Crankworx Colorado's debut last summer turned out to be a major hit in the mountain bike world, bringing the scene's top riders (pro and amateur) to compete in a world class slope-style event located in Winter Park Resort, about a two hour drive from Denver International Airport. The second annual Crankworx Colorado is being held this week from July 29 - August 3, where Pinkbike.com has sent Mike Reid and myself, Ryan Meyer, to Winter Park Resort for daily coverage of the festival. Nick Meyer and I flew into Denver International just before noon on Monday where we met up with Kelly 'the Kiwi' and hung out for a few hours to meet up with all the other guys coming in on flights around three in the afternoon. Joe Perrizo, Graham Agassiz, Brendan Howey and Kurt Sorge met us at the baggage claim and we slammed into a cargo van in return for a hefty fee shuttled us up to Winter Park.
Video of the Course insideArriving in the mountain village we could see the slope-style course from a mile away and it looked groomed to perfection... mind you we were a kilometer away, but everyone was getting antsy to ride it. We checked into the
Founders Point lodge before anything else and our room is amazing, the hotel just opened a month ago and it seems like we are the first people to stay in the room so far. After the bikes were all built up and everyone got their bags and gear situated, we went for a trek over to the course. The builders up here in Winter Park sure know how to do it right because this is the nicest slope-style course I have seen for an MTB event yet. Everything is groomed to perfection with minimal rocks and unlike some local courses I know *cough* it is rider friendly and maintained! Everything is different on the course including the mandatory first road gap that they have downsized from last year because it was too large for some riders liking.
Nick Meyer hitting with a run through of the course
Events:
The Super Downhill was the first event on the schedule, starting at 1:45PM Thursday. Super Downhill is mass rider, timed race down the downhill course where anything goes and the one who makes the most passes and finishes first will win. We hiked up the course to get a closer look, and Mike got some killer shots of Brian Lopes who finished 2nd and Wade Simmons who finished 9th.
Full Results from the Super Downhill.
Directly after the Super Downhill finished, we were back up to the slope-style course for the qualifiers. There were 34 riders in the slope-style but 10 of those riders were already pre-qualified from their results at last years event or in some cases like the Lacondeguy brothers, they were invited from their stellar performances last season.
The remaining 24 riders battled it out for 12 final spots into the main event, but rode as if it was the main event. Major 3's, cork flips, step down flips, step down 3's, 3's off drops, super mans, and tail whips were just half of the tricks pulled off in the qualifier by these amazing, young and talented competitors.
Mike Montgomery was killing it all practice but unfortunately he had a bad crash off the top of the first ladder and ended up breaking his wrist.
Wyper with a big Indian air
Gully out of the peanut butter cup
Gully 3ing out of the peanut butter cup
The unofficial qualifiers from today:Brandon Semenuk (most dialed Kid in the game)
Geoff Gulevich
Kelly "the Kiwi Kid" McGarry
Joe "flip anything" Perrizo
Logan Peat
Kyle McDonald
Greg "Double or Nothing" Watts
Kurt Sorge
Cam Zink
Graham Agassiz
Tyler McCaul (hottest kid in the game)
Dave Smutok
Pre-Qualifyers:Alex Pro
Justin Wyper
Jamie Goldman
Mitch Chubey
Cam McCaul
Andrew Taylor
Andreu Lacondeguy
Lluis Lacondeguy
Nate Adams
Logan Binggeli
We'll be back with more coverage as it happens!
More of Mike Reid's Crankworx Colorado pics here.
All event coverage of Crankworx Colorado 2008 by Ryan Meyer with pics by Mike Reid.