Like most of us on my 10th birthday I was most probably riding a bike of some description, very possibly hitting a brick and board ramp out on the street. We all went in the house for an orange squash and slice of birthday cake. No doubt leaving with a party bag and a smile.
I have a sneaking suspicion that the 10th birthday of Crankworx will be a little different. Bikes will be ridden for sure but that brick and board ramp will be gone. Only to be replaced with a huge slopestyle course, orange squash will transform into Bud Light (I know they are basically the same) and that slice of cake will gain some calories, and probably have cheese on top. I’m not sure about the party bags to be honest, maybe the odd t-shirt, the smile, yeah that will be there and it will be ear to ear.
A lot has happened in the last 10 years, in 2003 Cedric Gracia won the Red Bull Rampage. Since then all manner of things have gone on in the world of mountain biking, Steve Peat raced his 20th Worlds and at the same race team mate Greg Minnaar took the World Championship title. The world went nuts for downtown downhill racing and few will ever forget the moment that Danny Hart won the Worlds in Champery.
Crankworx is the one constant, taking over Whistler and growing year on year this year its going to go off, and go off in true Canadian style.
A look through the schedule highlights some well known events that will be heckled and cheered for in the Rocky Mountain sunshine.
Crankworx starts on the 9th of August and runs to the 18th, the full schedule can be found here but the stand out events from our point of view are here:
Sunday – SRAM Canadian Open Enduro presented by Specialized
Tuesday – Garbanzo DH
Wednesday – Fox Air DH
Thursday – Teva Best Trick & Ultimate Pump Track Challenge presented by RockShox
Friday – Official Whip-Off World Championships
Saturday – Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival & Red Bull Joyride
Sunday – Canadian Open DH
Last year was, as you would expect, an absolute banger and this year is going to be no different. DirtTV will be there to capture all the action from the best events, to whet your appetite here is a run down of some of last year’s videos.
http://mpora.com/videos/AAd8sb883x2g
Make sure you keep and eye on #Crankworx on Twitter for all the goings on over the coming week of madness that is Crankworx Whistler.