Practice kicked off early with a 10:30am start. The crowds showed up with coffee and Caesars over the usual beers, and while they may have been a little more subdued, they still showed up in droves to cheer for their favourites.
#mcgazzaforever
Italian Diego Caverzasi is fairly new to the slopestyle public eye. After dialling in all his tricks during practice, it was hard to see him crash out in both his runs today.
An injured Cam Zink flowed the course today and took a moment to announce his retirement. Our hearts and gratitude go out to Cam, a two time winner of this competition, for everything he has brought to the sport.
Brandon Semenuk's day could only be described as a disaster. Crashing off of the approach to the big drop right out of the start on his first run and slipping a pedal on a landing near the top of his second run. Perhaps it was the pressure of trying to win his 4th straight Red Bull Joyride, or perhaps it was just one of those days where nothing seems to click. Despite his bad luck, he continued to progress the sport with a rad half cab on the top drop during his second run.
Calm and collected but you can read a bit of disbelief in Rheeder's eyes as Semenuk falls short on his second run.
Matt Jones with a huge flip high above the heads of the spectators.
Szymon Godziek had some big tricks up his sleeve but was unable to piece it all together for a complete run, eventually finishing in 12th.
When you go as hard as Nicholi Rogatkin, you come up short sometimes - today was one of those times. He crashed on the same jump on both runs, blowing both of his tires the second time.
Thomas Zejda blew a tire in his first run, but scored a 72.6 for 10th place on his second.
Nicknamed the Rookie Legend, Ryan Nyquist brought huge BMX style to this mountain bike competition throwing down an impressive run to take 9th place. Thirty-seven years young and still one of the greats on a bike.
Frenchman Mehdi Gani flipped out of the whale tail on his 2nd run to eventually settle in 8th place.
Tomas Lemoine threw out 360 bar spins, front flips, and 3's for a 7th place finish. He was greeted by his good friend Thomas Genon as the judges announced his final score.
Anthony Messere was the first contender to make a full run of the course. Stacked with 360 bar spins, flip whips, and a big 360 off the final drop, his program landed him in 6th place.
Once again massive crowds made for standing room only in the Whistler base area as Logan Peat backflipped his way up the McGazza step-up. One of the few who made a full run of the course, he secured 5th place.
17 year old Emil Johansson went absolutely mental in his first ever Red Bull Joyride contest. He has only been competing in FMB contests for two months and currently has no major sponsors. With his 4th place today we have a feeling that a lot of things are going to be changing for him in the very near future.
Max Fredriksson took the 3rd step with backflip tuck no-handers and a double tail whip.
Thomas Genon pulled off two huge runs for second place, including a massive 360 tuck no-hander off of the final jump.
Brett Rheeder took his first ever Red Bull Joyride win today after stomping his first run and earning a score of 93 - enough to hold the lead for both rounds.
The top three riders from Red Bull Joyride; Thomas Genon (2nd), Brett Rheeder (1st), and Max Fredriksson (3rd). Birthday boy, Thomas Genon, enjoyed a champagne shower from Rheeder.
After the podiums, Crankworx organizers announced the King and Queen of Crankworx; Jill Kintner and Tomas Slavik.
Damn good photography. Cheers to all the photographers.
Can this be my moment to say how putting joyride on sunday kills a ton of the fun? Such a smaller crowd turnout then previous years, nowhere near the energy I've seen. Last year got rained out to Sunday morning, understandable. This year, what was it... a money grab? More people shopping in the village and hopefully staying one more day? As much fun as it is Sunday is my go home day every Crankworx, next year the homies and I are probably just going to ride on Sunday and go home after and catch the joyride highlights when we're home. Joyride is much better on Saturday evening. Everyone got their riding in for the day, people are posted up all over the hillside ready to watch the greatest event ever, big party after all over the village and everyone gets up the next morning and rides/goes home/watches the DH. Meh. Sorry for bitching, everything just felt hugely off this Crankworx, and it's my one trip I look forward to every damn year. Please for god sakes switch it back.
When it got postponed to Sunday last year, it was at 10 am instead of in the afternoon, which allowed Europeans to watch with the time change and Redbulls live view ratings were the best theyve had. But I agree 100%, Saturday is way better.
Agree it's better overall to have it on Saturday, but the turn-out was pretty solid I thought (until it started raining during run 2). Definitely less of a buzz, but I think part of that was due to the crashes and really, everyone knew Rheeder had won after Semenuk and Rogatkin crashed on run 2.
Having Canadian Open DH on Saturday was awesome, as was having great weather until Sunday night. Got in a ton of riding too.
