Crankworx 2007

It all started with a week of heavy rain. Oh dear. I was pre-entered into the Garbanzo Downhill - a 15-20 min race (depending if you're the world champ or, err... me) the height of the bike park - 4000ft vertical. Not one to back out of a challenge I got stuck in (almost literally in the mud) to the event. Wise Jon once again lived up to his name by not pre-entering but Rich and I carried on regardless of the embarrassment of our usual 3rd man whimping out because of a bit of rain!

The course wasn't quite as good as last year due to the diversions around the Olympic construction. But it did make a change. Unfortunately the weather made the course virtually impassable in places with even the pro's defaulting to scooting their feet along the floor.

I didnt get any pictures as the weather wasnt quite right for carrying anything you dont mind having mud injected into at high pressure. There are some good photo's by Dan Barham on bike magic HERE Rich and I came in in the last half of the pack - with me some 30 secs behind Rich's 19 min 18 sec. I'll get you next year!


see - smiling faces - it couldnt be that bad. Could it? (Meghan and Danice centre and right)











What a difference a week makes. After several mid-week events the crowds returned the following weekend for the Canadian Open DH race and, of course the crazyness that is Slopestyle (left)







With the park virtually dry and no races to worry about Jon, Michele and I set about having a great day in the park. The only slight problem was the inter-galactic life queues - but they got steadily better all day

Here's Michelle dropping in on the drop-in clinic













...and here's Michele dropping in on thr drop-in clinic - this time Jon's Michele (one "l")

















I came equipped to race in the Canadian Open but decided against it when I saw how serious the course was. I wasn't in the mood for serious racing and this course was certainly serious.

On race day, they stuck in a surprise jump at the finish (left). And no, that's not the landing - look further left and you'll see the landing just in the shot - might have been 40ft I think - scary! The pic is of Danice sending it - you wouldnt think this was her first season racing would you? And she seemed like such a nice girl ;-)


Of course that wasnt the only scary jump, this road gap near the top was also taken flat out - it was "only" 25ft long with a 6ft drop











oh, and it had a bumpy off-camber corner straight after it - notice how wide the tapes are at this point!



















I failed miserably to get photo's of any of my friends up on the course :-( but here's a complete stranger sending it















Childish humour courtesy of Photoshop














for the Pro-men, I heading into the rooty section with Rich to watch the action. This is Steve Smith - 17yr old BC kid who (despite officially being a junior) came 4th behind 3 guys who have between them been world champ for the past 4 years! Damn kids! They're sooo fast these days

Click on these sequences to get a better look














Honda Factory jackson - Greg Minnar











Course designer Tyler Morland











Current world champ, Sam Hill (appearing to float just above all the roots)











and last but by no means least, double world champ Fabien Barel on his way to the win (and taking a different line too)












a great double-weekend all round. I didnt race both weekends but I still racked up a few dozen laps in the park - and my bike can certainly attest to that! Poor thing needs a lot of TLC

Funny thing: My landlady thinks my bikes bring in the dirt - how does she know its me? It's not like there are bike tracks leading into my front door!!

....oh.....err, there are bike tracks? Ok. It's a fair cop guv'nr!!

Celebration of Light

Its on for 4 nights over two weeks - just dont try to go anywhere near it when its on - which has already caught me out as I live pretty close to the 'B' viewing beach

can you say "ooooooo"














"aaaaaaaaah"













"oooooooooo"

Saw this piece of history on Granville Island

While filling my face a couple weeks ago on Granville Island I noticed this Explosif - as in Kona Explosif - firstly, what a great town bike - a real piece of history from the 80's, and secondly, it wasnt branded as Kona, only as "The Bicycle Group" - so possibly before the Kona brand emerged - TBG own Kona. Interesting eh? Well ok, maybe only to bike geeks

Sunshine Coast with NSRide

In the absence of The Jedi Council, it gave me a great chance to warm up to the SSC riding with NSRide. There were only a couple of people I knew due to the fact that the Psychosis race was on in Golden and most of my friends were there - only Jon and Michele staying in town cos they had a wedding to go to - full marks to Michele for voluntarily going on a boat for six hours despite her sea-sickness


anyway, the ride. We did the usual suspects, 103, Red Barron, Janet's Jungle, DNA, Cunning Stunts, Black Tower and of course the DH course (which was flying in the dry conditions)










Cunning Stunts













pretty rainforest (you had to be there)


Thanks to Ken for leading

Sunshine Coast with the old (UK) crew

More than a few original haircuts are all part of the show....

I missed them last year for various reasons so I was more determined than ever to do some riding with my old posse when they hit BC this time. By my count this is the 7th Jedi Council Summer Field Trip. I made the first 5 (3 to Chamonix, 2 to Canada) before going native here

The plan was simple - meet them on the Sunshine Coast on Friday. Err, sorry make that Saturday morning - no? Oh well Saturday evening then? At last. Fortunately for me, when they didnt arrive on Saturday morning I had my new posse to ride with as it was the NSRide Sunshine Coast Ride the same day - sweet! (see next blog)


Here's Chaos on Janet's Jungle


















Stophe on Per-wotsits-street













Powerful Pierre

















Llew sending it on DNA














followed by (or perhaps preceded - I cant remember) Pierre












Because of the late start I decided to stay overnight in Chez-Honda - Johnny had lined up a beautiful campsite - if you like farmyards that is!











one of the residents













two bleedin great vans and they could only just squeeze everything in - 13 brits, 3 guides and one dog











at least the farm gave Johnny his first chance at intelligent conversation in a week!

