Steve Smith Takes the Triple Crown Win At Crankworx Whistler With Victory At The 2012 Jeep Canadian Open DH

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 Red Bull Joyride Results

2012 Crankworx Joyride Results

Brett Rheeder Nails The 2012 Red Bull Joyride Qualifiers and Top 8 Athletes Move to Finals

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 Teva Best Trick Showdown

Jordie Lunn Wins Session One And Tom van Steenbergen Takes Session Two

WHISTLER, BC August 16, 2012 – Today’s Teva Best Trick Showdown at Crankworx Whistler had all the ingredients for an awesome competition; sunshine, steeze and lots of cold hard cash. The riders brought their bag of tricks and laid them all out for the huge crowd assembled at the bottom of the Joyride course.

In Session One everyone was just getting warmed up when Jordie Lunn launched a huge cork 720. Lunn’s trick held it’s own against impressive tricks from slope riders including Martin Soderstrom, Yannick Granieri and Thomas Genon. For his efforts early on in the game Lunn rode away with $4,000.

At Session Two of the Teva Best Trick Showdown the riders stepped things up at the Bud Light Cabin step down. Tom van Steenberger executed a front flip tuck no hander to take home the $4,000 on the second feature of the event.

The Teva Best Trick Showdown is a peer-judged, two-session, best trick jam where the winner of each session comes away with $4,000. With the riders getting more mileage in on the Joyride course and getting dialed in on the jumps they will be good and ready to unleash their talents to the world on Saturday, August 18 at the Red Bull Joyride.

Tomorrow’s action at Crankworx Whistler includes more slopestyle with the Red Bull Joyride Qualifiers getting underway at 1:30-3pm. Then from 6-8pm the GIANT Dual Slalom will showcase exciting head to head race action at the base of the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. Both events will be live webcast at www.crankworx.com.

The village-wide expo and demo zone will also be hopping so make sure to check out the Jeep® Rocks and Roads course where visitors will be able to experience the vehicle's unparalleled capabilities while manipulating obstacles that demonstrate the wild ride that only Jeep® can deliver. The course and on-road test drive includes a stability ramp, a boulder crawl, a log pile and a 16-foot dirt mountain to demonstrate traction. The test drive area will run until August 19, 2012.

Troy Brosnan and Melissa Buhl Win The 2012 Giant Dual Slalom

Luca Shaw and Micayla Gatto Finish With Silver

WHISTLER, BC August 17, 2012 – GIANT Dual Slalom Pro Men’s final went down in the Whistler Bike Park. Troy Brosnan was able to blaze through each ladder, consistently pinning it each heat to take gold over Luca Shaw in the finals. Melissa Buhl took gold in the Pro Women category with clean runs through each ladder, winning her first ever Crankworx event.

“It feels amazing, I’m coming back trying to have fun and get in a little training before Worlds,” said Troy Brosnan, winner of GIANT Dual Slalom. “It was a good night. The crowd was pretty big and that helped.”

In the Pro Men category Troy Brosnan (AUS) took first place, Luca Shaw (USA) came in second and Bas Van Steenbergen (CAN) finished in third.

Troy’s GIANT Dual Slalom win was fresh off of a second place finish in Thursday night’s Ultimate Pump Track Challenge. In both events Troy made it to finals, racing in every heat of each competition.

In the Pro Women category Melissa Buhl (USA) took first place, Micayla Gatto (CAN) came in second and Steffi Marth (GER) finished in third.

“It’s been a long week with a lot of events, so I feel really good about this win,” say Pro Women winner Melissa Buhl. “This is my first win at Crankworx and I couldn’t be happier.”

Now in its sixth season at Crankworx Whistler, the GIANT Dual Slalom is a crowd favourite. Thousands of fans lined the gated course and watched from the big screen in Whistler Village. The dual slalom head-to-head format featured riders in the pro and amateur categories pumping through a course riddled with rhythm sections, a mogul field, tight berms, jumps and drops.

Tomorrow’s action includes the most anticipated event at Crankworx Whistler, the Red Bull Joyride getting underway from 5:30-7:30pm. Both events will be live webcast at www.crankworx.com.

The village-wide expo and demo zone will also be hopping so make sure to check out the Jeep® Rocks and Roads course where visitors will be able to experience the vehicle's unparalleled capabilities while manipulating obstacles that demonstrate the wild ride that only Jeep® can deliver. The course and on-road test drive includes a stability ramp, a boulder crawl, a log pile and a 16-foot dirt mountain to demonstrate traction. The test drive area will run until August 19, 2012.

Current event photography: www.flickr.com/photos/crankworx/