DUAL CLIMB

This was a bit of a strange one to get my head around. It was a dual slalom style hill climb where you had to climb up the track as fast as possible on a 26” bike, turn around and then descend down the slalom track, then you would switch tracks and do the same thing on a 29er bike that Cannondale had supplied. Quentin Derbier took the win with Mick Hannah in second and Jerome Clementz in third place. Bernard Kerr had quite the heat getting a double blow out tyre roll off on the 29’er followed by an interval and altitude induced projectile vomiting, proving that 29’rs aren’t ready for all aspects of MTB just yet.

GIANT AIR DH 

They built a brand new downhill track for this event, and it was pretty full–on. A lot of the World Cup riders came with expectations of an easy ‘off–weekend’ of racing an A–line style jump trail, but there was no half ass–ing on this track.

It was fast, long, steep, and full of big jumps and risks, not to mention pretty windy conditions, which made all the jumps and gaps pretty risky. It was 2800m long with a 700m vertical drop. Wide, fast, fresh swooping off–camber grassy turns up top, with a few gaps and drops, a tight steep singletrack section in the middle where you dare not stray off line then some more open fast sections with a big step–down and step–up section you hit at full speed.

Gee Atherton adapted quickest and took the win with Sam Blenkinsop in second place and Andrew Neethling in third. Rachel Atherton took the women’s win convincingly with Tracey Hannah in second and Myriam Nicole in third place. A few of the girls even hit the massive gaps and step–downs closing the gap even more between men’s and women’s performance levels. Some big prize money was welcomed by the racers to replenish their wallets from the steady drain from all Les 2 Alps tempts you with.

DUAL SPEED AND STYLE

This was the same track that they used for the Dual Climb but instead of racing uphill, they were finally using it the right way. There was an extra road gap up top and a big finish line trick jump at the bottom. These were the two ‘judged’ jumps. The riders had to race each other like a normal timed slalom, but whoever did the most or best tricks on the two obstacles along the way, would be crowned the winner. Each jump was worth one second, so if you ‘won’ both jumps 2 seconds would be deducted off your time. It was an interesting event.

There were a few glitches, as happens with inaugural events, but it looks like a promising addition to the Crankworx line up. Could racers beat fast tricksters by more than 2 seconds and still win? In the end it was the combination that won it. Cam Zink, with racing roots, is super quick at slalom and has the tricks, he met Belgium pro ‘racer’ Nico Vink who had advanced to the finals by both his fast riding and combination of style and tricks surprising us with a big 360 in the semi finals.

In the end it was Zink who took the win with a mid run flip and end of run flip nac. Unfortunately for American slalom fans lifelong friends and competitors Kyle Strait and Zink met in an earlier round, it was quite a sight to see Zink flipping and Kyle tail whipping the road gap section side by side and neck and neck.

BEST TRICK

This competition was reserved for all the top invited slopestyle riders, but unfortunately due to strong winds and bad weather it kept getting postponed and eventually the riders decided that it was just too dangerous to hit the jumps with the winds that kept picking up every afternoon. In the end they decided to use the best trick from the Slopestyle runs. Brandon Semenuk was the winner by flipping the huge road gap that most other riders just struggled to get over just with safety airs. Sam Reynolds did give the best trick a go but the strong tail winds had him over–shoot and over rotate a double back, which ended with some cracked vertebrae >>