Crankworx Air DH & Pumptrack - E.T.

The Air DH went off last Wednesday and I managed to pull off a 6th place result! Stoked!!!

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Air DH, it is a race down Whistler's famous A-line trail. It consists of almost 100 jumps, berms, and drops over the course of its four and a half minute length. It favors riders with strong legs, berm-railing skills, and the ability to stay low and fast over jumps.

Since practicing with Brian Lopes the day before (the multiple time winner of this race) I knew how fast you had to go to win. REALLY FAST!

After being dropped by Lopes on his 32lb carbon bike with semi-slick tires, I changed to some faster rolling Schwalbe tires for the race.

The changes paid off and I came down into the hot seat with a time nearly a second faster than last year's winning time. I would sit through 40 or so more riders before anyone could best my time. In the end I would finish just 1.1 seconds off of the top 3 podium in 6th place! Yeah!

The next day (Thursday) was my last official event of the trip, the Ultimate Pumptrack Challenge.



A pumptrack is a flat course that loops around with rollers and berms to generate speed from. This particular course was made symmetrically with a start platform in the middle. After qualifying by time trial format, riders were arranged in head-to-head brackets just like dual slalom. They had us start on the platform facing opposite directions with your hands and feet off of the bike. Once the announcer started the race it was a mad dash to get on your bike and around the track as fast as possible. Whoever completed the one lap the fastest would advance to the next round. Simple as that.

I made it through the first round easily due to qualifying 11th place out of 32. Second round was much closer with me winning by only 0.2 of a second. In the round of 8 I was paired up with Brendan Fairclough and would lose by the amazingly small margin of 0.03 seconds! Brendan made it past one more round and eventually finished 2nd to young Mitch Ropelato in the finals. Overall it was a killer first time event and I am happy to pull a top 8 finish from it.

This trip has been an amazing experience thus far. I have had some big crashes, good races, awesome swims, great parties, and more fun than you can shake a stick at! Definitely glad I decided to make it happen, I wouldn't miss it for the world!

Now I just have to decide whether I want to go hang out at the lake...or ride my bike. Hmm...decisions, decisions! I think I'll do both!

Catch ya later!

Evan