One of the 35,000-plus fans at this year's Red Bull Joyride proudly sported a sign that read, "Dawid Godziek: proof that gravity is overrated." Godziek vindicated that fan by ascending to his inaugural Triple Crown of Slopestyle roughly two weeks before his 30th birthday.
His path to a 96.60-point high score and career-defining glory was adventurous, if nothing else.
Godziek was perhaps slightly too casual attempting a cashroll barspin off of the Boneyard's new cannon log jump. Unable to absorb the resulting under-rotated impact, he tumbled off his bike in front of the finish line.
Though lucky to escape injury, Godziek ripped his helmet off and cried out in frustration. His promising first run had just gone up in smoke.
Moments earlier, audiences had witnessed Timothé Bringer invade Whistler with his signature brand of reckless abandon. Bringer stomped, among other tricks: a 360 double tailwhip to barspin, a backflip double tailwhip and—catch your breath here—an opposite 360 double barspin on backflip tuck no hander off.
That's an official name for a slopestyle maneuver, not a run-on sentence, and it's even harder done than said. What did it all add up to? 94.40 points to blow away the day's previous high score: Max Fredriksson's 84.40.
Bringer, a.k.a. "The Hulk", is an Avengers-level threat at any competition he enters. The Frenchman very nearly smashed his way to triumph, but Godziek did not waste his final opportunity—proving instead to be Iron Man.
The Polish veteran nailed his cashroll barspin the second time and upgraded many of his other tricks, including a twister tuck no-hander and a 360 Superman seat grab Indian air. Judges took their time, carefully weighing Godziek's immaculate technical precision against Bringer's marauding rampage.
Godziek shouted his excitement and pounded the ground with both hands upon learning he'd seized the lead—a lead that the field proved unable to erase. Bringer went home with silver and Fredriksson held onto bronze.
"I would never have expected that I'm able to win Crankworx three times," Godziek said. "I wanted to win at least once this year, but I was really good for the whole season and couldn't be more stoked."
'The best feeling ever'
Joyride is a risky undertaking at the best of times, but high winds in Saturday night's forecast caused organizers to reschedule the Super Bowl of mountain biking to a 10 a.m. start.
Even so, humanity's best slopestylers laboured to remain upright. Emil Johansson couldn't defend his 2023 Crankworx Whistler title after taking a spill in practice, and mishaps by Jake Atkinson and Chance Moore drew alternates Lukas Skiöld and Alex Alanko into the fray.
None remained mistake-free through two rounds except Fredriksson, who geared down his second jaunt after realizing he was unprepared to challenge Godziek and Bringer's monstrous numbers.
Max Langille and Tom Isted ate dirt on both runs. 2018 Triple Crown athlete Nicholi Rogatkin, last year's runner-up Paul Couderc and Torquato Testa withdrew after going down hard on their opening attempts.
That left Bringer to try and bring it once more. The former Red Bull Rookie of the Year emptied his tank in search of a perfect lap, but fell on the "surgeon's table" feature.
"I've been a big fan of Dawid since I'm young," Bringer revealed. "What can I say? I'm just happy to battle against this guy, and I hope we're gonna have some other contests to do it again. I will train to be stronger next time."
Added Godziek: "Tim Bringer did a great job, but I was only focusing on my run and what I needed to do. I've already crashed in so many first runs and then won on the second run, so I was sure that I could do it. Winning here in Whistler is the best feeling ever. I don't think I can achieve more than this."
Rogatkin and Johansson, with four Triple Crowns between them, linked up to present Godziek with the trophy emblematic of his season-long dominance. Both were respectful of slopestyle's new top gun.
"I would be lying if I said I didn't want [another Triple Crown] myself, but this season it hasn't been possible for me to get to the level I needed to," admitted Johansson in the wake of his own injury-plagued campaign. "Still, a big congrats to Dawid for pulling it off."
Godziek enters a well-deserved offseason with a flawless 3000 FMBA points for his breakthroughs in Cairns, Innsbruck and Whistler. Bringer checks in second (2600) and third overall goes to Erik Fedko (2096), who managed fourth at Joyride.
Click here for complete results from another thrilling day of Crankworx.
