Highlights from Crankworx Whistler 2013
The Crankworx festival schedule was packed with two-wheeled fun. Find out more about the events on during the 2013 festival:
Bud Light Crankworx Concert Series
A mountain festival in summer demands live music, and this year Crankworx included three freeconcerts in Whistler Olympic Plaxa.
August 9
Fat Tire Crit
When the dirt-adorned descend into Whistler Village with their mountain bikes for the Fat Tire Crit, it’s the nearest thing Whistler has to a Running of the Bulls – crowds pressed into a cobble-stoned circuit enlivened with unpredictable sprints, the snort of wild things out of their native environment being flushed through winding chicanes, and everyone’s pulses racing. Winning the Crit requires more tactical and technical mastery than savagery, making the Fat Tire Crit a crowd-pleaser, as racers fall prey to the “lap or be lapped and tapped out” law of rider Darwinism and fight right to the finish. Great opportunity to view the approximately 800 metre loop around the Whistler Olympic Plaza.
August 10
Dual Speed and Style
Love child of dual slalom and freestyle, the Speed and Style event is the ultimate window on the future of freeride. An invitational field of the best Dual Slalom racers will go head-to-head against slopestyle's superstars, racing through side-by-side tricked-out Dual Tracks. Fastest down wins the speed points. But speed doesn't trump style. Racers earn a time credit for style accrued via mid-race Supermans, backflips and spins.
August 11
SRAM Canadian Open Enduro presented by Specialized
A blend of epic Whistler trails, the rally-style mash-up of DH and XC riding in the Enduro rewards the generalist over the specialist. A sampler of the sweetest singletrack in Whistler, where racers must choose one bike to serve for all legs, ride without any outside assistance, and link up stages within a specific time allocation, but are only timed during the five competition stages. The SRAM Canadian Open Enduro is a stop on the Enduro World Series Tour - a test of endurance, versatility and all-round mastery.
August 13
Garbanzo DH
A vertical marathon. The Garbanzo DH is a gruel-fest, a magnet for masochists, a 3400' top-to-bottom toll-taking test of mountain biking legitimacy. The unrelenting 7km descent requires sustained intensity, as riders match stamina, smoothness and strategy to stay on their game for one long lonely ride through 3 bioclimactic zones and shifting conditions, with only pain and the mountain's mood swings to accompany them. A killer link-up, the Garbanzo DH course snakes through some of the most aggressive terrain the Whistler Mountain Bike Park has. The Garbanzo DH is a leg-busting stand-up-and-pedal test-piece.
GoPro Dirt Diaries
Capturing the essence of riding - stay tuned for more information on the 2013 event.
August 14
Fox Air DH
For over a decade, the Fox Air Downhill down A-Line is the primordial heart of Crankworx. Down the tacky flume of Whistler's most iconic trail, 400 racers, one by one, ride like the tail-whip is their mantra, genuflecting and airing 1200 vertical feet of non-stop bank and boost. Every turn is a berm, every jump is a table, every moment of no-thought is a victory over monkey-mind.
Canadian Open XC
Lost Lake Trails will set the scene for the Canadian Open XC race, where hundreds of Canada's best cross country riders will race for the title of 2013 Canada Cup Series Champions. Starting at Spruce Grove, the race will take on the classic trails around Lost Lake, with plenty of challenging, technical features, switchbacks and fast sections to keep riders focused and the race interesting.
Deep Summer Photo Challenge
Now in its fifth year, the Deep Summer Photo Challenge, turns six different lenses on the some of the best mountain bike action and terrain in the world. The Deep Summer Photo Challenge does not ask a career-long body of work from the contenders. It demands a slice of big-scale action captured in a small segment of time. With three days to shoot anywhere in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park or Valley, the constraint of time is as inspiring as it is unforgiving.
