The invitational Dual Speed & Style presented by AVID was a huge success with the inaugural Whistler event filling Whistler Village, while thousands more tuned into the live webcast powered by Red Bull Media House.
Britain’s Brendan Fairclough, a rider widely recognized as one of the most well-rounded racers on the DH circuit, ended up in the final with Spain’s Andreu Lacondeguy, one of the world’s best-known freeriders. Lacondeguy, who actually has history battling the clock as a DH racer, gave Fairclough a run for his money but in the end pushed too hard and ended his race in a spectacular cloud of dust while the British World Cup racer sailed over the finish line to take gold.
In the battle for third place two freeriders were pit against each other; American Kyle Strait, who qualified first yesterday, and Sweden’s Martin Soderstrom. Soderstrom was pulling out Joyride-worthy tricks in every heat but in the small final was bucked on a roller and fell, giving Strait the bronze.
Pro freerider Cam McCaul, who lent his expertise as an announcer at the Dual Speed & Style, feels that going fast and having the ability to pull multiple variations of tricks is going to be the type of riding that will prevail in future rounds of Speed & Style.
“Andreu was going up against a World Cup racer so he had to push his speed limits beyond probably what was comfortable for him,” says McCaul. “That race was his to lose but Andreu actually had the speed to stay with Brendan, and the tricks to take the win, if he could have held on. You have to keep within 1.2 seconds in the ‘speed’ area to take the win with ‘style’.”
Dual Speed & Style is a new event on the freeride mountain bike scene. Riders race through a dual course head-to-head for time and earn .6 second deductions for the most stylish tricks pulled on the mid-course booters. Partly influenced by motocross and then brought to life by Kyle Strait’s glory run through the dual course in Whistler during Crankworx in 2011, the SRAM Dual Speed & Style in Les 2 Alpes on July 12, 2012 was the first Speed & Style event organized by Crankworx with Cam Zink taking the win. Judging by the crowds gathered today for the Dual Speed & Style presented by Avid, the event is an exciting addition to the world of freeride competition.
Tonight the Bud Light Crankworx Concerts featured ambient rock and power-pop starting with Jets Overhead at 7:45pm and Said The Whale at 8:45pm at Whistler Olympic Plaza. Stay tuned to www.crankworx.com for upcoming news and connect with Crankworx through Facebook.com/crankworx or Twitter.com/crankworx.
Live Streaming Webcast Schedule for Crankworx Whistler 2012 The webcasts, powered by Red Bull Media House, are live streamed at www.crankworx.com, www.redbull.com/bike and by online media partner www.pinkbike.com.
Saturday August 11 • REPLAY – Canadian Open Enduro - http://live.redbull.tv/events/120/crankworx-whistler-canadian-open-enduro/ • REPLAY - Dual Speed & Style presented by AVID – http://live.redbull.tv/events/121/crankworx-whistler-dual-speed-style/
Sunday August 12 • Garbanzo DH - 4:30pm-7:00pm
Wednesday August 15 • Air DH - 3:30pm–5:30pm
Thursday August 16 • Teva Best Trick - 4:00pm-6:00pm • Ultimate Pump Track Challenge presented by Rock Shox - 8:00pm-9:00pm
Friday August 17 • Red Bull Joyride Qualifiers - 1:30pm-3:00pm • GIANT Dual Slalom Amateur - 3:30pm-5:30pm • GIANT Dual Slalom Pro - 6:00pm-8:00pm
Saturday August 18 • Red Bull Joyride Finals - 5:30pm-7:30pm
Sunday August 19 • Jeep Canadian Open DH - 3:00pm-5:00pm
The ninth annual Crankworx Whistler is presented by Whistler Blackcomb and the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. Crankworx Whistler is the biggest annual event held in Whistler and is also the largest freeride mountain bike festival in the world. Crankworx Les 2 Alpes took place for the first time July 9-15, 2012 and was the first Crankworx event to take place outside of North America. This new event will build on Crankworx’s legendary legacy in the arena of freeride mountain biking.
Brendog is still one of my favourite riders, he doesn't have the best of seasons in the World Cups and then he comes up with a result like this... RESPECT!
Sorry I wasn't able to watch his runs due to a low internet connection so I'm basing my comment off of his ability to shred DH at a WC level and his really impressive ability to shred dirt jumps as well. Anyone know of a replay that isn't a steaming video? Also I'm loving the arguments going on. It shows that people actually care about this new (to mtbing anyways) discipline.
You canadians can neg prop me with no excuse, but online stream was rubbish like never before. Never showed results tree, was lagging all over the place (like never before), missed some great moments, because of advertising, background sound was too low, while comentary was too loud (barely can hear the crowd - can't feel the atmosphere). Overall organization? Fixing pole in the ground after every run? Seriously? Results guy got a hangover? Screen shows bull$%# and no one knows who won, or if they know, and starts celebrating, next moment this appears to be a mistake. Les 2 Alpes Speed & Style was such a joy to watch, unfortunatelly, this just isn't.
Having watched this, Martin was the only guy popping and tricking every hit and still going crazy fast...had he not slid out twice he would have won for sure. Shitty luck.
You're nuts. Even with a huge lead Lacondeguy was throwing backflips. Not only that but even after going ig on the first jump he had the lead on Fairclough before blowing his line
Worlds selection is down to each countries federation. British Cycling thought long and hard as to who they would allow from their allocation and with the likes of Marc Beaumont being on top form means the UK have a very, very strong talent pool and therefore a massive headache regards who to choose.
It's definitely neat to see which riders do well at this event. Awesome to finally see Brendog winning an event, with Andreau right up there in second! And if he hadn't wiped out at the end he definitely would have won.
I don't mean to offend, this festival pulls very close at my heartstrings and professional obligations have pulled me away from being able to document it how I see it.
injuries made it so he couldn't race, so the UK probably selected riders with a full season, an im pretty sure the UCI has rulings on how many points / races you need to qualify for worlds.
Martin Soderstrom is too awesome, win or lose.
thanks.