7-30-07 // Online Exclusive: 2007 Crankworx Slopestyle

The biggest crowd you're likely to see at a mountain bike event rivaled even the busiest periods during ski season for the Whistler resort. John Gibson

To see the Crankworx slopestyle photo gallery go HERE

It is, by all accounts, the show of shows in mountain biking. Twenty-thousand people, from all over the world, crammed inside and along the course right above the Whistler Village, eyes glued to the Jumbotron, watching the action. Think about that, 15,000 people watching a mountain bike event. To be there, to hear the music and the announcers blaring through the crowd, sponsor logos plastered all over the place, cameras and instant video replay, big jumps, wall rides, 24 slopestyle artists, and the entire mountain bike industry, you knew. This is the show of shows.

So, how did it all go down? That’s the big question. Crankworx represents the pinnacle of this year’s slopestyle season. With Austria’s adidas slopestyle competition cancelled, Monster Park discontinued, and controversy on the Qashqai Challenge, all eyes would be on the Kokanee Slopestyle finals—the signature event of 10 days of racing and partying in Whistler. What everyone who rides a mountain bike now knows as Crankworx.

But like many things built up to be the best, it seems the overall impression of this year’s event failed to live up to the hype. Bad karma may have started during the qualifying round on Thursday. 100 riders signed up for a chance to get to Saturday night’s final, where 24 riders got two runs to make it to the Super Finals, where 12 riders would drop another two runs to determine the winner. Three riders would be taken to Vancouver via ambulance with serious injuries on Thursday—a testament to how badly today’s up and coming slopestyle athletes want a shot at the big league.

Another issue, according to many of the riders, was the course. It seemed to criss-cross the mountain excessively, and lacked the wham bam, back-to-back action of courses past. Also, the bottom Jumbotron air proved to be too big and sketchy for most of the riders to throw significant tricks. Overall, most of the top competitors complained the course lacked flow. Watching nearly 70 runs as the sun dropped on a cool overcast evening, the lack of flow showed. “We didn’t see any of the highest level tricks this year,” says Thomas Vanderham, who competed in this year’s event. “We didn’t see any 720s, flip whips, front flips, the course just didn’t allow for it.”

But there was a silver lining in the event: A changing of the guard and some standout performances. The usual Crankworx stars—riders like Paul Basagoitia, Darren Berrecloth, Cameron Zink and Cameron McCaul failed to crack the top three. Basagoitia had a chance to place in the top two, but crashed on the Jumbotron air after boldly trying a tail whip. Berrecloth went down hard after attempting a one-footed 360 at the top of the course. Zink wiped out twice in the Super Finals, after strong qualifying runs. Unfortunately for last year’s winner, both crashes happened on fairly benign parts of the course. Kyle Strait attempted a double tailwhip, but crashed. All the carnage effectively moved most of the favorites out of the top three spots, and left many of the sport’s biggest slopestyle stars bloodied and battered, but fortunately not seriously hurt.

Qualifiers took their toll on riders, such as Rob Jauch shown here, leaving them humbled and sometimes injured. John Gibson