Results: Air DH - Crankworx Whistler 2019

Aug 13, 2019
by Sarah Moore  
photo

Women s Pro winner Jill Kintner narrowly beat second place finisher Vaea Verbeeck.


Arguably the most famous trail in the world, A-Line is the stuff of mountain bike legend and lore, renowned for its iconic drops, jumps on jumps on jumps, and giant, sculpted berms. On any given day, this is where party-trains reign supreme and where experienced riders flock to go big and take flight. But what’s it like to race? Since 2004, thousands have lined up at the start drop to find out for themselves, scrubbing, boosting and charging for the win.




Women

1. Jill KINTNER 4:17.97
2. Georgia ASTLE +1.21
3. Valentina HOLL +3.05
4. Anneke BEERTEN +5.67
5. Casey BROWN +6.46
6. Kialani HINES +6.65
7. Andreane LANTHIER NADEAU +9.70
8. Miranda MILLER +9.71
9. Vaea VERBEECK +9.78
10. Jordy SCOTT +10.62

Men

1. Finn ILES 3:57.04
2. Mitch ROPELATO +2.47
3. Samuel BLENKINSOP +3.23
4. Bas VAN STEENBERGEN +5.35
5. Henry FITZGERALD +5.39
5. Kirk MCDOWALL +5.39
7. Lee JACKSON +5.57
8. Kiran MACKINNON +6.61
9. Mick HANNAH +6.83
10. Magnus MANSON +7.62



Full results can be found here (Women's) and here (Men's).

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Member since Mar 30, 2011
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66 Comments
  • 32 0
 was... was it streamed? coverage seems pretty bad this year, what's going on?!?!
  • 6 0
 Yes, agreed. Is this event not streamed? That would be a very bad sign for money in mountain biking.....
  • 4 0
 What coverage?
  • 3 0
 Crankworkx whistler is falling appart except for joyride
  • 10 0
 @RedBurn: welcome to the darkness of the vail years...
I really hope they don’t let whistler bike park slowly die like they did to keystone bike park.
On a more positive note I sat through a corporate Alterra presentation at winter park last week and they are doubling down on bike park investment and greatly expanding trestle and snow mass bike parks!
  • 2 0
 @Robertoregency: WBP has very ambitious development plans. I wouldn't be worried about the state of the park in the future, although that's not to speak on Crankworx coverage this year.
  • 1 0
 Yeah, management that handles the media department is pretty bad this year. It's not as fun as the previous years.
  • 5 0
 Vail ruining something awesome because its more cost effective? WELL I NEVER!
  • 3 1
 Finn was so fast even the organisers missed him!
  • 12 0
 Good to see Finn actually complete a run and stay on his bike
  • 6 9
 Exactly my thoughts. I don’t know if it’s the world stage, or the huge sponsor, or both, but he’s choking every time. In my opinion he doesn’t belong on Specialized yet. (No doubt I’ll get canned by all his fanboys for that suggestion.) He would benefit from a couple of seasons on a team that isn’t expecting so much. IMO.
  • 4 1
 @tobiusmaximum: Yeah, lots of pressure for sure. Must be hard thinking you’ll come from junior and just smoke everyone, then realise just how good the competition is? I am sure he’ll settle down if he gets a few podiums!
  • 4 0
 @nrpuk: that’s kinda my point. Maybe he’ll get a few podiums if he settles down.. but I guess time will tell.
  • 1 0
 @tobiusmaximum: Yes, time will tell? Let’s see? Talk to you in a year!
  • 2 0
 @nrpuk: nice. I’d like to see him back off ten percent and get consistent top tens/fifteens under his belt instead of trying to blast off at every wc. I bet his sponsors would prefer it too. But I guess he is a raggedy, gung-ho, 19 year old so it’s to be expected to some degree.
  • 2 0
 @nrpuk: Yep, he's definitely over played his cards on multiple occasions this year.....
BUT, i'm still rooting for him and the day he pulls it all together.
  • 4 0
 Finn if you're reading this don't listen to these two - KEEP IT FLOORED
  • 11 0
 ARRRR where be the replays!!!!!
  • 12 1
 Vali living life this year. 3rd. Not bad.
  • 8 3
 Without digging up actual numbers to support the following claim, I'd say the mens' and womens' times very close compared to a conventional downhill. Which shows the women can absolutely send it on jumps trails, and further to that the turnout (See here: crankworx.rawmotion.com/#/database) in the junior womens categories is really encouraging. If you go to YT's Instagram there's on board video of Vali Holl's run. There did not appear to be live coverage except a camera at the bottom of the course. The commentators on site did a great job of keeping track of things while the event was running.
  • 2 0
 Interesting. About a year ago I worked out that the time of the winning woman in dozens of WC DH over the past several years was about 110 to 112 per cent of the average of the top five men (ignoring outliers where there was a change in weather or when the top women at the time were DNF or DNS). Jill's time here was about 107% of the top five men (I'm only working this out on paper). If I recall correctly no DH woman ever got this close to the top mens' time (all things being equal).
  • 7 0
 A few years ago, in the womens WC DH, you'd only have to go a few places down to see substantial time gaps. Gaps from the leader in the top ten women that wouldn't even qualify in the men's. Over the last couple years, there's been an influx of competitive riders and the level of competition has driven those gaps down. Seeing ten women this closely spaced is hugely encouraging, and it's awesome seeing women's dh that is fiercely competitive. The future is bright.
  • 5 1
 @iamamodel: I'd say it's due to the lack of raw physicality required by a groomed bike park run as compared to a gnarly WC track like Vallnord
  • 1 0
 @Garethccc: yes, it's difficult to pull out an advantage on such an easy track. I thought 20s was quite lot tbh.
  • 9 0
 Way to go Jill!!!!!!
  • 9 1
 Jill should race world cups
  • 1 0
 I think she is pretty happy not racing Full time. She even is not really competing in CWX
  • 12 0
 are we doing this again? everytime she wins a race someone says exactly that. she has mad skills, but was kinda a 5-10 spot on WC DH... and air DH isn't a WC DH.
  • 2 1
 @shredddr: Exactly.

