Brand new berms – the Peanut Gallery approves.

So here it is; the first report from nine days of the fifth Crankworx festival in Whistler, BC. Sorry, did I say fifth? If the announcer’s to be believed this is actually “Crankworx five-point-oh”, as with everything trendy they’ve moved on to version numbering to “amp up the stoke”. I covered the event for Bikemagic last year, so this’d make it Report 2.0 from Dan Barham 1.1 (I had a new filling this year, a minor upgrade).

This year the festival opening 4X event was dropped for Dual Slalom, and to celebrate the bike park crew crafted a brand new course, the mysteriously named “Ninja Cougar”. Short but sweet, it’s few hundred yards of perfectly sculpted twists and turns, doubles, triples, step-ups and event a water-splash, all paired up for identical runs in either lane. At least they “were” perfectly sculpted, before a couple of hundred riders ripped ’em up.

Apparently the weather didn’t get the upgrade memo. We’ve just seen the end of a six week long heatwave here in BC, and Mother Nature saw fit to redress the balance with a full day of blustery winds and freezing rain, spreading out the assault to last as long as possible for the greatest impact. It was raining in practice; it rained in qualifying. It rained in the break then yup, rained for the finals.
Still, at least there were no repeats of the technical timing glitches that fouled last year’s event, so the proceedings passed smoothly and the way these things should.

Anneke Beerten gets the holeshot over Kathy Pruitt

Practicing the water jump in the rain – it’s dedication/borderline madness

Beautifully sculpted course in the sunlight – what little there was of it

The men’s race saw a number of upset knock-outs as perennial favourites Lopes, Gracia and Dan Atherton left early, leaving JD Swanguen in the clear for the win. Anneke Beerten took home the top women’s prize ahead of Rachel Atherton.

Dual Slalom Results

Pro Men

1 26 Jd Swanguen
2 29 Nico Vink
3 35 Chris Herndon
4 34 Cody Warren

Pro Women

1 204 Anneke Beerten
2 202 Rachel Atherton
3 208 Fionn Griffiths
4 213 Kathy Pruitt

Cedric might have been knocked out early in the competition, but he’s still arguably the smoothest rider out there

All pics: Dan Barham