# Crankworx Freeride Festival Whistler



## gregg (Sep 30, 2000)

This past weekend (actually, Thursday the 22nd - Sunday the 25th) was the Crankworx Freeride Mountain Bike Festival in Whistler, BC.

*www.crankworx.com*

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the Freeride Competition and Expo and to experience first-hand what Photo-John has been raving about since the Marzocchi product launch there 3 weeks ago.

I have many, many photos to sort though, but here are a select few to show for now.

Here is a shot of the Expo area near the bottom of the lifts. There was a huge announcing stage put up, and if you were lucky, you could catch some of the free swag that was being tossed to the crowd! There was also a concert stage with live rock bands playing. The crowds were huge!










Here is a shot of a new bike that I personally got to test out for the weekend. I will be writing more details about the new Prophet from Cannondale soon.










There was a great trials demo put on by the Baia Brothers. The kids are aged 7, 9, and 15 and our all quite skilled.










Many, many thanks to Eric Stobin from Sportworks for the generous hospitality, transportation, accomodations, and trail guide! Eric even shared some of the Sportworks booth space with MTBR and allowed us to put up our banner and hand out flyers! Thanks so much Eric, it was fun! Here is a shot of the booth, with the New FreeRider DH hitch rack made for 40 to 50 lb downhill/freeride bikes, with wider trays for tires as wide as 3".










During one of my runs, I spotted these two cubs and their mom hanging out by the Olympic Station.










Not part of the expo, but another great reason to go up to Whistler, is this trail, called "A River Runs Through It". It is very easy to get to from the Village, and is a very fun and challenging trail! Wish I had something like this as MY local trail! (If you ever ride this trail, be sure to use mosquito repellent.)










A big part of the Expo, this is the Dangerous Dan Flow Show. It included a huge drop and some of the most technically challenging stunts. Here is a shot of something that I've never seen before, this rider is riding across a short bridge made of chain links! Looked even more challenging, because not all the flow riders could clean it.










I have shots of riders hitting this drop, which I will post soon. This shot gives a good indication of just how high the drop really is.










By far the most popular event of the weekend, was the slopestyle competition on Saturday night. Huge crowds lined up to catch riders like Cedric Gracia, Timo Pritzel, Cameron McCaul, Richie Schley, Wade Simmons, and more...

Here is a shot of Kyle Strait during his second run of the finals. More pics to come!


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## CraigH (Dec 22, 2003)

*More pics of Crankworx*

It was great getting in a few runs with you Gregg! (Shame we couldn't have hooked up for a XC ride Sat. morning...)









A couple of other threads with Crankworx pics:

*SlopeStyle pics posted by "bog"*

*Crankworx pics and video posted by "brumos" (DH Board)*

Thanks to the guys at the SRAM/Rock Shox trailer for rebuilding my fork Sunday morning (after it died Saturday night) allowing me to ride in the afternoon.


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## CraigH (Dec 22, 2003)

*Videos of Slope Style Comp*

A video by the guys at Pinkbike, 21.2 MB:

*http://vpfree.pinkbike.com/video/crankworks.wmv*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another 26.5MB vid on a seemingly slow server.

Right Click, Save As:

http://static.zed.cbc.ca/users/b/BPonline/files/crankworx.mpg


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## OneBlueJoker (Apr 15, 2004)

THose pics look pretty cool dude! thanks for posting them!


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## gregg (Sep 30, 2000)

*That Pinkbike Video is Awesome!*

Hey Radek and Mike,

Good talkin' to both of you guys at Crankworx! Awesome job with the editting on that video! You got all the killer shots, and the music is perfect.

See you guys at Interbike!

-g



CraigH said:


> A video by the guys at Pinkbike, 21.2 MB:
> 
> *http://vpfree.pinkbike.com/video/crankworks.wmv*
> 
> ...


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## K'Endo (Dec 23, 2003)

A few choice photos of mine:

#1: Halfway through a 360. The rider lands to the LEFT in this photo!

#2: The road gap. From where I was standing I had to shoot into the sun so there's a bit of washout, but I think the photo really shows off just how huge the gap is. Riders were touching down with hardly a sound.

#3: On the totter. They made it look too easy, ba$tards!

#4: Sidehop up 3-4 ft up to a rail, then manual down it. How hard can it be?

Thanks for playing,

Kn.


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## radair (Dec 19, 2002)

Cool stuff! I saw them building some of this and could barely figure out how they were going to link it up.

Did you see them using the other (slightly smaller) ramp in the woods above the road gap? It had a banked right-hand turn with two options, one of which was a big gap that looked too long considering the speed you'd need to hold through the turn.


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## 006_007 (Jan 12, 2004)

My buddy Bryan took the following photos at Crankworx 2004 and has posted them for those of us unable to witness it live.

www.pbase.com/bryanswan/crankworx_2004

TJ


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## Trailsnail (Apr 3, 2004)

I wish I was there, thanks for bringing the pics to us. I'm so lonley,


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## eman (May 2, 2004)

Wow, you have have some awesome pictures!


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## kelesis (Jun 6, 2004)

that rocks


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## K'Endo (Dec 23, 2003)

Ah what the hell. One more. I didn't post this originally cause the shade made it a bad photo. But the move is a neat one. Apparently a manual down the rail was too easy ...

Kn.


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## Satan_Guy (Aug 2, 2004)

those are sweet pics man, some frinds of the family just took their santa cruz's up to whistler but unfourtunatly got both of them stolen goin thru vancouver, and i saw the name wade simmons mentioned above........i know that guy he lives in kamloops in pineview, me and my friends used to ride his snowmobiles in the winter.........Hes got some HUGE dirt jumps set up by his house theyre sweet a$$!!!!


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## gregg (Sep 30, 2000)

Many pics just added to Whistler Gallery here:

http://gallery.mtbr.com/showgallery.php?cat=546&password=

still more to come!

-g


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## marv (Aug 5, 2004)

WHOA!

Stomach turning air.  

Cool pic's!


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## LeeL (Jan 12, 2004)

Sorry I didn't get to hook up with you later Gregg. What a gong show the crowds were.


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## john cameron (Aug 8, 2004)

*CrankWorX Photos*

Here's a link to CrankWorX photos.

http://www.johncameron.ca/crankworx/

cheers,
-jc


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## CraigH (Dec 22, 2003)

Thanks for posting the link to your site. You have some great photos.

If you haven't already done so, post the link to your site on the same thread over on the DH board.


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