Kokanee Crankworx updates event with 2 events and huge slopestyle prize

Photo Credit: Whistler Blackcomb / Blake Jorgenson

Kokanee Crankworx Mountain Bike Festival has announced the addition of two events to the roster of adrenaline-fueled competitions taking place July 22-30, 2006.  The Super D will take place on Tuesday, July 25 and the Kona Jump Jam will take place on Sunday, July 30.
 
“The Kona Jump Jam and the Super D events are exciting additions to our Kokanee Crankworx competition line-up,” says Seb Fremont, Kokanee Crankworx Operations Supervisor.  “The Kona Jump Jam will take place on the course Red Bull built for Elevation, a BMX dirt jump event. The jumps are located at the base of the Whistler Mountain Bike Park, making it an awesome spectator event. The Super D is a new event for Kokanee Crankworx that many downhill and cross-country racers will be stoked about.”
 
The Kona Jump Jam will be open format, with qualifiers and finals taking place Sunday, July 30. There will be a $50 entry fee for all riders, with fees going towards the cash prize purse. BMX icon Jay Miron designed the course for Elevation, applying decades of experience to create an immense dirt track riddled with transfers, rhythm sections and giant booters. The entire Elevation course is now open to the public to ride, with purchase of a Whistler Mountain Bike Park lift ticket.
 
The second event addition is the Super D, taking place Tuesday July, 25. The Super D is a growing style of race integrating several uphill sections within the downhill course.  Riders will race from a mass start, per category, on a variety of trails in the Whistler Mountain Bike Park ending with the legendary and high profile GLC Drops at the base of Whistler Mountain.
 
The Festival’s signature event, the Kokanee Slopestyle, has just announced one of the biggest prize purses in the growing discipline of downhill mountain biking, with the top rider taking home $7,500.  Qualifiers for the open event will take place Thursday, July 27 with the finals on Saturday, July 29.  The new open format will create a spectacular show for spectators during the qualifiers and finals as riders combine elements such as back flips, 360s and suicide no-handers to impress the judges.   
 
“Once again we are leading the charge by having a fully open slopestyle event, giving any rider that signs up the chance to become a part of the professional freeride scene by competing with the best guys in the world,” says Richie Schley, professional mountain biker and freeride pioneer.  “Stepping up the prize money for the Kokanee Slopestyle will set the stage for an amazing competition.”  
 
The third annual Kokanee Crankworx Mountain Bike Festival is set to go off July 22 to 30 in Whistler, BC. Expanding to nine days of serious excitement both on and off the hill, the festival showcases Whistler as the ultimate biking playground by combining impressive stunt sessions and mind-blowing speed events with the world’s best mountain bikers competing for cash and prizing totaling over $30,000.  The event line-up, which takes place in Whistler Blackcomb’s famed mountain bike park and throughout Whistler Village, also includes an outdoor expo, pro riding demonstrations, free music and entertainment.

Kokanee Crankworx is presented by Events Whistler - a partnership of Tourism Whistler, Whistler Blackcomb and the Resort Municipality of Whistler. At centre stage of Kokanee Crankworx is the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. With over 200 km and 3,855 feet of lift-serviced gravity-fed, adrenaline-fueled descending trails, the Bike Park is the unequivocal leader of lift-accessed mountain bike parks in the world.
 
For more information about Kokanee Crankworx - Whistler’s premier freeride mountain bike festival - please visit http://www.crankworx.com