Photo Epic: Dual Slalom - Crankworx Whistler 2022

We saw the return of a fan favorite this week, the Specialized Dual Slalom. The event, held next door to the main village at Base II on Blackcomb Mountain, was a short pedal or gondola ride for the fans, and the fans showed up in droves to watch some of the best dual slalom racers from around the world battle it out to hold an oversized check above their heads, a step on the podium and points towards their chase to be crowned the King or Queen of Crankworx. In battles that saw any minor mistake prove to be unforgivable, we saw tight racing and victories that were taken away split seconds before the finish line.

The crowd was amped to cheer along as the top riders were crowned after an afternoon of hard-fought racing. On the women's side, we saw the reigning Queen of Crankworx, Vaea Verbeeck, battle a knee injury to take the top step of the podium for the second race in a row after Jordy Scott washed out and hit the ground in the first of the two heats in the finals. Louise Ferguson and Harriet Burbidge-Smith found themselves battling for the bronze medal which ultimately lay around Ferguson's neck after she beat out Burbidge-Smith by 0.027 over the two heats. The men's side saw an upset right out of the gate with Bernard Kerr knocking out Bubba Warren in the quarter-finals, despite Bubba qualifying first. Kerr continued to be a force for the rest of the evening, ultimately taking the gold medal in a heated final against Utah's Joey Foresta. Joey trailed Kerr by just under half a second. The bronze medal battle between the current reigning King of Crankworx, Bas Van Steenbergen, and Jackson Frew came down to a gap of 0.063 seconds with Van Steenbergen managing to get on the podium and leaving Frew in 4th. All in all, this was another fantastic event with tight racing which kept the fans on the edge of their seats!

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Racing and Events Crankworx Photo Epics Dual Slalom