GATTO
Because of the riding, the industry, the art, the community, it’s an integral part of mountain bike culture. It’s so special that I hope it lasts forever.
World Cup. Because of the riding, the industry, the art, the community, it’s an integral part of mountain bike culture. It’s so special that I hope it lasts forever.”
This August, Brandon Semenuk will straddle his bike and drop into the Joyride course in an effort to win a sixth slopestyle title. He’ll have been working on the moment since he won in 2017, thinking about how to build a more impressive run, develop new tricks and perfect his style. In June and July, Crankworx is Semenuk’s sole focus as he polishes the final details on freshly built features in his own training yard. All of that is what it takes to be among the best, but is no guarantee of victory.
“You need to know your competitors, and what the judges want,” said Semenuk. “You have to have good variety, and you have to have endurance. By the time you get to the start ramp, you’ve already done everything you can. You should be in a natural state.”
Crankworx Whistler’s slopestyle competition can have between 12 and 14 features. Athletes who make it to the finish zone arrive totally worn out, catching their breaths, feeling their pulses thump in their heads as they cool down and recover.
“Crankworx Whistler is also so much about what you do on the final feature,” Semenuk said. “You get to the end of the course, doing the hardest things you’ve done on the gnarliest features, and you have to trick really big to finish it. You finish totally physically and mentally spent.”
Se menu kandcran kworxw hist l er have an intense, long-standing relationship. He’s been to every event since it began, first as a spectator, and then as a competitor in 2005. He sat out 2006 with a broken wrist and has stood on the podium every year since. The features that make up the course have stayed up year after year within the bike park, known as The Boneyard, something Semenuk said gave him a “rare opportunity to ride those sorts of things daily.” Throughout the year, he’s learned to balance the support he feels from a home crowd against the obligations that come with being a living legend. During Crankworx, when he’s not practising, he’s pulled a hundred different ways all week long. “It’s absolute chaos,” he said.
At the top of the run though, the moment is his. The cheering crowd retreats, sponsor banners fade out and he drops in. “If you get to the finish with a clean run, then you get this moment,” Semenuk said, “a moment of clarity, a second to breathe.”
The moment ends, the chaos rushes in, and the sun sets on the biggest day in mountain biking.