Bas van Steenbergen may not have won either of his races Thursday in New Zealand but, with two podiums, he moves further ahead in the season-long King of Crankworx competition. The Canadian was on the box in dual slalom and pump track in a double-header day in Rotorua.
Dual Slalom
After training on a dry track, Thursday’s Specialized Dual Slalom Rotorua threw a wrench into finals day. Jackson Frew used suddenly slick conditions to turn around a sixth place in qualifying and take the win.
“It was really tricky,” Frew of the dual slalom’s flat corners and fleeting grip. “My strategy was to throw everything at it and if it sticks, then sweet. There’s really no strategy, my riding style is very much to be committed and be willing to go down with the sinking ship if it decides that it wants to. I’m just pumped to be here, pumped to keep it up and pumped to put a gold medal on the board.”
Thomas Slavik fought through the brackets to take second with Canada’s Bas van Steenbergen winning the bronze medal final to take third.
One rider more ready than most for the less-than-ideal conditions was Martha Gill. The British rider takes home her first Crankworx gold medal over Harriet Burbidge-Smith.
“I started to struggle on the flat corners on the black lane a little bit,” Gill sid after her first win. “Luckily, I felt like I had the right side pretty dialed in, so I had a good advantage for most of my runs from the right side and just tried to keep it pretty cool. It was easy to push it too hard and then crash. I saw quite a lot of crashes and quite a lot of people missing gates so just really focusing on keeping it calm and not making any mistakes; well not too many at least.”
Pump Track pushes King/Queen competition standings
Thursday was a busy day for the Crankworx crowd. After Dual Slalom wrapped up, finals started for the Pump Track Challenge. A technical track kept the world’s best on their toes and hunting for momentum all evening.
On the women’s side of the bracket, Caroline Buchanan earned the gold medal with a win as well as 100 points for the season standings. That pushes the Australian into second place in the…
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