@gramboh: I go pretty much every year and I've never had this much freedom to move around the hill and stand just about anywhere. Two years ago the hill had so many people on it you could barely move. IMO evening time is just better for the event. So much more fun. I like Sunday DH, it's fun to go up the lifts and get the final day of riding in while watching pros clear the road gap. Having heckle fest on Sunday makes Sunday seem like it's not Monday-eve
@dro-cfr: I don't think the MTB industry values true style enough. It's all about the trick difficulty. I don't think he's getting enough credit for what he's doing and that's saying something considering he's placing top 10 in every event he's entering.
It's one of the reasons more of the older BMX guys haven't made the transition.
I personally love a super styly trick thrown in the middle of all these other tricks as much as anything else. It's like a snowboarder throwing a super huge 180 or 360 with a massive grab instead of a 1080 in the middle of a bunch of other cork spin variations. I love that.
That's what Nyquist brings that not to many of the other guys do. That effortless style of 35 years on a bmx bike.
@onemanarmy: his run was my favorite, everything else looked too techy with not enough style. Don't get me wrong, I think Semenuk has crazy style and tech, but there was only one run that I cheered out loud for, and that was Nyquist
@Colelrg: It's alright. I'm over it now. I never expected to do so well. It was exciting to watch and know that I was so high in the standings. I was about to have a heart attack watching Brandon, though.
man this guy is a gladiator. He did the most brutal case (second to hospital gap), twice, even blowing both his tire, and still completed his first run with bangers. He is definitely the rider I enjoy watching the most.
@GabrielDugas: He did the same at rampage, fell of a 40ft cliff and then proceeded to jump the 70ft canyon gap with concussion for a certainty, absolute nutcase!
Was super bummed that Semenuk didn't finish a run but Rheeder's performance was insanity. It was awesome to see him get a win.
HDMI > TV works pretty great but not everyone has that luxury. They seriously need to get Joyride and Rampage televised.. I know Rampage gets shown after the fact on daytime TV but this stuff is way too awesome not to share with the world on a live stage.
I think this joyride event was a bust. Many of the features were not dialed in and it was difficult to ride the course because of that. Look at the results, more than half the field crashed. The first major booter, which rogatkin crashed on was an oversized spine and was hard to clear most of the time. Almost everyone was casing it. Joyride has been the pinacle of the slope style scene forever, but is it still? Terrible weather each year and too many crashes. Reminds me every time of the X-Games a few years back.
Cant wait to see Rheeder half cab off a drop next year. Seems like Semenuk brings all the new shit and Rheeder just copies it a year later Example: flat drop, cork 7, flat drop 1 footed can.
a little birdie told me that this is Semenuk's last year competing in mtb and that he's gonna solely concentrate on film work and rally driving in the coming years...
Red Bull Joy Ride is the big time. They should at least provide decent bottles of Champagne for the podium. Freixenet cava does not cut it for a world class event.
Can this be my moment to say how putting joyride on sunday kills a ton of the fun? Such a smaller crowd turnout then previous years, nowhere near the energy I've seen. Last year got rained out to Sunday morning, understandable. This year, what was it... a money grab? More people shopping in the village and hopefully staying one more day? As much fun as it is Sunday is my go home day every Crankworx, next year the homies and I are probably just going to ride on Sunday and go home after and catch the joyride highlights when we're home. Joyride is much better on Saturday evening. Everyone got their riding in for the day, people are posted up all over the hillside ready to watch the greatest event ever, big party after all over the village and everyone gets up the next morning and rides/goes home/watches the DH. Meh. Sorry for bitching, everything just felt hugely off this Crankworx, and it's my one trip I look forward to every damn year. Please for god sakes switch it back.
Having Canadian Open DH on Saturday was awesome, as was having great weather until Sunday night. Got in a ton of riding too.
It's one of the reasons more of the older BMX guys haven't made the transition.
I personally love a super styly trick thrown in the middle of all these other tricks as much as anything else. It's like a snowboarder throwing a super huge 180 or 360 with a massive grab instead of a 1080 in the middle of a bunch of other cork spin variations. I love that.
That's what Nyquist brings that not to many of the other guys do. That effortless style of 35 years on a bmx bike.
www.pinkbike.com/photo/13850701
Thomas Genon latest drop tuck 3-6 : you can see the delay between the real action and the giant live-screen.
That Semenuk sequence... damn... going blind on such a high drop... !
Mega props to all photographers. Thank you so much for this amazing job. Thank you pinkbike !
HDMI > TV works pretty great but not everyone has that luxury. They seriously need to get Joyride and Rampage televised.. I know Rampage gets shown after the fact on daytime TV but this stuff is way too awesome not to share with the world on a live stage.
P.S. I 3 Photo Epics
Just curious if it was a traditional red and black or if it was like a red/white theme with a bunch of maple leaves or something.
Is Trumper watches out where Gore stands and takes the same frames/pictures?