NEWS
Will Longden Wraps up the Week for MBUK/Santa Cruz at the Crankworx Festival 2007
5th Aug 2007
Whistler, Canada
The Crankworx festival is a week full of all kinds of mountain bike competitions, with a relaxed atmosphere that gives the World Cup riders a chance to have some fun, ride with the locals and maybe even try something a little different. Neil Donoghue and Marc Beaumont took the trip over to Canada for the 2007 edition to see what all the fuss was about.
First event, and only just off the flight was the Garbanzo downhill, an epic 15 minute downhill race, falling 3400 vertical feet over rocks roots and the massive jumps in the bike park on the lower sections of the hill.
Marc - "Donny's V10 was still missing in action, taking a tour of Europe, thanks to the check in girl who put two bag tags on one bike bag! He borrowed Nathan Rennie's 4xblur, not ideal for the 15-minute downhill race, which had quite a few sections that were really gnarly. I had a problem with my brake and spent Saturday afternoon trying to fix it while Donny got a front flat in his first practice run, not really a surprise riding on xc tyres, he also picked up the worst arm pump ever!!! As you can imagine, practice didn't go so well for us. Practice Sunday was short with only enough time for one run. That went pretty good and we even managed to remember a few little bits of the track!
Donny- "Sunday practice Felt like I was in a time warp, riding an old skool downhill bike with four inches of travel!!"
Well with all that quality practice out the way it was time to go racing.
Marc - "At the start I had decided to pace myself and try not to get tired too quickly, there are so many turns in Gabanzo I was coming into sections and not even knowing which way the trail went. The run was pretty steady so I was stoked to get fourth as others ahead of me had more practice and have raced this event before which would definitely help. The race was great fun though, the hardest DH event I have ever done. I would love to give it another go!!"
Donny - "I set off pretty quick, bouncing around all over the shop. About a minute in I got a front puncture, not good. I almost pushed back up to get the lift back down but decided I might as well post some sort of time! I stopped to watch (well ok, heckle) Marc, lopes and Sam then carried on down. By the time I got down, there were marshals pulling down the tape on the track, I was covered in mud and needed a beer!"
"You could go out every night during crankworx and be sure to bump into more than a few world cup downhillers doing some last minute preparation for the World Champs. Me, Marc, Minnaar, Needles (Andrew Neethling), Rennie, Gracia and Lopes all put our time in, propping up the many bars of Whistler. Lopes even had a couple of top US motocrossers and BMX'ers staying with him ripping up the DH's. In the lift queue I saw Billy Laninovich, David Pingree, Heath Pinter, Jay Miron and Fuzzy Hall..."
Marc - "Only a day later and next up was Air DH, the course is really fun to ride, made up of loads of tabletops and doubles with fast bermed turns. It's about four and half minutes long.
It flows really well when you cruise down but as you race it the jumps become quite small and they are lippy which makes them hard to hold down in race mode when you're trying to stay low and fast.
Although the course isn't hard to ride, as there are so many similar jumps, it is difficult to remember which one is which at race speed.
Hot favorites for this race were Brian Lopes, Cedric Gracia and Nathan Rennie, all have won this event in previous years, my money was on Lopes as he was riding a short travel bike, perfect for this track as it's not that rough, also all the jumps, obviously suit his style.
My race run was decent, I felt like I pedaled quite well... just could have attacked the turns a little harder. All the time was made pushing the berms as hard as you could. I think my nomad bike would have been perfect for this track!"
Donny - "After missing a day of practice due to a lost bike, I wasn't too familiar with the track and took a wrong turn in my race run as the course was not fully taped out because there are so many other trails here that were still open while race was going on. Many of them look similar and with so many turns, suddenly I found myself on the wrong trail!"
As I had to stay home for the National 4X Champs, I suggested Marc took his Chameleon along to Whistler to represent the team in the Dual Slalom. Marc made his debut, qualifying 8th ahead of the finals.
Marc - "I was really looking forward to racing, the track was SO,OOOOOOOOO SICK DUDE (picking up the local lingo) perfect berms where you could get your elbow dragging in the dirt. I missed practice in the morning, a few too many the night before! First heat I had a by so got two practice runs in which was good.
2nd heat I had to race Justin Leov I beat him in both heats, that meant I would face fastest qualifier Sam hill. In the first heat I made a small mistake while we were pretty close and couldn't make time back. Second heat I rode really well and we were really close but he had advantage from first heat so he went through, beating me by just 0.4 of a second.
The racing was really great fun, I think racing like this would be really good in the UK. Maybe at NPS races in the evening."
The Grande Finale at Crankworx is the Slopestyle event, where the top ten guys in the World go head to head.
Donny - "Slopestyle was cool to watch. Chopper and Ben Boyko being the highlights. Unfortunately for Chopper he was robbed by the judges in qualifying for the Super Final. He tail-whipped the last drop but slid out of the landing. Most people were scared to do a full x up off it! Me and Marc, Minnar and Needles watched it from the SRAM VIP party on top of the lift ticket station, right in front of the big screen and last drop. Lots of free beer and a loud speaker kept us amused for quite a while. We heckled girls, cops, passers by and even Steve Behr for a while until we were politely asked to move along...
All in it's been a great week of racing, riding and enjoying the atmosphere with all the other guys and our sponsors."
The lads took the time to do a couple of photo shoots and a days filming with Clay Porter as well, so you will see the results of that on the pages and big screen soon.
Cheers... Will Longden