2010 Whistler Crankworx Part 1

     The last two summers, I have had the privilege of going to Whistler. This year, the experience was enhanced by the fact that I got to to race in Crankworx.  Crankworx is to mountain biking what the pipe masters is to surfing. 

     Whistler village alone is impressive, blocks and blocks of eateries, and stores, with apartments above them. Walkways in betwen the multi-use buildings, where flocks of tourists wander.  Becoming familiar with the village is useful, but not very easy. All the buildings look very similar, so it was useful for me to learn a few land marks within the village. Our condo was located about a 2 minute bike ride and a 10 minute walk from the Fitzsimmons lift. So..... I did not have a choice whether or not I was going to learn how to get from point A to Point B.   Getting lost wasn't as much of a goat rope as expected, because, if you got lost then most times you would find something really cool.

     The trails at Whistler are 2nd to none,  and like the village, they are easy to get lost in. Getting lost on Whistler mountain was awesome, and no matter where I found myself, there was a sweet trail, right in front of me.   My favorite trail, that I have found, is A line. A line created the word flow, it was not like a lot of trails back home which are 2 dimensional,  the Whistler trails are 3d. Up, down, right, left, and everything in between.

     We were in Whistler for almost two weeks, five days of which were involved in Crankworx.   Lots of people back home say "I don't want to go to Whistler during Crankworx, because of the crowds." If your not there for Crankworx, then you are missing a lot of Whistler.   If you want to avoid crowds, then just hop on Garbanzo, where there is never any line at all.   It is cold up there, so we just wear more clothes.  Here is a shot of Blue Velvet, one of the easy trails up on Garbanzo.

 

     You can meet some interesting people riding up the chairlift.  My dad rode up the chairlift with Brian Lopes and didn't have any idea who he was. One of the best experiences of my life has been riding with Brendan Fairclough, Clay Porter, and Joseph Smith.    I met Brendan on the long chairlift ride up to the top of Garbanzo.   He was going to a photo shoot, wearing a thin T-shirt and skinny jeans.  I could see in his eyes that he was colder than ice.  Brendan, another young gun and I were the only people on the lift, and we got some good talk going.  Another time I got to ride up the lift with Troy Brosnan, he was an interesting fellow.  We talked about the Canadian Open DH course, and all the sweet trails. Troy is a ripper, he did a sweet job at all the Crankworx races.  He also happened to win the junior world cup and world champ title later in the summer.

2010 Whistler Crankworx part 2

     While we were in the midst of Crankworx there were many dealers showing off their new bike products.  One of these people was Dave Turner, the founder of Turner Bikes. They were demoing the new Turner DHRs with the DW link. Dave noticed me as I rode by their tent on my Turner and asked if I would like a free t-shirt.  While getting the shirt I realized what was happening at their tent.  I got my dad, and together we filled out a little paper work, then I found myself demoing the new 2011 Turner DHR.   The bike was strange, not only because they had skinny 26" bars, but also because of the DW link technology. I have never ridden anything like it.   It felt like the top 4" of the suspension had a 600 pound spring, while the lower part of the travel seemed normal.   I think some of this was caused by having too large of a spring, but it felt like it cornered and pedaled nice. 

    Whistler is thick with bears, and I mean covered.  It is ordinary to see three or four a day.  No worries though, these bears are happy eating berries and not humans.  One day while cruising down a fairly well traveled run,  Rock City, with my friend Tanner riding behind me, we came into a meadow, and out of nowhere I saw a black shape the size of a big raccoon. It literally came out of nowhere, and before I could act, it was under my bottom bracket. This thing which turned out to be a bear cub, gave off a half screech half growl.   I could feel its fur on my leg, and as fast as it appeared it disappeared  behind me.  Later when I discussed this incident with Tanner, he mentioned that he almost hit the cubs sibling.  I think that a lot of people have misconceptions about bears, and they think that bears are ferocious animals.  This is not the case at Whistler.   The only time bears can be a big trouble is when you have food in your pocket, or if you pull a messing with sasquatch on the bear.  Whistler bears have easier ways of getting food than chasing around a padded up mountain biker traveling at high speed.

