If you didn’t get the news yet, Canada is kicking ass at the UCI World Cup Downhill this year. Not only were the men’s top two podium steps at Val di Sole, Italy last weekend held by Canadians (on Canada Day!), the two riders are Sea to Sky locals.
In second place at Val di Sole was Finn Iles, who was born in Banff, Alta. Iles and his family moved to Whistler when he was 10, where he got into hockey, as well as ski- and mountain-bike racing. Bikes eventually won the contest for his athletic dedication, and he quickly shot up as a young downhill racer, cementing himself on the world stage after winning the Junior World Championship in 2016. His performance in the World Cup Elite category has been getting more and more consistent since his Elite debut in 2017, with his finest performance to date coming at Mont-Sainte-Anne, Que. in August 2022—a race he won with a broken chain in front of a fervent Canadian crowd.
In first place at Val di Sole last weekend was Jackson Goldstone, his first World Cup win at the Elite level. If you’ve spent any time at the Whistler Mountain Bike Park or its weekly Phat Wednesdays races over the last decade, you’ve probably witnessed Goldstone’s speed and ability to boost jumps into the stratosphere. Many thought he would go the freeride route, but a few years ago he decided to go all in on racing.
The decision paid off. Like Iles, Goldstone also chalked up a Junior World Championship in 2022, and the same year was the youngest rider to win Red Bull Hardline, a race with some of the biggest jumps you’ve ever seen. The 19-year-old lives in Squamish, but just like with Brandon Semenuk, the town of Whistler adopted Goldstone as a local given his many years of riding and racing in the bike park.
Iles and Goldstone are the second and third Canadians, respectively, to win an Elite World Cup downhill race. The first was the Chainsaw himself, Stevie Smith, in Leogang, Austria in 2013. Both the younger Canadians credit Smith—and that history-making run—as inspiration for their own racing.
Seeing the results of these two young Sea to Sky riders on Canada Day not only made me proud to be a Canadian, but it also got me thinking that we are getting to a point where our country can consistently hold top spots on the downhill world stage. Iles and Goldstone aren’t the only Canadians performing. Sechelt’s Gracey Hemstreet is making her mark in the Elite women’s field, managing a respectable seventh in Val di Sole—with a sizable crash—and currently holds the rank of seventh in the world.
Jakob Jewett and Mark Wallace are a bit further back in the men’s field, but are still in the starting gate for the Finals run (after making it through qualifying and semi-final stages), which is no easy task. Pemberton brothers Lucas and Tegan Cruz and Rossland junior Bodhi Kuhn are also regular fixtures on the results sheets.
The old guard in Whistler has always reflected on Rob Boyd’s World Cup (alpine ski) win at the bottom of Dave Murray Downhill as a watershed moment. “Quite simply, anyone who was in Whistler on Feb. 25, 1989, has a memory—or at least a blurred one of Boyd’s win,” wrote Pique in 2014 in an article celebrating the 25-year anniversary.
So why can’t Whistler host a UCI World Cup Downhill event? Well, it almost did back in 2001-2003, but the event fell apart due to organizers not being able to negotiate viable funding with Whistler Blackcomb, Tourism Whistler, and the Resort Municipality of Whistler. The UCI also contributed to the breakdown by changing contract rules months ahead of the first race. But all those failed negotiations were more than 20 years ago now. Whistler has hosted one of the world’s largest mountain bike festivals—Crankworx—many times over, not to mention the 2010 Olympics. The bike park is bigger and better than it’s ever been. The 1199 DH track in Creekside (named after Stevie Smith’s World Cup points total in 2013) is getting a proper test run at the Canadian Open Downhill at Crankworx next month, and even has fibre optic cable right next to the course, ready for broadcasting live across the world. With all that in place, Whistler’s bid for a UCI World Cup downhill race—and perhaps even World Championships one day—seems less a matter of “if” and more a matter of “when.”
Mont-Sainte-Anne is the only Canadian stop currently on the World Cup DH circuit, but the only advantage I see of that location is that racers and crews have to travel less distance to or from the U.S.’s only World Cup stop in Snowshoe, W. Va. So Whistler’s bid may be stronger in conjunction with another West Coast bike park in the U.S., if only to reduce the travel stress on athletes and teams.
Can we all imagine for a second, Iles or Goldstone—or any current or future Canadian rider—winning a World Cup downhill in Creekside? My guess is it would be on par with Boyd’s 1989 win, and another reason to celebrate Whistler as the world’s unofficial capital of mountain biking.
We have the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. We have some of the world’s fastest riders who grew up riding it. Now all we need is a successful bid to the UCI. Proponents, let me know how I can help with the campaign.
An eight-year-old Jackson Goldstone was faster than a 31-year-old Vince Shuley on B-Line. For questions, comments or suggestions for The Outsider, email [email protected] or Instagram @whis_vince.
