Steve Smith Pulls The Triple Crown At The 2012 Crankworx
Wednesday, August 29, 2012 at 8:48AM Crankworx Festival | WHISTLER, BRITISH COLUMBIA—Crankworx 2012 will go down as the hottest, driest, burliest DH shake-up in recent memory. It will also be etched as the year Devinci Global Racing’s Steve Smith edged all takers, becoming the first rider ever to win Whistler’s Triple Crown of gravity events.
Festivities launched with the Garbanzo DH, the longest DH race in the world. Devinci young gun Mark Wallace set the first podium worthy run; a time that would stand until the final 10 riders blasted into Whistler Village. Smith topped the Devinci charge, splintering the competition with a seismic 5.48-second rift. Jr. charger Mark Wallace captured 5th, Nick Beer 9th, and George Brannigan 13th.
Next was the world-renowned A-Line DH, where Smith backed his previous win—eclipsing the field by 3.75 seconds. Beer scorched into 8th, Whistler local Ian Morrison finished an impressive 10th, and Brannigan locked in 12th.
“I was stoked and surprised to take the win in the A-Line by so much over guys like Lopes and Mick,” Smith says. “I went for it and things worked out.”
The weekend’s Canadian Open finale saw rabid fans swarm Heckler’s Rock to see if Smith would repeat his 2011 win and seal a never-been-done-before Crankworx Triple Crown. Again Wallace set the early podium pace, where he sat until the last 10 riders. After the smoke settled, Wallace was bumped to 5th, Beer sat in 7th, while Smith decimated the entire field by 4.64 seconds—earning the King of Crankworx crown as the winningest rider of the festival.
“My favorite event at Crankworx is the Canadian Open,” Smith says. “The track was amazing, the new carbon Wilson was mind blowing in its first race, and it felt great to close out Crankworx with the win.”
DGR team manager Gabe Fox adds: “It was an amazing weekend for the whole crew. Stevie really stood above everyone—it’s hard as hell to win three events like this. I was very impressed with Wallace’s results at this level, and Nick and the rest of the squad were solid all weekend.
“With the launch of the Carbon Wilson for Sunday’s race, you really couldn’t have scripted a better weekend.”
Next up for Devinci Global Racing are the UCI World Championships in Leogang, Austria, followed by the World Cup Finals in Hafjell, Norway.
Devinci Global Racing is proudly supported by: Cycles Devinci, SRAM, RockShox, Avid, Truvativ, Easton Wheels, Schwalbe, E-Thirteen, ODI, Selle Italia, Fox Head Clothing and My Package.
Steve Smith Takes the Triple Crown Win At Crankworx Whistler With Victory At The 2012 Jeep Canadian Open DH
Sunday, August 19, 2012 at 8:40PM Casey Brown Fastest Women – Brown and Smith Earn Queen & King Of Crankworx Titles
WHISTLER, BC August 19, 2012 –The Jeep Canadian Open Downhill was a rowdy affair today with an exhausting and technical descent that included running the gauntlet at Heckler’s Rock. With a time of 2:44.80 Steve Smith (CAD) was untouchable once again at Crankworx Whistler, crushing his competition and finishing almost five seconds faster than second place racer Mick Hannah (AUS) +4.64. Andrew Neethling (RSA) finished third fastest with +5.61.
With this win Steve Smith takes the triple-crown; winning first place in every DH event at Crankworx Whistler. Today’s victory at the Jeep Canadian Open DH is particularly sweet as he earns $10,000; the largest prize purse awarded at any DH race in the world. It is apparent Smith is on another level of racing and he is going into the seventh and final round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup DH in Hafjell Norway as a favourite to win.
The women’s podium was a sweep for Canadians with the fastest woman Casey Brown (CAD) coming in way ahead with a time of 3:15.28. Next up was Claire Buchar (CAD) at +9.81 and Lauren Rosser (CAD) +10.44.
With these wins, Smith and Brown also earned enough points to take the overall King and Queen of Crankworx titles. Local Whistler boy Jack Illes was awarded the Prince of Crankworx title for his outstanding performance in the Boys (13-16) category.
Coverage of the Jeep Canadian Open DH was phenomenal and included seven wired cameras on the ground, two cable cams and one helicopter camera, ensuring those watching the live webcast at home had front row seats. Some of the most entertaining footage came from Heckler’s Rock where hundreds of shirtless men (and some women) started to gather around 9am today.