I entered 3 races while at Crankworx.  The dual slalom, the Garbanzo downhill, and the Air downhill, in that order.  The dual slalom was the hardest course that I have ever ridden. The top was like a super tight steep pump track, with a mandatory air.  You had to be super on top of it to even get through the top section.  The first practice day, I was struggling.  After the first section there was a strait with more mandatory air, which if you didn't get the upper part right, you were hosed on.  To add to the pressure, there goes Gee Atherton, or Mick Hannah  just shredding the berms to pieces, and making the course look extremely easy.  On my second try at it, I got into the second section, and cased a roller double.  The case ended up burping all of the air out of my tubeless tire. I don't know about this tubeless hype. My day of practice was over.  Luckily, I still had another day to dial up the course.  The next day I was prepared mentally and physically.  and started to make progress on the course.  The top part you just had to focus on being smooth, and after you come out into the strait, speed was the name of the game.  The track swept right on 2 big berms, then left, and then into one of the most fun jumps I have ever  hit. The jump was a 12' floater, with a really smooth landing.  After the jump you had to get on the brakes for a tight turn, then a small triple followed by a mogul field.   Two more berms put you at the finish.  Super fun course. 

     A shot of Air Downhill start house.

     One of the coolest people that I met at Whistler was Mikey Silvestri.  He was raging on the dual slalom but ended up needing help with a flat. We helped him out, and let him borrow a pump.  Naturally we started to chat with him and he turned out to be really cool.  Later that day I rode up Fitz with Mikey and Logan Bingelli.  Logan had never ridden Dirt Merchant, one of the most famous and fun trails at Whistler.  Mikey saw this as something he needed to change.  Mikey also invited me to ride with them, which was something I was not going to pass up.  Getting off the chair, Mikey saw Kevin Aiello, and quickly convinced him to join our rapidly growing party.  By the time we got to Dirt Merchant, we probably had 5 or 6 people.  I was following Kevin, as we dropped in and over the first small drop.  Boom, on the first jump Kevin threw one of the gnarliest whips that I have seen.  I tried to do the same, but fell kinda short.  We had quite the train rolling down Dirt Merchant, I almost killed myself a couple of times, trying to match Kevin's steezed out whips.  We rolled on down, and into lower A line, but now we had changed our order, and I followed Logan, he was throwing some crazy scrubs, and I had a little trouble keeping up. Once we got to the bottom, we all dispersed to different places.  Meeting fellow riders and shredding fun terrain is what makes Whistler so special.  I am already getting really stoked for 2011 Crankworx.

2010 US National Champs Sol Vista Colorado

2010 US Nationals was super fun. I was stoked to ride a "jumpy" course as I had practiced large gap jumps for the last year.

Our condo wasn't ready when we arrived so instead of bumming we decided to go walk the course. My sister and dad walked up the entire course with me. There were several large moto style gap jumps that looked like some serious fun. We descended the pro course and it had some really sick features.

Since our condo wasn't cleaned up yet we ate dinner at the base of the resort and some of the Transition factory team were sitting at the table next to us. After dinner I rode the pump track in the dark for about an hour. Pump tracks are super fun and really improve both pumping (which saves/increases momentum) and cornering acceleration.

The next day I met up with an old friend, Ace Savarese from Florida. We took some practice runs together and then had lunch with our parents on the plaza. Practice was difficult because of all the slower riders on the course. It was difficult to get a good "feel" for the course at race speed.  Here is a picture from a practice run.

During lunch Ace's parents introduced me to Ethan Quehl, a professional gravity rider from Georgia. Ethan was very gracious in offering advice about professional relationships. I will remember his wise words for the rest of my life.

I was also introduced to Barry Nobles during lunch. I did not know much about Barry prior to this encounter, but after watching him ride 4x I am a believer. This guy rips. Watch for him as an up and comer in World Cup 4X races this coming year. He has a super fast gate and is very fit.

DH race day was weird as I had taken a huge beater during 4x qualifying. I wasn't even sure I could race. My dad gave me some ibu and while my practice run was painful it was definitely possible to race. My race run was fairly smooth with just a couple of mistakes. My mom said I was the smoothest rider (thanx mom) by far and I ended up on the podium in 3rd place which was my goal.