Crankworx Colorado: Days 3 and 4

By Eddie Clark 

(July 30 and 31, 2011) WINTER PARK, Colo.—The big news of Crankworx Colorado was Cam McCaul’s flawless slopestyle finals run which included a no-handed front flip to take the overall slopestyle victory.

Just one year ago, everyone held their breath as medics scrambled to a limp McCaul after he crashed terribly from attempting a front flip in his last run of the slopestyle finals.  This year, instead of being carted off with a broken femur, McCaul walked away from the awards ceremony with a big check for $6500 dollars.  “Just being able to walk away from this event is a victory in itself” claimed McCaul in his post awards interview.

Coming off a commanding slopestyle win the prior week at Kokanee Crankworx, Brandon Semenuk went into the finals throwing tricks that just didn’t seem humanly possible.  Even after the 45 minute wind hold for the super finals, Semenuk came up just short of ousting McCaul from first place.  Third place went to Sam Pilgrim who executed a flawless run in the gusting winds on his super final run.

As the crowds started making their way to the slopestyle course, the country’s top professional cross country racers were finishing their 26 mile race which started earlier in the morning.  At 10am, the pro men blasted off from Elk Meadows outside of Fraser with a half hour dirt road climb onto some fun singletrack that made for a great downhill before more climbing out of Vasquez Creek Rd.

Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Trek/Subaru), Scott Tietzel, and Mitchell Hoke (Tokyo Joes) got away on the first climb and worked together to grow a gap over the rest of the pro men.  JHK hit the singletrack first, and never looked back until after crossing the finish line first. 

“It’s a really tough race with all the climbing and altitude”, said Tietzel who finished with a well earned second place.

Pro Women’s racing saw Trek/Subaru racer Heather Irmiger take a strong win over a slightly smaller field.  Upcoming professional Erin Huck (Tokyo Joes) finished in second just under five minutes after Irmiger. 

Huck was happy with the race, and noted “It’s a great course, and the downhill singletrack was super fun”.

To give the crowds some laughs to leave with, Saturday finished with the Intergalactic Pond Crossing competition which was won by Tim Allen who is a pro cross-country racer for Niner Bikes.

On Sunday, the festival concluded with the Trestle Downhill, which was a UCI category 1 ranked downhill race with ever valuable UCI points on the line.  In a repeat performance, French National Champion Mickael Pascal (Team Moorewood Bikes) showed the speed and skill which has consistently landed him in the top 20 of UCI World ranked professional downhillers to claim his second victory for Crankworx Colorado.  Team KHS rounded out the podium with Logan Bingelli taking second and Kevin Aiello taking third. 

In another repeat performance, Jaqueline Harmony (Vixen Racing) brought home the top UCI points with her victory in the pro women’s race.