event story

Crankworx

Innsbruck

2018

Whips, Flips, Speed and Style

Crankworx are the Olympics of mountain biking. With its four stops in New Zealand, Austria, France and Canada, it is by far the largest event series in freestyle mountain biking. Last weekend the Crankworx Stop took place in Innsbruck, Austria. At the start also some TSG Team Riders, who gave their best at the different contests and races.

text & photos by Dominik Bosshard

I. RockShox Innsbruck Pump Track Challenge

“Pump for victory” is the name of the game at the Pump Track Challenge. Competitors must complete the circular track without pedalling – all they are allowed to do to build up speed is pump their bike up and down over the rollers and obstacles. The first one to the finish wins.

Benedikt Last, our German 4X Champion, was the most successful TSG rider here and reached the quarter-finals.

Benedikt Last pumping at the Crankworx Innsbruck Pump Track Challenge

II. Mons Royale Dual Speed & Style Innsbruck

The Dual Speed & Style is a head-to-head competition carried out in a dual eliminator format. Two riders race against each other and try to make it to the finish as quickly as possible while performing the most stylish run on the dual course featuring step-ups, tables and drop-offs.

At this race the next day several TSG Team Riders were competing: Amir Kabbani, Lukas Schäfer, Lucas Huppert and Antoni Villoni gave full speed.

Amir and Lukas before the race

Crankworx Innsbruck 2018 Dual Speed and Style

Amir Kabbani with a beautiful flip one foot x-up

Amir showed nice runs with stylish Flip one Foot X- ups and 360 one foot can can. Unfortunately, he could not beat his counterpart and was knocked out in the 1/16 finals.

Lukas and Lucas came furthest and had to compete against each other in the next race.

Lucas Huppert qualified as 14th. However, with nice flip whips and a lot of speed he did not manage to beat his TSG team mate Lukas Schäfer

Lukas Schäfer triumphed in the battle and made it to the next round. In the eighth final, he unfortunately lost to Greg Watts.

Lukas Schäfer with a no hander

III. OAKLEY Official Alpine Whip-Off Championships presented by SPANK

Before the finals at Speed & Style in the evening, the legendary Whip Off took place. The Whip Off Contest is certainly one of the coolest events at Crankworx Innsbruck, not least because of the spectacular mountain scenery.

Timo Pritzel and Amir Kabbani during training

Besides Amir, Lucas and Lukas Schäfer, Timo Pritzel also showed how classy he is in the air. With blue bird weather and summer temperatures, the fans were enthusiastic about the whipping.

Lucas Huppert is gaining his first experiences on the big bike. Let’s hope next year the whips look the way he handles them on the dirt bike.

Lukas Schäfer probably did not show the heaviest whips, but by far the most steez. That got him into the finals.

The two winners of the jam session format were last year winners Louis Reboul (FRA) and Casey Brown (CAN).

IV. Crankworx Innsbruck Slopestyle presented by Kenda

On Saturday the Crankworx main attraction took place with the slopestyle event. At the start we had TSG style machine Matt Jones from the UK and our new pro team rider Erik Fedko.

Matt Jones with a huge 360 Tuck no hand

Erik struggled with pain in his foot all week and also crashed very hard on his first run. So it was good to see him at the start again in the second run. He made some adjustments to his run and then showed a super stylish run from top to bottom, which catapulted him to 5th place. With this score he can be completely satisfied!

Erik with a breathtaking 360 barspin to tail whip

Where is the landing? Sure Erik knows while barspinnig at the flat drop

Matt Jones also showed a great run, but had problems with the second one. A hang up after the 720 took his speed for the next jump and he had to break up. He finished the contest in 6th place right behind Erik.

super nice 360 tuck no hand from Matt Jones

Matt with a 360 barspin

Top 3 results:
1. Nicolin Rogatkin
2. Brett Rheeder
3. Diego Caverzasi

V. iXS Innsbruck Downhill presented by Raiffeisen Club

On Sunday the downhill race took place. Packed with jumps, roots and technical sections, this event brings thrilling action in a race against the clock. Biroma team rider Dominik Widmer supported by TSG finished on the 66th place.

