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Crankworx Coverage Pt.3
8th August 2005 - Peter Mozola
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The Crankworx Slopestyle final presented by Full Throttle energy drink was going to be a clash of the Titans. Paul Basagoitia, last year's Cinderella story qualifier/ finals winner was going to open up his big bag of tricks to defend his title against all comers. However Darren Berrecloth, a previous winner of this event, and the winningest slopestyle mountain biker on the planet right now is healthy and hungry this year to take back this title.
These two competitors, though favourites to win, could quite easily find themselves off the podium if they don't nail their runs perfect. There is a full field of talent this year with the abilities and ambition to take this crown jewel event.
Still human - Carlo Dieckmann goes down hard
The finals started off with the five wildcard qualifiers in reverse order and they showed immediatly why they were there and that they fully belonged in the show. However Carlo Dieckmann went down hard dropping crossed up off the top of the quarterpipe. Niels Windfeldt once again tailwhipped out of the quarterpipe and pulled a huge no footed cancan off the large "staff housing" box stunt.
Niels Windfeldt no foot cancan off the box
Santa Cruz Kid Jamie Goldman absolutely went off. He fully clicked his x-ups off almost everything, taking feet off when he felt like it. He further stepped it up by throwing immense backflip variations including a cancan flip and a one footed X-up flip over the big gap which stunned the crowd.
Goldman's backflip cancan
His performance seemed to amp up the riders and even the old-schoolers started pulling out all the stops, Robbie Bourdon flipped the gap hip by the box but crashed on landing, and Wade pulled out a sweet alley-oop 360 on the lowest hip jump.
Then the big dogs came out to play. Kyle Strait had a terrific run throwing a huge tailwhip over one of the large gaps, the surprise of the day was the performance of fourth place finisher Cam McCaul, who is clearly on his way to superstardom. He flipped almost everything in sight as well as spinning 3s and pulling out his enormous superman seatgrab indian air over the huge chasm gap.
McCaul on his way to stardom
(Later in the day his talents also earned him a win in the inaugural Kona Jump Jam on the Cowan Jump farm). Cameron Zink one-upped him though turning out a NacNac backflip which he immediatly followed up with a one footed Xup flip in sequence over the big gap line.
Cam McCaul hip flip
Then came Darren Berrecloth, who with wins at the Adidas slopestyle and MonsterPark, has virtually clean swept the world of mountain bike Slopestyle. Everyone knows he has all the flips and tricks of the other competitors and his ace up the sleeve the massive 360 drop. The only thing really big in the course was the Road gap drop, but most people were of the mind that it wouldn't be possible to land a three there because of the speed required. Well Darren wasted no time in proving all the doubters wrong by bringing it to the table, racing down the road gap ladder bridge and sending it.
Berrecloth - not possible?!
The crowd erupted in shocked amazement, but he wasn't done yet, he tore down the center line straight toward the Giro Funbox Trailer stunt throwing superman seat grabs along the way, and finally finishing up by doing a no footed can can off the Trailer itself. At that moment it looked clear that the likely hood of anyone unseating Darren from his throne this year in slopestyle was almost non-existant.
Berrecloth - the pipe is down there somewhere
But the competition was not over, and the current Crankworx Slopestyle title holder still had his run ahead. Paul Basagoitia dropped in from the top and headed towards the Quarterpipe. He aired out to the deck and spun a three off. From there he raced down the big jump line and directly in front of the judges threw two massive backflips one of which was higher than the two storey scaffold that the judges sat in. He finished his run with a tailwhip off of the fifteen foot high Giro Funbox which allowed him to narrowly edge out Darren for the win.
Paul B - 360 drop
Paul B - huge flip
Berrecloth | Paul B | Cameron Zink | Cam McCaul
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