The Crankworx World Tour will expand to four stops in 2017 as it takes in the new venue of Innsbruck, Austria.
Innsbruck is the home of freeride snowboarding thanks to the Air and Style contest and is the only city in the world to have hosted three Olympic Games but it doesn’t yet have much pedigree in mountain biking.
2017 will be the fifteenth year of Crankworx and Innsbruck will join Rotorua, New Zealand, Les Gets, France and Whistler, Canada to complete a four stop tour. Dates aren’t confirmed yet (although the above video seems to suggest it will fall between Rotorua and Les Gets) but expect them to be announced later in Autumn.
Karin Seiler-Lall, Innsbruck tourism CEO, said: “No other summer sports event fits so perfectly to Innsbruck as Crankworx. World-class mountain biking combined with a festival for real bike fans all over the world – it will definitely inspire Innsbruck, the capital of the Alps, in the same way as the participants and spectators will get fascinated by Innsbruck’s unique alpine flair”
Innsbruck is home to the Muttereralm bike park that apparently features one “simple” and one “moderate” downhill track. It’s not quite Crankworx fodder at the moment so hopefully a year of building will have it ready to host the world’s best riders before next summer.
Marcelo Gutierrez, who just won the Garbanzo DH, seems happy enough with it though. He said: “I have been riding a few different trails there and it’s insanely good riding. I was surprised by how many trails, good mixture—some flowy, technical and some big hills around. It’s a cool scene to go to.”