The kidd was funny - it liked to headbutt your fist









crappy angle of a high skinny - its the one above the stream on per-wotsits street - 6ft high












Lairy Nick was one of about 4 I hadnt met before - 18 months out of touch brings a few new faces












Smiling Andy and Smiling Andy













This little jump is a lot more exciting than it looks - it was flat out through a 3ft gap between the trees

















This was the start of the rains that plagued us for 2 weeks after...

After a full day on Sunday I said my goodbyes about 5.30pm and headed off to get the 6.50pm ferry - which was full, as was the 7.25, and the 9.30 so I eventually got on board one just before midnight - ah well, c'est la vie

Sunshine Coast with the old (UK) crew - video

This gives you an idea of what the invasion was like - the trail is 'DNA'


Click the picture and wait to make it play

Whistler on a weekday

With the Triple Crown insisting on a rest day on Sunday, Jon and I made plans for a Bike Park day on Monday :-)



tumble weed in the lift line - sucks to be us eh ;-)












me on the in-deep rock - obviously in REAL life its a big scary rock- not just a little roll-down

















Jon sendin' it up on Garbanzo. Actually the park is a bit odd at the moment cos one of the main trails on the top half of the mountain is shut to allow some construction for the Olympics - it kind of necessitates doing Goat's Gully every lap which has probably the most infamous sections on the mountain







obligatory bear shot - complete with 3 cubs - all together now - awwwww












me on the Rock City roll in - I remember bottling out of this because I couldnt walk to the edge to see down it - too high and too steep! that was my first time in Whistler back in '04 . Nowadays, its a little friendlier than it was but its still pretty steep















Jon in his sun hat (add your own caption)














..and on a wall ride (he's about 6 inches off the rock as he jumps the crack) oooooooo!

We had a great a great day - a least a dozen laps. Ahh, Whistler. Such a good place :-D

Ripper #4 The Triple Crown

The final of this year's Ripper series, The Triple Crown.
A slight difference this time with the extremeness being in the endurance department.

The course went from the bottom of Mt Seymour to the top of the trails (1 1/4 hour ride up), then down and across to Mt Fromme for the hour and a quarter ride up there, then down and across to Cypress for the endless ride to just above the trails there (seemed like about 3 hours ride up but I think it was probably less) then down to Obsession: Bikes on Lonsdale. 8 hours, 39 mins later we rolled up. Exhausted. Well, I was.

At least our Team (me, Jon, Rich and Jon's mate Johnny) made it into the paper. Well, obviously I was at the back so they missed me in the text but you can just see my right hand in the pic



















the only photo I took - the Capilano Dam















Check out the full report here

Silverstar Bike Park, Venon

It was the Norco VPS Fest over the Canada Day weekend in SilverStar- basically a customer appreciation day where Norco owners get to ride the bike park for free and win some rather good prizes.

A load of our friends ride Norco's and had rented a house so invited us along. The weather in the few days leading up to it was, frankly shite, but, unperturbed, we set off on the 5-6 hour drive up to Vernon, BC. It's actually a very scenic drive (even in pouring rain) especially over the two passes - the first at 1500m and the second at 1728m - thats 5616ft - pretty big when you consider Ben Nevis is over a thousand feet less - and here there's a motorway! Its an amazing road - getting on for a hundred miles straight through the mountains in the middle of nowhere.

Anyway, back to the weekend, here's our motley crew (bar a couple that didnt make the photocall)
...and yes, that is me in red as usual....









pretty views, much more like the Alps than Whistler













view from our house (which was sleeping about 20)













Good food (eh Jon?)













Who could this be then? Not wearing red so it couldnt be me.....could it? Well actually yes, this weekend marked the Christening of my new lid which is not in the slightest red so I thought it appropriate to wear somethin more subtle for a change.... and christen it I did - with a full on crash onto my face - with no injury thanks to Specialized

The park was amazing. Mostly dirt - few few rocks (unlike Whistler) and such fun singletrack - all of us had the time of our lives all day - if you have the means, I highly recommend it



a view down "Downtown" of Rich (actually out of shot at the front), Brian, Derek, Jon and Dale in formation. This seemed to be the theme of the weekend - 6 guys going flat out everywhere about 5ft apart - we had soooo much fun I really cant describe it :-D








Dale (this bit is actually super steep and super slow other wise he'd air right over my head!











The weather (obviously) cheered right up for us and was actually a tad hot but somehow we made it through ;-) This is Lake something-or-other-beginning-with-a-K at Westbank - home now to Johnny and Barb We spent a couple hours having a last bit of fun here to break up the return journey


Superb pic by Euan with his new fish-eye lens - although it doesnt look it I'm just about to leap dramatically into the air.....









...and our final "ride" - Brian, Derek and I rolling down a big rockface right into the car park - a little staged as we had to clamber up it just to ride down - but nice use of the fisheye!




Silverstar = Fun = We'll be back!