Here is the final installment from Welsh duo Jason Carpenter and daughter Manon, who have been riding and racing Crankworx, Whistler.
Big thanks to Jason and Manon for their reports over the last week.

Saturday

I had another little hangover on Saturday, not sure how that happened, but hey. Knocked my confidence a bit for Saturday practice on the Canadian Open DH track. Whilst I was nursing my head Manon went out with the Ticket2ride boys in the morning and rode Freight Train, Ninja Hampsters and a few other runs with them. Then I joined her and we hit the DH race track. Manon was riding well, not doing the jumps at the top of the track or the massive step down at the bottom but she did hit a big double between some trees towards the bottom of the track which was meaner than anything she’d done before. Quite a few of the other girls were doing all the jumps which was impressive to see. Manon was very citical of my mental state which was fair enough. It was hot too which didn’t help much.

Slopestyle

We knocked DH on the head at 5pm to watch the loonies do the slopestyle tomfoolery. Very impressive stuff too. The tricks were nothing like what you’ll see at a Dew Tour BMX stop, but they were knocked out over ridiculous obstacles. Greg Watts won it with an impressive run, tricking every jump on the way down. Andreu Lacondeguy won the best trick comp with a very original 360 Flat Spin Indian Air. In the night we didn’t even try to go out, town was like an ants nest with all the clubs running at inflated prices very efficiently emptying the pockets of all the revellers.

Race Day

We did 4 runs down the track during morning practice, kind of figuring out where we wanted to go in our runs. Some good decisions and some bad decisions, but thats how it goes with DH for the likes of us. I cased the last step down so hideously early in practice my foot blew off the pedal, not pretty at all. I was panicing a bit too as I thought we only had and hour and a half of practice. The sheets they had given us said from 9:00 to 11:00 for practice but the lift hadn’t opened until 9:30. Only when it got to 11:00 and I was full of despair did Manon tell me they had announced the day before that practice had been extended until 12:00. Once practice finished I grabbed a can of Monster, hung around for a bit then went to the top to warm up for my run. Manons run wasn’t until 4pm so she went back to the Ticket2Ride lodge for a snooze. When I got to the top most of the masters had already gone. By the time the results were published less then half of those entered had actually ridden. This wasn’t just the masters, it was every category including the pros. Was the track a bit loopy? Some didn’t like the blind jumps. They certainly scared me a bit.

My run was pretty poor. I blew both feet off the pedals about 6 corners in and didn’t recover for another 2-3 corners. I screwed up the runup into the first jump and had to go round it. There was a bunch of drunk ozzies heckling here too. I wouldn’t have liked to be their vocal chords the next day, they were heckling the riders and the folk going up on the lift, asking girls to flash their boobs too (very rude they were too), but all they got was some fella mooning them his hairy arse, seriously funny. Most everything else went well enough in my run, did all the other jumps, including the terrifying finish line step down. Seriously, you had to hit this as fast as was possible. Luckily I managed to clear it in my race run.

I came 4th on the first set of results, then dropped to 5th because a Vet rider had posted a time of 3:10 which would have beaten Brendogs second place time. Later on this was increased to a 3:33 so still 5th for me.

Emmilne Ragot hitting the big jump up top.

Manon looked good where I saw her, she’d decided not to do the first jump (which I had done in practice but not in my run) but got a nice line around it. That was the last I saw her for the day. Loads of the girls did the first jump (pic of Emmeline attached) some cased it but did it anyway. Emmeline Ragot can jump some and got the win. When I got to the bottom after watching a few of the men there was no sign of Manon and she’d posted a 6 and a half minute run. I had to ask the medics if they had seen her and a helpful lady told me she’d rolled in with a puncture so that was ok.

5th for me and 6th and last lady for Manon with a puncture and CrankWorxs was over for us, phew, hectic week. We watched the Mens Final and was cool to see Brendan go into the lead with just Sam Hill to go, then Sam take like 8 seconds out of him. Even if Bren hadn’t done that ridiculous whip over the last jump he still wouldn’t have gone 8 seconds quicker.

Once prize-giving was over we went and did a massive posse ride down Slip and slide, which involved going up to the very top in the bubbles, riding down Frieght Train, then No Joke then hiking up a very steep piste for half an hour. I have’nt sweated so much for like 5 weeks, the only thing hotter is tarmacing a berm. The trail was awesome. Very natural, loamy, natural jumps, rough bridges over streams, steep rooty sections. I went over the bars twice, lost a shoe, Manon slid out on two corners, Bren thought he’d broken his toes, another girls bike came cartwheeling out of the trees onto the forest road, well rough but brilliant fun. We had to ride the last single track down to Creekside in near darkness and my front pads had worn away to nothing. Cool.

Monday

Today we chilled out, both slept till 12:00, went to cash Manons $150 cheque from the Giant Dual 4th place then cycled up to Lost lake for a sunbath and a swim. Before dinner we went up to the trails to have a pop, we’d been looking at them all week, but were concentrating on the racing. It took me a few runs to get through the easy set as they were a bit bumpy and you had to learn were to pump and where not to. Manon did well too, getting right up to the last two.

Random Scandinavian Spiderman Slopestyler Martin Soederstrom

Martin Soederstrom (Random Scandinavian Slopestyle Guy from earlier post) was there dressed as Spiderman doing sick flat 360 old school no handers, the kids watching loved it – ‘Mummy I saw Spiderman do a circle’. Had a quick blast round the snakerun then back to Ticket2Ride for tea.

And thats Crankworxs folks, we’ll send another installment if anything amazing happens, seriously Spiderman at the trails was cool.

Laters

Jason and Manon

Crankworx:Manon And Jason’s Adventure Final part