This past weekend (actually, Thursday the 22nd - Sunday the 25th) was the Crankworx Freeride Mountain Bike Festival in Whistler, BC.
www.crankworx.com
I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Freeride Competition and Expo and to experience first-hand what Photo-John has been raving about since the Marzocchi product launch there 3 weeks ago.
I have many, many photos to sort though, but here are a select few to show for now.
Here is a shot of the Expo area near the bottom of the lifts. There was a huge announcing stage put up, and if you were lucky, you could catch some of the free swag that was being tossed to the crowd! There was also a concert stage with live rock bands playing. The crowds were huge!
Here is a shot of a new bike that I personally got to test out for the weekend. I will be writing more details about the new Prophet from Cannondale soon.
There was a great trials demo put on by the Baia Brothers. The kids are aged 7, 9, and 15 and our all quite skilled.
Many, many thanks to Eric Stobin from Sportworks for the generous hospitality, transportation, accomodations, and trail guide! Eric even shared some of the Sportworks booth space with MTBR and allowed us to put up our banner and hand out flyers! Thanks so much Eric, it was fun! Here is a shot of the booth, with the
New FreeRider DH hitch rack made for 40 to 50 lb downhill/freeride bikes, with wider trays for tires as wide as 3".
During one of my runs, I spotted these two cubs and their mom hanging out by the Olympic Station.
Not part of the expo, but another great reason to go up to Whistler, is this trail, called "A River Runs Through It". It is very easy to get to from the Village, and is a very fun and challenging trail! Wish I had something like this as MY local trail! (If you ever ride this trail, be sure to use mosquito repellent.)
A big part of the Expo, this is the Dangerous Dan Flow Show. It included a huge drop and some of the most technically challenging stunts. Here is a shot of something that I've never seen before, this rider is riding across a short bridge made of chain links! Looked even more challenging, because not all the flow riders could clean it.
I have shots of riders hitting this drop, which I will post soon. This shot gives a good indication of just how high the drop really is.
By far the most popular event of the weekend, was the slopestyle competition on Saturday night. Huge crowds lined up to catch riders like Cedric Gracia, Timo Pritzel, Cameron McCaul, Richie Schley, Wade Simmons, and more...
Here is a shot of Kyle Strait during his second run of the finals. More pics to come!
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