Sometimes, you forget how much you love something until it’s taken away. And while the pandemic gave us a mandatory break from much of the celebrations and parties Whistler is known for, I was OK with it for the most part. I sympathized with the COVID grads who had the better part of two years of their youth taken away like some cruel Thanos-triggered blip, but introverts like me didn’t struggle as much with the idea of staying home.
With the return of Crankworx after a two-year hiatus, staying home last week just wasn’t an option. Racing was back. Raucous industry parties were back. The biggest freeride event on the mountain bike calendar—Red Bull Joyride—was back. And what a week it was.
It all kicked into high gear with Jesse Melamed’s Enduro World Series win on August 7. While we’ve been hearing about this Whistler local winning enduro races all over the world for years, it’s even more special when you get to take the win on your local trails. Shoutout to Melamed’s teammate and Squamish shredder Remi Gauvin for taking third and Seth Sherlock for winning the U21 category. Perennial Phat Wednesday upsetter and Aussie-Whistler local Shane Gayton also had a great weekend, managing a win in the Master (a.k.a. “Old Man”) category by a close margin.
Throughout the week, competition events gained more and more buzz. Despite some events moving up to Base 2 and creating some spectator bottlenecks aboard the Excalibur Gondola, the sunny August weather led to great turnouts at most events. The Official Whip-Off World Championships had one of its biggest crowds ever with Jackson Goldstone—fresh off taking the Junior World Cup DH title in Mont-Sainte-Anne the previous weekend—showing the old boys how it’s done on Crabapple Hits.
After a crescendo of dusty berm racing throughout the week, all eyes were on the Boneyard for Red Bull Joyride on Saturday, Aug. 13. Five-time winner Brandon Semenuk has all but retired from slopestyle competition, but was nice enough to lend his wooden satellite dish for the week. The skatepark-influenced course this year had more than enough rowdy ramps for big aerial tricks with a few jib-style features to slow the riding tempo before hitting the final step down into Skier’s Plaza.
High winds on course meant an hour delay for the finals start, further intoxicating the fervent Whistler crowd as they waited for the show to begin. One by one, the riders gave the audience what they wanted: a damn good show. Tire blowouts, botched landings and unnerving crashes all came as part of the slopestyle package. Thomas Genon had arguably the most brutal crash of the day attempting a 360 tailwhip off the Cannonball feature, and all but hobbled off the course. Nicholi Rogatkin had a spectacular recovery from an early error on his first run only to blow his rear tire landing a cashroll. His second run crashed out almost as badly as Tommy G, but he still finished with his head held high.
But it was Tomas Lemoine who won the crowd by gapping over the entire final feature, not just once, but again on his second run. Pedalling into such an enormous blind step down to land that deep—all on a hardtail bike—truly was a Joyride moment we’ll never forget. Cam McCaul even tore his headphones off in the commentary box to hear perhaps the wildest live crowd reaction we’ve ever seen in Whistler.
Yet the level-handed Swede Emil Johansson wouldn’t be outdone, executing his first run flawlessly to net his eighth Crankworx Slopestyle victory in a row. The run was incredibly technical, spinning his bike in both directions and fitting in a ridiculous number of bar spins to butter-smooth landings.
Shortly after the victory champagne, a brief-yet-anxiety-inducing PSA for a lost nine-year-old had many in the crowd on edge. The announcement of the young girl getting reunited with her family was cue for Whistler to begin the party.
And party Whistler did. We’ve been back at it for a few months now, but Crankworx 2022 really was the real return of Whistler’s festival atmosphere in full force. Not just another long weekend with people packed in the village. It was 10 days of celebrating mountain biking, a true homecoming for Crankworx. Hats off to the Crankworx team for putting on such a great event once again and every worker in the village for bustin’ their ass so everyone else could have such a great time.
We’re back.
Vince Shuley missed Crankworx. For questions, comments or suggestions for The Outsider email [email protected] or Instagram @whis_vince.
