Crankworx Colorado is underway! Todays events included the Downhill qualis and finals, Dual Slalom qualis, and some slopestyle practice. Rain delayed most events and the slopestyle qualifications that were supposed to take place today are postponed until tomorrow.
Phil Ott picked up a cool $2k for winning the pro men's downhill and the oh-so likable Abby Hipply (pictured) took the womens win. I had a crash in pro qualifying and didn't make the cut for finals - very upsetting considering I've done pretty well the past few weeks in the Trestle Bike Park series (3rd and 7th in the last two races - top 25 qualifiers moved onto finals today). The wet conditions didn't help this desert boy's cause, I struggled to keep momentum over the slippery roots. I have another chance to redeem myself at Sunday's Super-D.
Despite my poor performance in the race, I made the most of the day (and my media access) and got quite a bit of filming done. Slopestyle practice started off pretty slow, but once someone had guinea pigged all the lines on course everyone started throwin down. The smoothest riders today were the young Canadians; Alex Pro, Semenuk, and Kurt Sorge. Those kids got the most out of practice and combined threw more tricks than every other competitor combined. Bearclaw is here, as are the Lacondeguy boys so tomorrows qualifying should be slammin!
More updates tomorrow! Full video recap early next week, here and on Bikemag.com!
