Cranking it up in Whistler
August 9th, 2010
The first weekend at Crankworx Kokanee is over. Chris Kovarik won the Monster Energy Garbanzo Downhill and Gee Atherton won the Dual Slalom.
Kovarik maintained a blistering pace in the DH to take home first with a time of 13:22.99, knocking last year’s winner Justin Leov (NZL) into second place with a time of 13:29.85. Dry course conditions for the first time in the event’s history allowed Kovarik to shave off over 22 seconds from Leov’s 2009 winning time.
“I got second place last year and this year I wanted to go for number one,” says Kovarik. “You have to stand up, man up and pedal.”
In the Dual Slalom it was Gee Atherton versus 18 year-old American Mitch Ropelato in the finals and things were looking to go Ropelato’s way with a holeshot in the first run. After gaining that short lead, they were side by side when Ropelato lost his head and crashed, letting Atherton gain the advantage going into the second run of the finals.
“I was playing calm, cool and collected,” says Atherton, after his win. “It is quite unexpected, but I am feeling really stoked. You have to stay calm and have fun. I really enjoyed that.”
Here’s some enthusiastic coverage of Day 1 at Crankworx Kokanee:
2010 Crankworx Day 1 coverage from Crankworx on Vimeo.
Every event at Kokanee Crankworx will be webcast live, the full schedule can be found at www.crankworx.com/webcast. Daily on-demand video highlights will also ensure everyone stays up to date with all the happenings at the biggest freeride mountain bike festival in the world.
Tags: Chris Kovarik, Crankworx, Gee Atherton, mtb, mtb skills, Whistler