Jill is a great ambassador for the sport but has never went overly well the World Cup DH races.

5 top fives in 25 world cups isn't brilliant.

www.rootsandrain.com/rider6133/jill-kintner/results/filters/seriesgroups244
  • 4 0
 @casey79: I think if you had 5 top fives in 25 world cups you would feel pretty brilliant....
  • 1 0
 @shredddr: she raced Canadian open a couple years ago and won. Beating Tracey Hannah by like 11 seconds. I think she has what it takes.
  • 6 0
 Fuck both Finn and Sam were riding in Lenzerheide less than five days ago!!
  • 6 0
 Big win Finn! Ready for MSA!
  • 4 0
 Bravo Mitch, that's seriously impressive! 2 seconds behind the local.
  • 2 0
 It would be interesting to see if Finn actually has more miles on Whistler the last few years as opposed to Ropo. I mean, he's full time World Cup all year long now
  • 3 0
 Ropelato is the man
  • 1 0
 @jaydawg69*Cough* World Champs 2018 *Cough* They're all fast regardless of primary focus...
  • 2 0
 Finn can win, just picture every track like home.
  • 1 0
 Nice to see there isnt a massive gap between the men and women at this event.
  • 2 1
 I'm guessing most rode Enduro bikes????
  • 1 3
 I'm surprised Vali didn't smoke everybody like she does at the WCs. Where was Tahnee?
  • 1 0
 Recovering from injury. Saw her up riding last weekend, so it's just a matter of time now
  • 8 0
 i guess beating brown and miller on home soil as a junior is kinda ok?
  • 1 0
 Let's be real here, Vali is an incredible talent and yes, she's usually smoking the girls in the junior ranks. However, shes still just a hair off the pace of the top pro riders - Rachel, Tahnee, Myriam etc. Not to discredit her performance because third place against lots of local pro rippers is pretty incredible.
  • 2 0
 She has legitimately beaten all the elite women at a WC before - granted there were riders out due to injury.
  • 2 0
 @shawnca7: look I'm not doubting Vali's skill and talent. Its next level to be sure and shes got the potential to really make amazing things happen with her career. However, to say shes beating the top and "smoking" the other riders is simply not true. She did have the fastest time in Lenzerheide but, as you mentioned, the top three riders are all out with injury. Also, she raced on a dry track whereas the pros raced in the mud. She even says so on WynTv that she got lucky with track conditions and that shes still not quite there with the top dogs.
  • 1 0
 @Trudeez: bearing in mind she is still a junior, you obviously cant expect a junior to be thrashing the top guys but considering shes not far off with years less experience, it's only a matter of time.
  • 1 0
 @sam12davison: clearly you didnt read the above comments....you just reiterated the EXACT argument I'm making. Vali is a junior, shes an amazing talent and has sky high potential. However, shes not quite yet at the level of the true elites but when she gets there . . . Everyone look out.
  • 3 6
 Wow... the DH guys put a beat down on the enduro guys.
  • 11 1
 Always surprising when the local guy is the winner
  • 4 1
 Hence the "DH" part of the race name.
  • 2 1
 @thesharkman: you know that an Enduro race are DH stages?
  • 1 1
 @yzedf: not surprising the DH guys are at the top.
  • 1 0
 @jaydawg69: you do know Finn wasn’t on his dh bike right?
  • 2 1
 wonder what the correlation is between number of laps taken on A-Line vs place here. I'd wager Finn and Jill are near the top for their respective genders...
  • 1 4
 @yzedf: my point is that DH riders are faster at downhill than Enduro EWS riders regardless of bike. The EWS guys should have cleaned up.
  • 3 0
 @jaydawg69: Not really sure this is statistically accurate, as several of the top DH guys were on the start list, but very few of the top enduro guys were racing this. I'm not arguing who is faster, it's just that from this start-list, you couldn't make the correlation you are trying to make.
  • 3 0
 @jaydawg69: why would enduro guys have cleaned up on a jump trail? It's more similar to world cup bike park tracks than it is to any enduro
  • 2 0
 @whitehonky: there were some top EWS riders racing... not as many as the DH racers as you stated.
  • 1 1
 @zsdoom: Lots of "Bike Park" stages at EWS events but probably not at A-Line speed. DH guys were on Enduro bikes so Enduro riders should have the advantage. Would be curious how R. Rude would have done... Top 5 ?
  • 1 2
 @yzedf: A-line is pretty straight forward. Besides, most of the other top guys (Mitch, Sam, Bas, Mick etc) have raced it more than Finn.
  • 2 0
 @jaydawg69: Tell Sam Hill that !
  • 1 0
 @yzedf: Remi didn’t do too well mind !
  • 3 0
 @hprimrose: Fin grew up racing a line and would have more experience on a line then guys that go a couple times a year
  • 1 0
 Mitch and Blenki race enduro too. And all the top enduro guys came from a DH background.
  • 1 0
 With a couple of exceptions like Rude and Maes, DH riders who don’t the best results go to Enduro and do better overall... fact.







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