Puerto Vallarta is located on the Mexican Pacific in the state of Jalisco, Mexico. It has been, for many years, a top tourist destination because of its warm beaches, great resorts, food, and nightlife. This first edition of Down Puerto Vallarta comes from the same people (Altius Events) behind one of the most famous urban downhill events in the world: Down Taxco.
Although Taxco is a great, picturesque town, and its steep staircases make it perfect for this type of event, Puerto Vallarta has several elements that can make this event a repeat, but one that is obvious and makes this venue so special is… the beach.
As for last year’s Down Taxco, this new venue’s track was designed by Olly Wilkins, Christian Fariclough, and Duncan Ferris who went all out in making a top class race track and jumps for everybody to have fun.
SPEED
STYLE
PODIUM
For the Speed side of this event, a short track made the top three guys so close to each other that the results were within the hundreds of a second. There weren't many parts of the track that could make up seconds, and any mistake would result in a great loss of precious time to this race.
On the style side of the event, I would not have liked to be judging this one bit, since there were quite a few guys making the crowd go as wild as it gets. You could literally hear the crowd screaming from the start gate at the top of the hill like a rock concert, none the less, Antoine took the win despite having injured his ankle the day before. Hats off to all the guys who sent it out there, it was quite a show.
From left to right: Bernardo Cruz 3rd: 1:27.93, Tomas Slavik 1st: 1:27.77, Remy Matailler 2nd: 1:27.81FRANZ GROSSMAN
This story is dedicated to Franz. He was hurt in the race and is in bad shape. If you'd like to help a fellow rider, visit a Go Fund Me link that was set up for him
here and help him out with what you can! #staystrongfranz.
33 Comments
Thanks for the kind words...!
If you can spare some money, please donate. Even if it's just a small amount. Every cent helps.
I know him from the time we worked together...
Such an awesome guy.
Always smiling, even when he's mad.
I hope so much, that he'll be back on the bike again.
Because that's what he loves the most.
I geared up for a 7:32 long video and at the :03 mark I'm done with my jaw on my desk. Holy shit...one of the most ungodly sudden sounds in a video.
There's way too many factors at play here to appropriately assign any blame. Best of thoughts to Mr. Grossman, his family and his friends.