August 15
Teva Best Trick Showdown
You won't believe it until you see it. With the world's best slopestyle riders invited to participate, and a rider-judged two-line jam format, the Teva Best Trick Showdown has but one purpose: drive riders to bend the known universe of mountain bike possibility.
Ultimate Pump Track Challenge presented by Rock Shox
At the dirt laboratory, 85 flow-rats master the maze, a 20 second course chock full of berms, doubles and gaps. The ultimate stripped-down skill showcase, riders duel back-to-back without making a single pedal stroke, in a test to harness horizontal momentum with speed, flow and flair. The first 60 pro men and 25 pro women to register will hustle through a time trials elimination round to form the finals field of 32 men and 8 women. $1000 cash will crown the fastest female and male rider. Will reigning title-holders Mitch Ropelato (US) and Jill Kintner (US) rock-and-roll their way to three in a row, or is 2012 their time to be outpumped?
August 16
Official Whip-Off World Championships
The beauty of this event is there are no rules. Developed by Sven Martin, a mountain bike photographer who knows his whips, this event will bring the racers and the freeriders together to end the argument once and for all – who has the best style? You can't buy it and while you might not pick up a factory ride for winning, you will get the respect of every single rider in Whistler. Fun style, big whips, all going down on the huge Crabapple Hits.
Giant® Dual Slalom
Rivalry at its most naked, the Giant® Dual Slalom's crowd-pleasing format pits two competitors, side by side, with the clock's second hand as the guillotine dropping to eliminate one rider per round. A bike-handling battleground, the finely sculpted track of jumps, berms, rhythm sections and drops pits fourcross specialists against gnar-chasing downhillers. Riders take one run down each side of the course. The fastest combined time wins. Each lap through the track raises the stakes and works up everyone's appetite to win.
August 17
Trialsworx - Expert, Elite, Masters
Some of the finest bike trial riders from Canada, the United States and overseas will ride some of the best Whistler terrain and man made obstacles.
Kidsworx
Kids are the future of any sport and mountain biking is no exception. Bring the kids to Whistler and they can rip it up on the pumptrack and mini courses designed with kids in mind. More information on Kidsworx to be released shortly.
Trialsworx - Beginner and Sport
Beginner and Sport riders compete in a bike trial competition. Kids as well as adults who are just starting out, anyone who rides cross country or downhill even at the most beginners' level is welcome to test their balancing skills in this fun competition with plenty of audience support.
Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival
For the love of Canadian cheese, the Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival returns to Blackcomb Mountain! Watch competitors race and tumble downhill after a speeding wheel of cheese to win Whistler Blackcomb season passes and the cheese they were chasing! Enjoy the hilarious races, sample and buy delicious cheese, made from 100% Canadian milk, at the cheese farmers' market, learn all about cheese in the seminar tent, and keep the kids entertained with loads of free activities, races and games. Take a free ride on the Excalibur Gondola up to Base 2, and get ready to say CHEESE ROLLING!
Red Bull® Joyride
Fusing elements of slopestyle, dirt jump and North Shore mountain biking, Red Bull® Joyride culminated into one gravity-fed, season-defining freeride mountain bike competition in 2012. For 2013 the riders have been called upon for their input to further evolve the event through course design. While incorporating as much of the natural terrain as possible, working directly with the athletes and getting course feedback from last year the 2013 Red Bull Joyride event will continue to progress Mountain Bike slopestyle through innovation and inspiration from the people that know best. The Freeride Mountain Bike Association recognizes the slopestyle event at Crankworx as a Diamond Stop, one of only two worldwide.
August 18
Canadian Open DH
A technical test-piece - one run of Whistler's rooty single-track, steep rock drops and air features, straight down, no mercy. The Canadian Open DH course demands blazing guns and laser focus, especially as riders encounter the stoke-soaked atmosphere of Heckler's Rock. The loud rowdy half-naked fans stage their Occupation, making this premiere downhill race truly a course or character and renown. Will this year's riders break the three minute mark?
For more information and event registration visit the official Crankworx website.