Eagle Vs Shark! 47 Photos from the Mons Royale Dual Speed and Style
There is brilliance in Dual Speed and Style. Taking one on most exciting formats of racing and adding some massive jumps and letting freeriders and racers duke it out is just plain rad. Martin Soderstrom has been out for nearly two years after that crash at Crankworx Whistler, but he has returned with much style and speed here in New Zealand and emerged the victor in DSS. Despite his best efforts Bernard Kerr's speed wasn't enough to out gun the Swede and Adrien Loron without taking too much risk before the World Cup Season begins.
 |
 Fire in the skies this morning in Rotorua before the sun rose over. Although it started nice, the day ended with heavy rains putting a stop to slopestyle practice and the pumptrack challenge. |
 |
| Martin and Ryan Howard checking out the practice. |
 |
| Speed and Style peanut gallery. |
 |
 |
| Zink paired off against his good buddy Kyle Strait in the very first round today |
 |
| Zink working out the kinks. |
 |
 |
 |
| Kyle Strait and Martin Soderstrom; both equally stylish today. |
 |
 |
| Decisions, decisions. Spend more time in the air throwing rad tricks, or stay low and carry speed. It all depends on who you are racing against. |
 |
 |
| Martin fully focused. |
 |
| Bernard Kerr keeping it fast and low as a racer does, a tactic that proved quite successful. |
 |
| Kerr getting out in front early. |
 |
| Kyle Strait and Zink powering through the rhythm section. |
 |
| Bernard Kerr was gunning to win this and came pretty close with a lot of speed and smooth style. |
 |
| Far ahead in the lead. |
 |
| R Dog was looking good out there today, but he couldn't keep the winning momentum up from yesterday. |
 |
 |
 |
| Through the flat slalom turns Soderstrom stayed focused and pour on the power. |
 |
| Zink had a bit of bad luck out of the second bermed turn and hit a post the put him out of the running early. |
 |
 |
| Soderstrom pushing ahead of Strait. |
 |
| R-Dog and T Mac blasting into the logs. |
 |
| Watts with the back flip out of the gate. |
 |
| Loron and Kerr neck and neck in the semi final. |
 |
| Adrien Loron had the speed to match Kerr, and threw in a finish line back flip to take second place. |
 |
| Martin casually double tailwhipping the last jump. |
 |
| Tyler McCaul and Ryan Howard getting got a little close on this one. |
 |
| Paul Genovese went down pretty hard later in the heats but was putting down some big moves such as this indian air. |
 |
 |
| All smiles and lot's of style from Bernard Kerr as he sped his way into the small finals |
 |
| Bernard Kerr a few speed humps in front of Carson Storch. |
 |
| Kyle Strait and Martin Soderstrom were about the most neck and neck heats of the day. Both riders were on my shortlist of guys who were going to win the Speed and Style today. |
 |
| Martin putting down such a perfect truckdriver, it made the ice road truckers look bad. |
 |
| Martin Soderstrom showed he has what it takes to win, the right combination of speed and a bag full of well executed tricks. It looks like we could be seeing much more of him up on the podium. |
 |
| After getting an eye full of the bubbly Martin got to taste the spoils of victory. |
 |
| One more incentive to get you back on the top of the box "So good to taste the champagne again" - Martin |
 |
| Been a long time and hard road since Martin last stood on the podium after his horrific crash at Crankworx nearly two years ago. |
 |
| Martin Soderstrom |
 |
 |
 |
| Soderstrom is back and fired up for more wins in the future. |
 |
| Zink is one tough dude riding on a broken hand. |
 |
| There's nothing like the taste of gold and a couple grand in your pocket. |
 |
| That's all for today from Crankworx. Rain put a delay to the pump track challenge, which will be on tomorrow evening. Stay tuned. |
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
[UPDATED] Final Elite XC Results & Overall Standings from the Mairiporã XC World Cup 2024
42169 views
42169 views
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
www.pinkbike.com/news/steps-to-the-top-martin-soderstrom-video-2015.html
Slopestyle is gonna be off the scale!!