Quantcast

Brosnan and Ropelato Highlight Crankworx Success for Specialized

Oct 20, 2009
383
0
<p>The ten days of Crankworx Whistler 2012 was a banner event for Specialized with riders on the podium in almost every single event during an extremely busy week of racing, and slopestyle.</p><p>
</p><p>
The week started off in style as Martin Soderstrom (SWE) ended up in 4th place in the speed and style event after an entertaining event that put the freestylers and racers on an even playing field. With both very trickable jumpy and especially slippery, dusty corners, it was a free for all as everyone had to pull every skill they had out of the bag.</p><p>
</p><p>
On Tuesday, Darren Berrecloth crashed in practice and was unable to compete in finals due to a broken back (the third one in his career). Thankfully, Darren was still able to walk around and help announce during finals, and is confident he will be able to compete at Rampage.</p><p>
</p><p>
After their annual Gravity launch, where Specialized debuted their latest mountain bike weaponry for 2013, Specialized athletes returned to the field of battle at the Pumptrack Challenge. It was almost a sweep of the podium for the big red S, as Monster Energy Specialized's Mitch Ropelato (USA) and Troy Brosnan (AUS) took home the gold and silver medals respectively. Mitch and Martin raced the all new Specialized P-Slope, while Troy raced the Specialized P-2. This continues Rope-A-Dope's 3 year sweep as the king of the pump track. Brosnan pushed the front end and went down in the finals, handing the victory to the American after a tough evening of racing that turned legs to jelly. Soderstrom kept things interesting taking 4th place, after throwing tailwhips, barspins and gigantic whips over the last double on almost every run, much to the delight of the several thousand screaming fans present.</p><p>
</p><p>
Friday night saw riders take to the Dual Slalom race track. Deep in dust and extremely fast and loose, Specialized riders once again attempted to sweep the podium. This time it was Troy Brosnan taking home gold on his SX, while Luca Shaw (USA) took home the silver. Ropelato finsihed up in 4th place after having big crashes in his last two heats and eating dirt.</p><p>
</p><p>
The biggest event in freeride mountain biking went down early Saturday evening. The Redbull Joyride brought the very best freeriders from around the world to Canada to throw down for a purse of over $40 000 in front over 25 000 awestruck fans. Under threat of impending electrical storm and gusting winds, the party kicked off 30 minutes early and it was Soderstrom once again almost stealing the show with his new P-Slope. The big Swede wound up in second place with an almost perfect run until he came up slightly short on the final "cabin drop" and got thrown down to the ground attempting a 360 double tailwhip. </p><p>
</p><p>
</p><p>
Specialized athletes now scatter across the globe as Soderstrom heads to the Nine Knights festival in Europe and the Monster Energy Specialized racers head to Leogang, Austria for the 2012 World Championships.</p>

More...