The Jeep Canadian Open DH was the last event of Crankworx Whistler 2012. This year the festival enjoyed record-breaking crowds the entire ten days, as well as huge uptake on live webcast coverage powered by Red Bull Media House. Replays of the events live webcasted can be found at www.redbull.com/bike. Crankworx 2012 is a wrap, stay tuned for news about Crankworx 2013 dates for Les 2 Alpes in July and Whistler in August.
Current event photography: www.flickr.com/photos/crankworx/
Videos of the Day by Pinkbike and Vimeo: vimeo.com/crankworx
The webcasts, powered by Red Bull Media House, were live streamed at www.crankworx.com, www.redbull.com/bike and by online media partner www.pinkbike.com. Replays are now available at www.redbull.com/bike.
2012 Crankworx, Bicycle, Crankworx, Dirt Jump, Joyride, Mountain Bike, Slopestyle |
Brett Rheeder Nails The 2012 Red Bull Joyride Qualifiers and Top 8 Athletes Move to Finals
Saturday, August 18, 2012 at 2:46PM WHISTLER, BC – August 17, 2012 – For the second year in a row, Red Bull Joyride—a diamond stop of the Freeride Mountain Bike (FMB) World Tour—charges into Whistler, British Columbia, with the most progressive slopestyle mountain bike competition on a course designed by professional athletes, for the athletes. Today, fifteen athletes showed off their techniques and nailed their biggest tricks with two full-course runs to wow the judges and get one of the eight spots for tomorrow’s finals. Brett Rheeder from Mount Albert, Ontario, who had an amazing season this year in slopestyle, came first in today’s qualifiers with 88.60 points. “My run went pretty good today. A lot of braking was required but everything worked out. I’m looking forward to tomorrow,” said Rheeder after qualifying today.
The top eight athletes who qualified this afternoon will join the top 10 pre-qualified riders who ranked in the top six from Red Bull Joyride at Crankworx Whistler last year and the top four athletes in the 2012 FMB World Tour’s 52 week ranking. All fifteen riders had hopes of competing in the anchor event of Crankworx Whistler on Saturday, August 18, 2012, but only the top eight secured their spot into the gravity-fed, season-defining freeride mountain bike competition. Red Bull Joyride judges observed the two, full-course qualifying runs and ranked the riders based on the best score achieved of the qualifying runs.
Top eight athletes from today’s qualifiers:
- Brett Rheeder (Mount Albert, ON) 88.60 points
- Antoine Bizet (France) 81.20 points
- Casey Groves (New Zealand) 80.40 points
- Kelly McGarry (New Zealand) 75.80 points
- Sam Dueck (Chilliwack, BC) 70.40 points
- Jack Folgelquist (USA) 67.60 points
- Andreu Lacondeguy (Spain) 66.00 points
- Leo Delfour Barsacq (France) 63.80 points
Ten athletes pre-qualified:
- Brandon Semenuk (Whistler, BC)
- Cam Zink (USA)
- Anthony Messere (Surrey, BC)
- Greg Watts (USA)
- Geoff Gulevich (North Vancouver, BC)
- Cam McCaul (USA)
- Martin Söderström (Sweden)
- Sam Pilgrim (Great Britain)
- Thomas Genon (Belgium)
- Yannick Granieri (France)
All eyes on Semenuk
With only five riders who could stand in the way of the current FMB World Tour leader, all the pressure is on Brandon Semenuk who is capable of securing the title at Red Bull Joyride. If Semenuk places first tomorrow, he can be crowned FMB World Tour winner, taking home the golden Camelbak Better Bottle for the second year in a row. On Saturday, August 18, the best slopestyle athletes in the world will show everyone what next level riding looks like. With “Diamond” level FMB points and a $25,000 cash purse for first place alone, the best of the best will be on course. The level of difficulty of the Joyride course and the high level of talent that competed earned the event a ‘Diamond’ rating, one of only two worldwide, on the Freeride Mountain Bike circuit. Diamond stops are the highest rating on the tour and garner the heaviest weighting of overall points.
Be part of the action
On Saturday, August 18th, Whistler will be the place to be, but if you can’t make it, catch the live webcast on www.redbull.ca/joyride at 5:30 p.m. Pacific time/8:30 p.m. Eastern time.
Watch Red Bull Joyride on Saturday, October 6 at 1:30 pm ET/10:30 am PT on NBC. The event airs as part of the “Red Bull Signature Series," the most progressive and innovative wakeboarding, surfing, mountain biking, freestyle motocross and BMX events. For more information, visit www.redbullsignatureseries.com
2012 Crankworx, Bicycle, Dirt Jump, Freeride, Slopestyle |
