What an incredibly diverse thing the bicycle is. Even narrowing the selection down to those with fat tyres still leaves a vast spectrum. The Crankworx festival has come to symbolise a certain echelon of the sport. Loud and excitable, outside of the World Cup series its presence is arguably only equalled by Red Bull Rampage. Now in its tenth year, the Whistler festival continues to go from strength to strength. Expanding across the pond a few years back there’s now also this European edition at Les Deux Alpes…
From Dirt Issue 139 – September 2013
Words by Richard Cunynghame. Photos by Sven Martin, Sebastian Schieck and Ben Winder.
Storming into existence this year, the Enduro World Series (EWS) has swiftly moved into an exceedingly strong position of prominence as well. In the first two rounds we’ve witnessed the collaborative set up of the EWS with the French and Super Enduro Series’. Round three brings an exciting prospect, the coming together for the first time of the effervescent Crankworx and the blossoming World Series. First at Les Deux Alpes and then five weeks later in Whistler (an event that will have been and gone by the time you read this).
Two of the leading men in this union are Chris Ball and Darren Kinnaird and they’re able to look at this situation and the relationship between these two strong mountain biking movements with great pedigree. Chris worked as the Technical Delegate for Gravity Sports at the UCI for nearly five years and Darren has been working on the Crankworx festival for a similar time and continues to do so. Along with Fred Glo of the French Enduro Series and Enrico Guala of Super Enduro, the four of them came together to create the Enduro World Series.>>
