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Crankworx 2006: Part One
24th July 2006 - Peter Mozola
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Well we are now into the second day of Crankworx. There is a definite buzz in the air and you can't help but feel that this is going to be the most impressive mountain bike event to date. Today's main event was the Canadian National Championships. Now that might not interest you guys over the pond, except that this is an entrance to the Worlds. The overall favourite to win the men's pro class was our current National Champion, Tyler Morland.
This race runs down the National Course trail, (named of course because it was built for this purpose), with some minor alterations. The course took a sweeping off camber line across a wide, grassy hill at its fastest section. There was almost no traction on this grass, as I discovered trying to walk down to that section, but the top people never stopped pedaling through it. Some paid dearly for that.
Andrew Mitchell on his way to a win
In a surprise upset though Tyler was dethroned by his Cove Bikes team mate and rising star Andrew Mitchell. In a class where tenths of a second can be the difference between Victory and going home empty handed, Andrew smashed the field by over three full seconds. To give that some perspective, that is the total margin that separated second through seventh.
And to add to Cove Bikes already amazing day their young protégé Steve Smith killed all comers in Junior Expert with a time that would have landed him top five among the pros.
Cove walked away with two golds and two silvers today after all the racing was done.
Sean Manara going down
At the very end of the day the Whistler bike park and events crews finished the Boneyard slopestyle course and opened it up. With the intense heat it was like a ghost town up there with one notable exception.
Young Andreu Lacondeguy of Spain opted not to go to the lake like everyone else.
If you don't recognize his name yet, you very well soon will. This Spanish sensation just shook things up at the Redbull District Ride in Italy a week ago, and is likely to do the same here.
As the sun set over Whistler, I took the opportunity to hang out with him for a bit and snap a few.
Andreu Lacondeguy sunset session
Michelle Dumaresq|Micayla Gatto|Andrew Mitchell|Alex Prochazka|Steve Smith
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