Whistler, BC (July 29 and 30) - Everyone knows God loves Whistler, and he
blessed Crankworx with perfect weather and great racing. The Yeti-FOX Factory
Racing Team had such a great time, they're still up there.
Like every course in Whistler, the Nissan BikerX course is sick. You get big
jumps, fast berms, moto whoops and tech sections galore, all wrapped within the
monstrous Kokanee Slopestyle Course. The final contained some serious talent:
Brian Lopes, Mick Hannah, Cedric Gracia and Yeti-FOX's Jared Graves. Graves
decided to run his Yeti 4X suspension bike, and to everyone's surprise he
snapped everyone out of the gate. He blitzed from there and took the win.
Justin Leov and TJ Sharp, neither of them 4X specialists, got knocked out of
the first round and got to watch Graves spank everyone.
The Jim Beam Air Downhill rails down one of the world's sweetest trails:
A-Line. This series of berms and tabletops hits you like cotton candy: sugary,
sticky, gooey -- a guilty pleasure indeed.
You can take half a crank and rip A-Line perfectly, just pumping and cavorting
the whole way. Add some pedaling and a ticking clock, and it becomes an
exercise in squashing and scrubbing -- a new trick for World Cup racers. Graves
struggled a bit with the non-technical trail, but he placed a strong 6th, only
4.6 seconds behind winner Brian Lopes (who has a house in Whistler and gets a
fair amount of practice). Leov came in 11th, and Sharp rolled down in 38th.
More of a good thing is a very good thing, and the Garbanzo Endurance Downhill
is a very very good thing. We're talking about ripping 3,400 vertical feet in
over 15 minutes, totally pinned on, over, through and around rocks, roots,
trees, jumps, bridges and turns. It's like five fun downhill runs in a row, and
it's a great test of rider and machine.
A weather-related timing snafu called the results into question, but the
Yeti-FOX crew had fun ripping their Yeti 303 DHs down the course. Leov rolled a
15:33.6, just 20 seconds behind winner Sam Hill, for 7th place. Graves had a
fast run and was listed in 11th. Sharp experienced some off-the-bike action,
and he wound up 32nd.
The boys will hang out in Whistler for a week of riding and team building, then
they're off to the NORBA national in Snowmass. Braaap!
Look for Clay Porter's video report on www.yeticycles.com
Date:
03/08/2006