competitors stopped jumping in the second round of competition, saving their bikes and bodies for the slopestyle on Saturday.

The other $3,000 prize went to Casey Groves of Kelowna on the top dirt jump, who won his spot in Crankworx with a win at the Boneyard Air Affair two months ago. His trick was a quadruple pendulum, where he swung his legs to either side of his seat four times.

The $3,000 in prize money, plus $350 in extra cash, represented the first time he earned money riding his bike. He also accomplished it with very little practice.

“All of our dirt jumps got plowed in Kelowna so there’s nowhere to ride,” he said. “Basically I’ve spent the summer partying with friends, going to the beach, and shitting bricks about Crankworx. I’ve never won money before, so it was mind-blowing.”

Groves was also invited to the Bear Claw Invitational this weekend at Mt. Washington by organizer and competitor Darren Berrecloth.

“That was the highlight of my life,” he said. “He’s always been one of my favourite riders, and to be publicly invited to his comp in front of the whole crowd was just amazing.”

Giant Slalom

The rules were the same for the Giant Slalom as for the Telus Dual Slalom the previous week — two riders go head to head on a dirt course, switch lines after the first run to keep things fair, and the rider with the lowest combined time moves on to the next round.

But while the rules were the same, the course was longer, more technical and had bigger features. Several riders crashed and Whistler’s James McSkimming was injured severely enough when he flatted his front tire that he was airlifted to Vancouver. McSkimming still placed second in the Senior Amateur Men 19 to 29 category, and crashed in his final dual against Chris Beverland. It was the end of a strong Crankworx for McSkimming, who placed in every event he entered.

The event itself ended with a crash, as Brian Lopes and Greg Minnaar faced off in the second run of the final. Lopes had a 0.11 seconds lead on Minnaar, and both riders got off to a shaky start. Lopes caught up to Minnaar in the middle section, but went down hard in a corner about two thirds of the way down.

Minnaar got off his bike to check on Lopes, and didn’t finish his run until Lopes waved him on. A battered Lopes still made it to the podium to collect his well-earned cheque.

In the small final Gee Atheron of England beat Guido Tschugg of Germany.

Whistler’s Chris Kovarik made the quarterfinals, but was knocked out by Atherton.

On the women’s side, Anneke Beerten of The Netherlands — winner of the Telus Dual Slalom — got off to a fast start against Sheryl McLeod of New Zealand, to earn her second win of Crankworx. Helene Fruhwirth of Austria edged out Lorraine Blancher of Revelstoke in the small final to place third.

In Senior Amateur Women 19 and Over, Casey Brown was first, followed by Tanya Grunsky.

Luke Stevens won the Boys 13 to 15 race, followed by Whistler’s Andrew Doraty. Kyle Walstrom edged out Brad Zdriluk for third.

Mike August won the Junior Amateur Men 16 to 18 race, followed by Colton King. Todd Castonguay beat Alex Poulin in the consolation round to take third.

In Master Amateur Men 30-Plus, Jason Halverson was first, followed by Cory Leclerc. Matt Patterson was third, edging Brian Onofrichuk in the consolation final.

Monster Energy Slopestyle

It was three times a charm for Spanish rider Andreu Lacondeguy at the Monster Energy Slopestyle on Saturday. With a crowd of 15,000 looking on and a spot secured in the finals, Lacondeguy decided he had nothing to lose by attempting a double backflip on the top air.

On his third and last attempt it literally paid off with a perfect landing, and Lacondeguy celebrated with an exuberant run to the bottom that was exceptional in its own way (foot plant over the Monster snake, a backflip x-up over the wood kicker, a flat spin 360, a superman, and a backflip onto the Kokanee kicker for a superman variation). The judges gave Lacondeguy a score of 94.3 out of a possible 100, and an insurmountable lead.

