It was an exciting way to cap off the 2021 mountain bike season at the Sun Peaks Bike Park with both local and international competitors racing in Sun Peaks on Sept. 23 and 24 for Crankworx BC, 2021.
Local mountain biking power couple Kyleigh Stewart, a Sun Peaks mountain bike freerider, racer and instructor, and Jackson Frew, an Australian-born mountain biker who has recently moved to Kamloops, B.C. for the mountain biking season, displayed their local prowess in both the Air DH and DH events.
“[Local knowledge] was a big help in [DH] practice, especially when it was pretty muddy during practice runs,” Frew told Redbull.TV after his winning run in the DH event, which you can watch by clicking here.
“I hadn’t ridden this track too much, but I knew I had to be more careful at the bottom because it was pretty loose. [I’m] just pumped to be able to put a good run down and feel good on my bike, [it] feels pretty cool.”
Frew also finished the Air DH event in second place, which took place on Steam Shovel, 7.5 seconds behind King of Crankworx points leader Bas Van Steenbergen.
Van Steenbergen also outraced the field in the Dual Slalom event, which you can watch by clicking here.
In the women’s category of the DH event, it was the favourite Vaea Verbeeck who took the top spot, putting down a time of 5:11.503, finishing the nailbiter race only .005 seconds ahead of second place Gracey Hemstreet.
Stewart finished a respectable 8th place with a time of 5:37.447 only 25.939 seconds behind Verbeeck.
Verbeeck also won the Air DH and Dual Slalom events, sweeping the Sun Peaks podiums before heading to Kicking Horse Resort outside of Golden B.C., for Crankworx BC’s next stop.
While fans were unfortunately unable to spectate the events due to COVID-19 restrictions, Red Bull TV aired the Dual Slalom and DH events on Sept. 23 and 24 respectively, with the Air DH event also taking place in Sun Peaks in the afternoon of Sept. 23.
To follow the rest of the 2021 Crankworx BC event, visit www.crankworx.com.
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