Red Bull Joyride will anchor the final weekend of the Crankworx Whistler, delivering a slopestyle event designed for the athletes, by the athletes.
Image by Malcolm McLaws
Fusing elements of slopestyle, dirt jump, and North Shore mountain biking, Red Bull Joyride will once again culminate into one gravity-fed, season-defining freeride mountain bike competition on Saturday, August 18th in Whistler, BC. Eighteen of the best riders in the business will battle it out for a chunk of the $45,000 in prize money and historical bragging rights. Each competitor will have three runs to impress the judges and test their mettle on the re-designed, custom-built course. Last year, over 25,000 wide-eyed spectators were on hand to witness history in the making as 20-year-old local boy Brandon Semenuk from Whistler, BC claimed the top step of the podium at the first ever Red Bull Joyride Freeride Mountain Bike competition. Semenuk took a look at the 2012 course and said, "the course is a great balance between big and technical".
This year’s course promises to deliver more action, more riding, and less braking. Adding two major features – a 60-foot gap and a 35-foot drop at the finish of the track – Joyride Bike Park owner and designer of the Joyride course at Whistler Mountain Bike Park, Paddy Kaye and his crew started working on the course in May. They have sculpted, manicured, and slaved into shape a course that will be the anchor for the ten-day spectacle known as Crankworx Whistler. Paddy relied on feedback from the top six riders from last year to give input on what they would like to see changed in 2012. The consensus was that the speed needed to be controlled a little more.
Athlete Invites Signed, Sealed, and Delivered The world’s best slopestyle athletes will show everyone what next level riding looks like. With Diamond Level FMB points and a $25,000 cash purse for first place alone in Whistler at Red Bull Joyride, the best of the best will be on course. Crankworx’s slopestyle event has long been considered the most prestigious event of its kind in the world and Red Bull Joyride is a Diamond Stop, one of only two worldwide.
“These are season-defining freeride mountain bike competitions and the invitation formats ensure the best athletes compete,” says Darren Kinnaird, Crankworx General Manager. For Red Bull Joyride, invitations go out to athletes based on their performance at previous Crankworx Slopestyles and their results in the FMB World Tour.”
Red Bull Joyride Qualifying Format A total of ten athletes will be automatically qualified for Red Bull Joyride on Saturday, August 18 and won’t have to participate in the two full course qualifying runs on August 16, based on the following criteria:
· Top six ranking athletes from the 2011 Red Bull Joyride (Brandon Semenuk, Cam Zink, Anthony Messere, Greg Watts, Geoff Gulevich, Cam McCaul)
· Top 4 from 2012 Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour's 52 week ranking on July 7, 2012 (or highest previously unqualified athletes)
An additional eight athletes will be qualified based on the results of two full-course runs on August 16, limited to the 16 athletes that are not pre-qualified for Red Bull Joyride. Red Bull Joyride judges will observe the two full-course qualifying runs. Riders will be ranked based on the best score achieved of the qualifying runs to select eight athletes to advance and join the ten pre-qualified riders for Red Bull Joyride on Saturday, August 18.
Rider’s List Below is the criteria used to determine the 17 athlete invitations issued already and for the how the rest of the field will be filled out for participation in Red Bull Joyride:
· The past winner of Crankworx Colorado Slopestyle receives a three-year automatic invite to Red Bull Joyride at Crankworx Whistler (C. McCaul, winner in 2011)
· Top three athletes of the past three Crankworx Slopestyles receive a three-year automatic invitation to future Red Bull Joyride and Teva Best Trick Showdown events (2012 to 2014: Semenuk, Zink, Messere; 2011 to 2013: Zink, Montgomery, Groves; 2011 to 2012: Watts, Semenuk, Soderstrom )
· The fourth to tenth ranked athletes from the 2011 Red Bull Joyride (Watts, Gulevich, C. McCaul, T. McCaul, Sorge, Goldman, Berrecloth)
· The winner of Crankworx Les 2 Alpes Slopestyle presented by iXS will receive a three-year automatic invite to Red Bull Joyride at Crankworx Whistler
· Winners (or highest placing previously unqualified athlete) of the following 2012 Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour (FMB) Gold events: FISE Montpellier (Granieri, third place finish), 26Trix (Genon, first place finish), the Claymore Challenge, and the Bearclaw Invitational.
· The top twelve athletes from the FMB 2012 52-week rankings after July 7 (Mathematically, Pilgrim and Reynolds can’t fall outside top 12 by July 7).
· The field will be rounded out with wild card invites.
Stay tuned to Pinkbike.com to watch the event live on August 18th at 4:00 p.m. PST.
NBC’s Red Bull Signature Series will air Red Bull Joyride on October 6th, 2012 at 1:30 p.m. PST.
About Crankworx Whistler 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. Home to hundreds of game-changing moments in freeride mountain biking’s history, Crankworx Whistler is a ten-day festival devoted to celebrating epic endurance, supreme flow, monster air and vertical-dropping riding. Crankworx Whistler attracts the downhill, slopestyle and enduro legends of the world, to defy physics and blow minds, with their hard-charging, tail-whipping, back-flipping ways. Pay homage August 10-19, 2012 at Crankworx Whistler, the most progressive freeride event of the year.
Coincided 1st trip to BC with Crankworx. Mega stoked