Dominik Widmer waiting for the DH race to start

A weekend full of action! And it continues with the Crankworx in Let Gets, which is currently running. Good luck to our riders Erik Fedko and Matt Jones!

Watch the lifestream on Sunday June 24th here: https://www.redbull.tv/live/AP-1VS3UEPBD2111/crankworx

Check out some of the TSG products used at Crankworx

kneeguard tahoe A

109.95 €

knee-sleeve joint

84.95 €

evolution solid color

evolution

59.95 €

Marin Bikes production

Video shoot

with Matt and

Timo

food poisoning, rain and mud…

Marin Bikes produced a nice edit for their new Bike collection with TSG team riders Matt Jones and Timo Pritzel. Matt was heavily involved from concept to design & testing of this bike. Both headed down to Surrey, UK, to see how the bike handled the S4P bike park and the local trails. Read here how Matt and Timo experienced the video shoot.

photos by Marin Bikes

We caught Matt and Timo to learn a few more details about the video shoot. For Matt, the first day of the shooting didn’t really start promising…. But read yourself what they have to report.

I. Matt Jones remembers well

Matt: This was my first time riding and working with Timo and it was so awesome.

I’ve looked up to Timo for years as a rider with legend status

I’ve looked up to Timo for years as a rider with legend status and somebody who pushed the limits of the sport before I was even doing it. So to ride with Timo as not only Marin team mates but also TSG team mates is a crazy experience.

The night before the first day of filming, I got the worst food poisoning so the shoot did not start well for me, I was being sick for hours whilst Timo rode hard in the rain and got some sick riding shots despite being cold and wet. In the evening I started to feel better and Timo gave me some natural food which helped a lot, and his advice was super important for me to get back to riding the next day.

Matt Jones loving his creation

So we only had one full day to ride and film together, in two locations but it was awesome. We started at the dirt jumps and got some sick shots riding together. We made sure to get some slo-mo classic Timo one-foot-tabletop shots which was so cool for me to watch.

Afterwards we rode enduro style tracks on the bikes and hit muddy corners and puddles.The video is sick and it was such a great opportunity for me to ride with such a legend.

II. Timo’s Review of the filming in the UK

Timo: I was really looking forward to riding with Matt Jones, my team mate for TSG and Marin Bikes. I was a bit surprised though that they wanted to film a dirt edit march. But we were really lucky! It was bit wet as it always is in the UK, but sunny in between! The bike scene on the island is one oft he best all over Europe in my opinion. Riders just really get it on at their spots! Plus they are super friendly and passionate about what they’re doing!

I thought Matt is going to do some super stunts and leave me tagging along

At first I thought Matt is going to do some super stunts and leave me tagging along. But Matt showed up with food poisoning and was super sick! So, it turned out, the old dirt jump grandpa, could drop some food knowledge on this young youtube millionaire. That it might not be the best idea to only eat english pub foodJ. Don’t spend money just on strong engines for cars, also spend money on quality fuel for your own engine! Your body.

Timo Pritzel guiding his San Quentin through the singletrack of Peaslake, UK.

The new Marin San Quentin, is Matts signature project. An all around affordable bike, which turned out just great! I know Matt and the guys at Marin put a lot of work in this project and its super cool to see the final outcome. When filming an edit and spending a couple days together its super important to have guys around you that know what they are doing. Thankfully the film-crew and photographers were riders themselves, that was awsome! Thanks to Jacob Gibbins / aspectmedia.tv and rupertfowler.co.uk! And our team manager John Oldale for putting it all together!

I was really surprised on how good the trails were not far out of London. And I’ll take some of that motivation these brits have when it comes to riding in all wheater conditions, back home to Berlin.