A Canadian clean sweep as Stevo Smith and Casey Brown win the insanely long and physically demanding Garbanzo DH race at Crankworx.

The Garbanzo DH is downhill racing at the extreme end if the spectrum, 12km long, 3400 vertical feet of descent and over 12 minutes long, the king of race that make you want to puke mid run! It’s nigh on four World Cup races back to back!

Marcello Gutierrez spent a long time in the hot seat and looked like he was going to take the win but was ousted by the last man down, Steve Smith. Chris Kovarik taking 3rd, showing that he’s still got the skills and fitness to run with the top dogs. Justin Leov snapped a gear cable early on and was stuck in the hardest gear for the rest of the race.

Full results and DirtTV video coming soon!

Pro Men:

1. Stevie Smith 12:33.27
2. Marcello Gutierrez +5.48
3. Chris Kovarik +15.40
4. Justin Leov +22.72
5. Mark Wallace +25.15
6. Jack Reading +25.31
10. Ben Reid +36.04

Pro Women:

1. Casey Brown 14:28.74
2. Miranda Miller +3:23
3. Claire Buchar +3:26
4. Emmeline Ragot +14.95
5. Myriam Nicole +32.43

Click for full Garbanzo DH results

WHISTLER, BC August 12, 2012 – Crankworx Whistler’s Garbanzo DH is infamous for being the world’s longest DH track used in competition. Canadian World Cup racer Steve Smith has been defeated by the very long and technical track the last four times he has raced it; either crashing or just not going fast enough.

This year Smith finally defeated his nemesis, crossing the finish line with a time of 12:33.27, an impressive feat considering the length of the course is 12km and drops 3,400 vertical feet. Second fastest man was Columbian Marcelo Gutierrez Villega +5.48 and in third, Australian Chris Kovarik +15.40.

Canadian women swept the podium today with Casey Brown in first at 14:28.74, Miranda Miller in second +3.23 and Whistler’s Claire Buchar (CAD) +3.26.

“This is the first time I have had a clean run in competition on Garbanzo and I took the win,” says Smith. “It is a long race so you don’t absolutely ‘kill’ anything. I just kept a good pace all the way; I wasn’t really slow and I wasn’t really fast.”

This kind of race really tests the World Cup racers since they train to reach the maximum speed they can sustain for the duration of 3-4 minutes. The Garbanzo track has them descending three times as long as that. The most successful riders have to find the fastest pace they can sustain for a long period of time and just hang on. At the end of the day, the conditions couldn’t have been more ideal for the race. The track was rolling really quick and the clock showed it with athletes coming in with the fastest times ever recorded in Garbanzo DH competition.

Course Route
The same course as 2011 was used – Riders start behind the Garbanzo lift hut -> Original Sin (including the uphill section) -> exit Original Sin at the step down/step up tree island on the Dave Murray flats -> proceed down Blue Velvet -> traverse and proceed into In Deep -> after rock face turn left towards Container (FatCrobbat would require a right turn at this point) -> from Container into No Joke/ Duffman -> remain on Duffman until merges with Golden Triangle -> continue on World Cup Singletrack -> Ho Chi Min -> Longhorn -> Monkey Hands -> GLC drops to finish.