Video: Polygon Bikes' Crankworx Rotorua 2022 Wrap-Up

Words: Polygon Bikes
Photo: Henry Jaine
Video: Josh Birkenhake

Crankworx Rotorua turned up the heat (or rather… rain!) at the fourth and final stop of the Crankworx World Tour 2022. Packed with speed, thrills and adrenaline, the international field of world-class mountain bikers were on for some serious fun on the newly built courses.

Polygon Factory Racing team rider Brady Stone, took on the Dual Slalom (19th), Pump Track (22nd) and Downhill (15th) events. Conditions were treacherous in the Downhill - making for a challenging mud-run, with track deterioration, super-slippery lines and plenty of spills. Stone was stoked with his 15th placing.

Probably one of the muddiest races I've done in a while! Just slithered my way down the track as fast as I could. Unfortunately, I had a crash in an extra slippery section and then fell over multiple times just trying to stand back up. Stoked with 15th!—Brady Stone

Anthony Messere, fresh from his podium at Crankworx Cairns, was looking to build on his success. The build-up had been challenging on the weather-front, which reduced training to a mere 2hrs before heading straight into the qualifiers.

Two crashes in the first run of the quarter finals against Kaiser, left Messere in a deep ditch to claw out of. Despite a flawless second run with a super-technical ‘lawn dart front flip’ from Messere, Kaiser had enough of a lead from the first run to progress to the semi-finals, and ultimately into the finals against Lemoine. Tomas Lemoine going on to sweep the finals, as well as the 2022 season.

I'm stoked to be back competing at Crankworx. With one podium and qualifying higher at each round, I've well and truly caught that need-for-speed and am pumped for 2023. It’s also been rad to catch up with all the slopestyle crew and meet new friends including my Polygon teammates.!—Anthony Messere

Polygon Ambassador, Jai Motherwel, joined the fun with the pros at the Whip Offs. There was a fair bit of wind, so the riders had to take a few risks with their height and sideway angles. Jai was also instrumental in working with course builders, Elevate Trail Building, to prepare this world-class course.

The weather wasn’t super-kind to us, but everyone was stoked with the course. The Elevate Trail Building crew did a great job with a super wet build on a tight timeframe.—Jai Motherwell