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.

Mitch Ropelato and Jill Kintner Win The 2012 Ultimate Pump Track Challenge

Both Athletes Take Gold For 3rd Time In As Many Events At Crankworx Whistler

WHISTLER, BC August 16, 2012 – For the third time in a row, at the Ultimate Pump Track Challenge presented by Rock Shox, defending champs in both the Pro Men’s and Pro Women’s categories kept their titles. Mitch Ropelato and Jill Kintner took the wins for the third time in as many years at Crankworx Whistler.

It was a new track in a new venue but the story stayed the same, Mitch Ropelato (USA) stayed on top to cinch the title; with Troy Brosnan (AUS) in second and Cody Johnson (USA) in third.

Jill Kintner (USA) pulled in first against second place Micayla Gatto (CAD) while Melissa Buhl (USA) took third.

Pump tracks, an endless loop of steeply banked corners, doubles, gaps and rollers, have grown steadily in their popularity. This year the pump track was moved from the Whistler Mountain Bike to Whistler Olympic Park to create a compact and spectator-friendly arena in the heart of the village. It is estimated over 4,000 spectators gathered to watch the head to head showdowns as riders pumped through the track’s whoop-dee-doos and berms.

Tomorrow’s action at Crankworx Whistler includes 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.

Keep up to date on all things Crankworx through crankworx.com, Facebook.com/crankworx and make sure to follow @crankworx on Twitter.

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.

2012 Crankworx Ultimate Pump Track Challenge Results

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.

Crankworx Ultimate Pump Track Challenge Results Women

Crankworx Ultimate Pump Track Challenge Results Men

2012 Crankworx Air Downhill Results

Crankworx Air DH Results

Brendan Fairclough Wins The 2012 Crankworx Speed And Style

WHISTLER, BC August 11, 2012 – The invitational Dual Speed & Style presented by AVID was a huge success with the inaugural Whistler event filling Whistler Village, while thousands more tuned into the live webcast powered by Red Bull Media House.

Britain’s Brendan Fairclough, a rider widely recognized as one of the most well-rounded racers on the DH circuit, ended up in the final with Spain’s Andreu Lacondeguy, one of the world’s best-known freeriders. Lacondeguy, who actually has history battling the clock as a DH racer, gave Fairclough a run for his money but in the end pushed too hard and ended his race in a spectacular cloud of dust while the British World Cup racer sailed over the finish line to take gold.

In the battle for third place two freeriders were pit against each other; American Kyle Strait, who qualified first yesterday, and Sweden’s Martin Soderstrom. Soderstrom was pulling out Joyride-worthy tricks in every heat but in the small final was bucked on a roller and fell, giving Strait the bronze.

Pro freerider Cam McCaul, who lent his expertise as an announcer at the Dual Speed & Style, feels that going fast and having the ability to pull multiple variations of tricks is going to be the type of riding that will prevail in future rounds of Speed & Style.

“Andreu was going up against a World Cup racer so he had to push his speed limits beyond probably what was comfortable for him,” says McCaul. “That race was his to lose but Andreu actually had the speed to stay with Brendan, and the tricks to take the win, if he could have held on. You have to keep within 1.2 seconds in the ‘speed’ area to take the win with ‘style’.”

Dual Speed & Style is a new event on the freeride mountain bike scene. Riders race through a dual course head-to-head for time and earn .6 second deductions for the most stylish tricks pulled on the mid-course booters. Partly influenced by motocross and then brought to life by Kyle Strait’s glory run through the dual course in Whistler during Crankworx in 2011, the SRAM Dual Speed & Style in Les 2 Alpes on July 12, 2012 was the first Speed & Style event organized by Crankworx with Cam Zink taking the win. Judging by the crowds gathered today for the Dual Speed & Style presented by Avid, the event is an exciting addition to the world of freeride competition.

Tonight the Bud Light Crankworx Concerts featured ambient rock and power-pop starting with Jets Overhead at 7:45pm and Said The Whale at 8:45pm at Whistler Olympic Plaza. Stay tuned to www.crankworx.com for upcoming news and connect with Crankworx through Facebook.com/crankworx or Twitter.com/crankworx

Stay tuned to www.crankworx.com for upcoming news and connect with Crankworx through Facebook.com/crankworx or Twitter.com/crankworx
Online Results: www.crankworx.com/whistler/results
Current event photography: www.flickr.com/photos/crankworx/

Live Streaming Webcast Schedule for Crankworx Whistler 2012
The webcasts, powered by Red Bull Media House, are live streamed at www.crankworx.com www.redbull.com/bike and by online media partner www.pinkbike.com

Saturday August 11
• REPLAY – Canadian Open Enduro - live.redbull.tv/events/120/crankworx-whistler-canadian-open-enduro/
• REPLAY - Dual Speed & Style presented by AVID – live.redbull.tv/events/121/crankworx-whistler-dual-speed-style/

Sunday August 12
• Garbanzo DH - 4:30pm-7:00pm

Wednesday August 15
• Air DH - 3:30pm–5:30pm

Thursday August 16
• Teva Best Trick - 4:00pm-6:00pm
• Ultimate Pump Track Challenge presented by Rock Shox - 8:00pm-9:00pm

Friday August 17
• Red Bull Joyride Qualifiers - 1:30pm-3:00pm
• GIANT Dual Slalom Amateur - 3:30pm-5:30pm
• GIANT Dual Slalom Pro - 6:00pm-8:00pm

Saturday August 18
• Red Bull Joyride Finals - 5:30pm-7:30pm

Sunday August 19
• Jeep Canadian Open DH - 3:00pm-5:00pm

The ninth annual Crankworx Whistler is presented by Whistler Blackcomb and the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. Crankworx Whistler is the biggest annual event held in Whistler and is also the largest freeride mountain bike festival in the world. Crankworx Les 2 Alpes took place for the first time July 9-15, 2012 and was the first Crankworx event to take place outside of North America. This new event will build on Crankworx’s legendary legacy in the arena of freeride mountain biking.