The future of DH racing is alive and well at the Whistler Mountain Bike Park Taking a break from the regular Phat Wednesday race series, over 40 kids came out for the first Phat Kidz race of 2015 on June 24. With the largest category being the 7 & 8 year olds (17 competitors), there is no doubt that some of these kids will be racing World Cups when they're older.
Finn Finestone pinned through Del Boca Vista.
Phat Kidz is all about an intro to downhill racing and skill progression so we started the season of with an easy track consisting of Crabapple Turns, Del Bocca Vista, and EZ Does It to finish things off. A little mix of freeride, and tech trails kept things interesting.
Maya Mikkelsen keeping those corners tight.
Taking the win in the Kidz 7 & 8's was Dane Jewett with a time of 2:54.01. He was followed closely by Benjamin Devall (2:56.60) and Landon Devall (2:58.56). In the Kidz 9 & 10's, Ryan Griffith stood on the top step with 2:49.54. Sam Marshall and Jacob Coleman rounded out the rest of the podium with 2:52.63 and 2:55.14 respectively. The Kidz 11 & 12's saw the closest battle of the day. Walking away with the win by only 3 tenths was Jakob Jewett (2:21.49) over Finn Finestone (2:36.62) with Brendan Keuling in 3rd. Our fastest man of the evening was Lucas Cruz posting a 2:20.97 well ahead of 2nd place Matthew Griffith (2:40.16) and Luke Schroth (2:49.81) in 3rd.
Congrats to all the young competitors who came out and had fun for an evening of riding bikes.
The evening was rounded up with a nice cold Milk2Go and some awesome draw prizes thanks to our sponsors, including SRAM, GoPro, Dakine, Oakley and more.
Milk League Racing.
Thanks to all the sponsors for hooking up the kids and getting them walking away with some serious swag. In Whistler, the term "kid in a candy store" should be more like "kid in a bike store".Start gate lineup. Getting ready to drop.Mason Gautrey keeping it dialed through the trees. Tye Chilton with his eyes on the prize.The future of our sport.Coveted hardware.Full Phat Kidz Race 1 Results Phat Kidz Results - June 24 by Whistler Mountain Bike Park
And let's not forget to thank all the parents for bringing out their kids to help make race this happen. Or is it the other way around?The next Phat Kidz race takes place July 22nd as we step it up a notch and head over to B-Line.
Regular Phat Wednesday racing will resume next week for a special Canada Day edition, July 1st.
For more info on Phat Kids click
here.
View all photos from the race
here.
Photography by
Laurence Crossman-Emms Photography.
MENTIONS:
@WhistlerMountainBikePark,
@Laurence-CE
My daughter had a blast and it was her first weekend of riding after four weeks in a cast for a broken hand... and she makes it on PB!
The boy was stoked with 4th in his category considering he crashed/washed out trying to straighten out a corner on Del Boca - he got a pretty massive hematoma on the thigh as a prize and a sweet Dakine pack! He's so bummed he'll miss the next one.