Sam Hill and Tracy Moseley won their respective men’s and women’s elite categories in the Garbanzo DH race yesterday on the opening weekend of Kokanee Cranworx in Whistler, British Columbia.
Riders battled appalling conditions and were slammed during this downhill marathon that had plenty of wet, slimy roots, rocks and a river of water running down the trail in many places. Racers also faced several 'north shore' style bridges that were incredibly slippery along with near vertical rock slabs in the top portion of this madness. Many riders fell multiple times on the 3,400 vertical foot monster of a course and in most cases the mountain prevailed.
In some sections riders were seen tumbling and sliding down the trail losing all semblance of traction and their own bikes in some cases. It was war! It resembled a Monty Python skit at times with riders cursing, crashing and tumbling straight down the mountain and sometimes into each other. The rain held off for most of the day but the week of bad weather prior to the race did the damage. It was wet!
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Sam Hill rose to the occasion though and calmly took the victory in 14:25.7 and after the win happily signed posters for the army of fans that surrounded the Monster Energy/Ironhorse tent. Second place finisher was Justin Leov was 35 seconds behind.
Tracy Moseley of Kona/Les Gets showed incredible strength during her run and reported that she used seven goggle 'tear-offs' on the racecourse...a personal record. Moseley said afterwards she came to Whistler early to escape the wet weather in the UK. But here on the 'Wet Coast' of Canada she found even worse conditions.
Judging from weather reports it looks like skies should begin to clear up on Tuesday allowing the epic Slopestyle course to dry up for this weekend’s premiere event.
Sam Hill always seems faster the worse the weather and mud get—Garbanzo was no different as he won with a 35 second advantage.
John Gibson
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