Taxco is famous for its silver, much of which is still handcrafted in small shops all over town.
The two favorites lead the way during track walk.
TAXCO DOWNHILL
As always the usual City Downhill powerhouse riders like Filip Polc, Bernardo Cruz, and Thomas Slavik were the heavy favorites coming in, but as is always the case in racing nothing is ever certain. Slavik flatted on his first run and Polc made a crucial mistake that allowed Bernardo Cruz set the early fast time and put pressure on the others. It also allowed Matt Walker and Neko Mulally to mix it up at the front as well. During their second runs, Polc would step it up to better the time of Cruz from the first run, and Matt Walker would pull seconds out of Mulally and Slavik to ensure himself at least third with only one rider to go.
With all eyes on the timing clock as Bernardo Cruz scrubbed the final two jumps it became apparent it was going to be an extremely close race. As Bernardo crossed the line the cheers of the crowd told the story, and by 0.56 of a second the Brazilian would win the prestigious Downhill Taxco and its 6k euro prize purse for the second year in a row.
No one hits stairs as fast as Bernardo Cruz.
Mexican National Champion, Javi Lopez.
Local favorite, Javi Lopez.
A flat tire would ruin Tomas Slavik's first run, but he would come back strong on his second run to take 4th.
Fox News Mexico were on hand covering the event for national TV.
All the boys are psyched to kick things off in Taxco.
Safety first.
9th place for Mexican favorite, Alberto Gonzales.
Top Mexican rider and local legend, Ricardo Preciado in 8th.
Matt Walker styling up the final jumps in training.
Ethan Nell.
Finn Iles sprints to the line.
Andrew Neethling's bag and race kit was lost in transit, but he made do with this custom job.
Neko Mullally threads the needle down one of the narrow alleyways en route to 5th.
Kiwi privateer, Matt Walker surprised many with an amazing run that would land him in 3rd.
Always the man to beat, Filip Polc drops into the main square.
Filip Polc gave it everything he had to beat Bernardo's first run time.
Bernardo squashing the final kicker trying to chase down the fast time of Filip Polc.
All eyes on the clock as Bernardo sprinted across the line.
Bernardo Cruz is the king of Taxco for the second year in a row.
2015 Downhill Taxco podium.
BEST TRICK
With the crowd now properly stirred into a frenzy, the best trick contest took place as a rapid fire 30 minute jam session that saw 10 rider whip trains, flips, spins, and even a few spectacular crashes. Ethan Nell would be the first rider to really throw down and set the bar early on. Soon after Antoni Villoni dropped jaws with a massive cliffhanger that looked to be unbeatable until Cam Zink unloaded a perfect nack/back flip. And with that the competitive side of the 2015 Downhill Taxo came to a close, leaving plenty of time for what some consider the real main event.... The infamous afterparty.
Massive crowds greeted riders once again in Taxco.
With Geoff Gulevich still in the hospital with food poisoning, it was up to Noah Brousseau to throw down for the Rocky Mountain crew.
Hey Pinkbike, what is this new fashion of sizing photos larger than the screen height? Recently a vertical video was voted a fail of the month so please don't do the same to the photos - having to scroll a photograph to see it top to bottom doesn't do the viewing experience any good.
@jaame DH world cups are vastly more competitive and urban DH is also very different from traditional DH in terms of track length, event formatting and terrain.
@Dano98 - That last sentence backfired quite abysmally, didn't it? I hope it was just some useless bureaucrat's absent-mindedness, because if it wasn't, I'm afraid there are more of these "bombshells" to come...
It looked amazing in the photo.
And not diminish Zink's ability, but I don't give a damn about backflips, with the exception of McGarry's canyon gap. They're so overused now. Anything that's different, is welcomed in my eyes.
Great coverage PB, thanks! Great concept to bring this sport to the masses living in the cities. I can only hope there'll be more events like these in the cities around the world. Can PB help to organize such event? Users can submit interesting locations and then can vote for the winning city...
DownTaxco began in 2003 sponsored by RedBull as a copy of DH Lisbon Downtown, but with better track. Runs 2003, 2004 and 2005, with only a few personalities, once Kyle Strait won (some kilos ago, lol!) then Altius Events organised again in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 with the sponsor of Monster Energy. This is the 4th consecutive year!
Or just a tired photographer who ran around shooting the photos all day, wrote this story, all the captions and then did the web coding to make this feature look unique, finishing at 3am..... And missed one number on a caption. Deal with it ;-) but don't be rude and disrespectful.
Oh my good I feel so sorry for him working till 3 AM and blablablabla what a Poor worker maybe he is doing slave work... Sorry this for me is an amateur mistake, no revision or text editor in Pinkbike? There are to many mistakes in PB texts but who cares if PB is a first world or third world website....
Awesome coverage Dave Trumpore! You work your ass off. Sick photos and stories....and you pull an all-nighter so you can post it for the riders and fans.
No editing software will point out 2015 v 2016 and the two number look almost the same on the small font of comment line, so was missed by me and the editors.... So by mudmanbrazil's logic it's laziness and this post is "amateur work"despite all the other work and accuracies. Could you be more insulting mudman? You should have a look at your own post, it is atrocious and full of errors ;-)
Am I the only one that thinks this is a sketchy idea? I mean the course looks sketchy, the area looks sketchy, and I'd imagine the medical facilities probably aren't the best especially for a serious crash.
Motorcycle… no helmet… machine gun… what could go wrong?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSrIoJDkbdo
Cheers.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RRDGa1OD3M&feature=youtu.be
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RRDGa1OD3M&feature=youtu.be
excelent coverage!
Mais uma vez provando seu valor.