“I’ve been working on that trick for a long time, and I crashed twice but knew I was really close to getting it,” he said. “It’s a really hard trick to pull off, it’s super risky. You have to spin really fast, and it’s easy to over-rotate or run out of speed in your second flip. It took a few tries but I landed it. I’m so stoked right now.”

Lacondeguy earned $15,000 for his run, and wondered what it would take to win next year.

“Every guy here today was amazing, and I know everybody is working on new tricks to bring to the next contest. I was just so excited to be out there with everyone, putting on a show, having fun with the crowd. I could have done another run (without the double backflip), but I knew I was close to nailing it and that I was going to keep on doing it until I got it. Everything or nothing.”

Second place went to British rider Lance Mcdermott, who put together a run with two front flips. The second front flip was off the Kokanee kicker, which he attempted after landing a backflip to get onto the box.

“This was a good result for me,” he said. “I’ve never landed that trick off a drop, but I knew I could do it so I decided to go for it and get the bike under me. I really didn’t want to miss, because you can’t see the landing. My whole run was about that trick, I just wanted a really clean run so I could get to the bottom and huck it. I’m happy.

“Every person that rode had a really good run, they did what they wanted to do, and everybody is happy.”

Mcdermott scored a 91.5 and won $8,000 for second place.

Third place, for the second year in a row, went to Whistler’s Brandon Semenuk. He didn’t have a huge trick like Lacondeguy or Mcdermott, but easily posted the most technically perfect run of the day with a different trick on every feature.

“That was my goal, to trick everything and to step up the tricks with every run,” he said. “I’m stoked that I got all the runs I wanted. I had some other stuff in mind, something bigger, but really I just wanted to get on the podium so I played a little safe, and tried to make everything a big trick.”

Semenuk couldn’t believe how much the competition stepped up.

“Cameron (McCaul’s) run in the qualifier was really good, Cameron Zink made the biggest three (360) on the biggest drop on the course, and now double backflips in a contest. It’s insane.”

Semenuk earned a score of 89.8 and earned $4,500 for third place.

Canadian Open DH

Sam Hill showed why he is the reigning World Cup downhill champion, taking on a steep and fast Canadian Open Downhill course on Sunday. Hill’s time of three minutes, 9.6 seconds was 1.6 seconds faster than Gee Atherton of the U.K., while Whistler’s Chris Kovarik place third in 3:17.4.

“There were a few sections of the course I wasn’t happy with, but I managed to put it together on the last run to carry my speed through,” he said. “It was a tough course, really fast and technical in some sections, but I looked at it like I’d look at a World Cup race and pedaled hard through the fast sections, and tried to keep it smooth through the technical stuff.

“It’s been a long week of racing and everybody is a little tired. You really had to stay focused through the end.”

On the women’s side, Rachel Atherton was first in 3:45.8, followed by Tracy Moseley of the U.K. in 3:47.3. Katie Holden of Whistler edged out Claire Buchar for the bronze, with times of 4:01.1 and 4:01.5 respectively.

Lauren Rosser won the Amateur Junior Women’s race.

Dawn Cashen of Kelowna was first in Senior Amateur Women 19-Plus in 4:44.5, followed by Jamie Hill of Pemberton in 5:01.7 and Meghan Illingworth of Squamish in 5:03.9.

Luke Stevens of Calgary edged out Nicholas Geddes in Boys 13 to 15, 3:34.3 to 3:37.3. Linden Feniak was third in 3:45.8.

Adam Wright of Whistler won Amateur Master Men 30-Plus in 3:33.1, followed by Chris Dimbill of Australia in 3:37.1, and Joel Robinson of Australia in 3:43.0.

Yann Martin won Senior Amateur Men 19 to 29 in 3:29.0, followed by James Swinden in 3:32.3, and Tim Pearson in 3:35.8.

Marcelo Gutierrez of Columbia won the Amateur Junior Men 16 to 18 in 3:20.9, followed by Kyle Marshall in 3:29.7 and Chayse Marshall in 3:35.5.