Cycle
- Photos By Chris Pilling | Words by Eric Behn
Crankworx kicked off Friday in Whistler, B.C. for its tenth year. The iconic mountain bike festival brings together athletes of all disciplines for a week of various events from the Fat Tire Crit cross country event to the gruelling Garbanzo Down Hill to the famous Red Bull Joyride.
Saturday featured the Dual Speed & Style event; a race which incorporates time deductions to the most stylist tricks. The event takes place in Whistler Bike Park’s Boneyard and involves some jumps from next Saturday’s Red Bull Joyride course.
The level of entertainment for Dual Speed & Style has grown over the past few years as it often involves racers, dirt jumpers, and freeriders all within the same event. This year, Seweden’ Martin Soderstrom took the top spot beating out Cam Zink who suffered a few pedal slips in the final run. Kyle Strait beat out Tom Van Steenbergen to take third place in the event.
A blistering Saturday meant a dry and dusty course. “The course is really fast and loose in the berms so staying on the bike was important,” says Soderstrom. “The game plan was always changing; you needed to see who you are going against. If it was a slope rider I knew it would require bigger tricks and if it was a racer I knew it would require a smaller trick and more speed.”
Soderstrom’s win comes after a win at Crankworx Les Deux Alpes showing that he is a force to be reckoned with. Keep and eye out for Soderstrom, Zink and many more in events to come this week at the world’s greatest mountain bike festival.
crankworx is setting the standard