Crankworx Colorado Slopestyle Final Recap
It was an amazing day at Winter Park, Colorado for the finals of the Crankworx Colorado Slopestyle. Brandon Semenuk took home his 3rd slopestyle win and also won the best trick contest, with Yannick Granieri coming second and Martin Soderstrom taking third. Today had a sad side as well with Cam McCaul crashing and breaking his leg, heal up quick Cam!
Photos and words insideAfter the heavy rain on Wednesday night and Thursday's continued rain and postponed qualifying it was really nice to wake up to sunny skies this morning. The day started out with perfect conditions, but it slowly got windier throughout the day. Tyler McCaul started out with a sick run, finally getting everything together. 1 foot x-up off the drop followed by a tailwhip over the hip, and a tailwhip off the whale tail. Sam Dueck had troubles on his first run.
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Jack Fogelquist messed up his first run, slipping a pedal on the drop and then overshooting the hip.
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Aggy's lead was short lived however as Brandon Semenuk threw down a sick first run. 360 x-up off the drop, tailwhip over the hip, truckdriver off the whale tail, and a flipwhip on the trick jump.
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Mitch Chubey had probably the best run I've ever seen him do, for some reason his score didn't seem to match his run though.
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The wind had been coming up a bit as the day went on and as Cam was treated by the Patrol it started to really pick up. Greg Watts was next up, but after the wait and with the wind he did a pretty simple run, with no big tricks.
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With Cam Zink's top qualifying run from yesterday expectations were high however he didn't manage to finish his first run, probably due in part to the wind.
Tyler McCaul gave up his second run to be with Cam, leaving Sam Dueck with the first run of the second round. Sam had troubles in qualifying and crashed on his first run, but made up for it on his second run in the final, 360 off the drop, tailwhip over the hip, barspin over the trestle, 360 off the whale tail, tailwhip over the jump, and tailwhip on the quarter.
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After Sam's run the wind played a huge factor and the next group of riders couldn't make it over the whale tails with the headwind. Everyone decided to quit until the wind died and the event was put on a one hour hold.
As the event started up again everyone was allowed to take a second run. Sam declined, keeping his run from before.
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Here are some highlights from most of the second run...
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As the afternoon progressed the wind really started to come up again, making it more difficult for riders to ride well.
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Darren Berrecloth started his second run incredibly strong, but as he came over the trestle jump the wind hit him, almost stopping him. He barely made it onto the whale tail/fruit bowls and he cased hard coming off. He didn't crash but it took all of his speed, run over.
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The top 6 riders had the option of doing a 3rd Superfinal run if they wanted but all but Watts turned it down. Greg took the opportunity to try for best trick, going for the double truck he had stuck more than a few times in practice but once again the wind struck and he cased fairly hard getting tossed off his bike. Contest over...
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Photos and words insideAfter the heavy rain on Wednesday night and Thursday's continued rain and postponed qualifying it was really nice to wake up to sunny skies this morning. The day started out with perfect conditions, but it slowly got windier throughout the day. Tyler McCaul started out with a sick run, finally getting everything together. 1 foot x-up off the drop followed by a tailwhip over the hip, and a tailwhip off the whale tail. Sam Dueck had troubles on his first run.
Yannick Granieri, super flat 360 over the trick jump
Brendan Howey started with a good run but crashed on a tailwhip over the last jump.
Colin Westeinde had impressive first run with a super sick no foot can over the trestle, followed by a stylish tuck no hander off the whale tail, and a superman over the jump.
Jack Fogelquist messed up his first run, slipping a pedal on the drop and then overshooting the hip.
Graham Agassiz had a great first run taking the lead with a 360 off the drop followed by a tailwhip over the hip and a corked flip off the whale tail and then a moto looking cliffhanger over the jump.
Aggy's lead was short lived however as Brandon Semenuk threw down a sick first run. 360 x-up off the drop, tailwhip over the hip, truckdriver off the whale tail, and a flipwhip on the trick jump.
Semenuk, Truck driver
Semenuk, flipwhip
Brett Rheeder, sick tailwhip!
Amir Kabbani had a solid run, here he does a 360 x-up off the whale tail.
Martin Soderstrom had a sick first run that put into 3rd place for the rest of the event, check out this 360 table off the whale tail. He followed it up with a double whip off the trick jump.
Mitch Chubey had probably the best run I've ever seen him do, for some reason his score didn't seem to match his run though.
Chubey, tailwhip off the whale tail
Chubey, flip table
I talked to Cam McCaul before his first run and he said he wanted to front flip either the whale tail or the trick jump. As he came up onto the whale tail he went for it and threw a sick looking front flip. Unfortunately he came up a little short, casing the landing and getting tossed. In the process he broke his leg. We're all wishing Cam the best and hoping he heals up quick.
The wind had been coming up a bit as the day went on and as Cam was treated by the Patrol it started to really pick up. Greg Watts was next up, but after the wait and with the wind he did a pretty simple run, with no big tricks.
Greg Watts, truckdriver off the whale tail earlier in the day in practice
Darren Berrecloth pulled off a pretty sick run in spite of the wind with a big 360 off the drop and a trick off every obstacle including a lookback out of the wall ride and a halfway decent switch 360 lookback off the trick jump. Here he 360's off of the whale tail.
With Cam Zink's top qualifying run from yesterday expectations were high however he didn't manage to finish his first run, probably due in part to the wind.
Tyler McCaul gave up his second run to be with Cam, leaving Sam Dueck with the first run of the second round. Sam had troubles in qualifying and crashed on his first run, but made up for it on his second run in the final, 360 off the drop, tailwhip over the hip, barspin over the trestle, 360 off the whale tail, tailwhip over the jump, and tailwhip on the quarter.
Here's his 360 off the whale tail...
After Sam's run the wind played a huge factor and the next group of riders couldn't make it over the whale tails with the headwind. Everyone decided to quit until the wind died and the event was put on a one hour hold.
As the event started up again everyone was allowed to take a second run. Sam declined, keeping his run from before.
Yannick Granieri was first up for the post break second run and he made the most of it, putting himself into 2nd place. Here he tailwhips off the drop at the top
Here are some highlights from most of the second run...
Jack Fogelquist's run put him into 6th place
Brandon Semenuk did his second ever front flip over the trick jump
Andrew Taylor had a solid run, here he does a superman off the whale
Paul Basagoitia, 360 one foot x-up
Geoff Gulevitch, corked flip
Amir Kabbani, super stretched tuck no handed flip
As the afternoon progressed the wind really started to come up again, making it more difficult for riders to ride well.
Sam Pilgrim, flip table
Greg Watts, flip whip
Darren Berrecloth started his second run incredibly strong, but as he came over the trestle jump the wind hit him, almost stopping him. He barely made it onto the whale tail/fruit bowls and he cased hard coming off. He didn't crash but it took all of his speed, run over.
Cam Zink was last to go, flip table off the whale tail. He tried to do his new trick, an indian air seatgrab flip over the trick jump but missed grabbing his seat, and the event was over.
The top 6 riders had the option of doing a 3rd Superfinal run if they wanted but all but Watts turned it down. Greg took the opportunity to try for best trick, going for the double truck he had stuck more than a few times in practice but once again the wind struck and he cased fairly hard getting tossed off his bike. Contest over...
Podium shot
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props for Brendon, once again.