It was an amazing week for our athletes at Crankworx Events in Whistler, Canada!

Some of the world’s best gravity mountain bike athletes rode in several competitions throughout the world’s most iconic mountain bike gravity festival.

Our athletes performed in several competitions. The highlights started last Thursday with the @Clif Bar Speed & Style competition. In the women’s category our Swedish athlete Alma Wiggberg achieved a strong 2nd place and our French allround talent Tomas Lemoine won the men’s Speed & Style comp.

The highlight event was again on Saturday: the @Red Bull Joyride. It is the Superbowl of Mountain Bike Slopestyle featuring the 15 World’s best FMB World Tour riders, amongst them 4 of our athletes and 3 of them made it into the top 5.

Just coming out of an injury with a surgery 4 weeks prior to the event, Emil Johansson (SWE) performed again incredibly strong and was able to defend his Red Bull Joyride title from 2019, he won the 8th consecutive Crankworx FMBA World Championship event.

With his 3rd competition within the Crankworx week, Tomas Lemoine (FRA) stood out the most from all competitors at Crankworx, not only because he was able to podium in several disciplines and he is leaving Whistler as the leader of the “King of Crankworx” standings, but also because he jumped an obstacle, the final feature of the slopestyle course, that no one has done and that showed enormous courage and extreme skills. He managed to get 3rd place behind his good friend Tim Bringer and just ahead of our German athlete Erik Fedko who probably won the unofficial award of “best looking outfit” of Red Bull Joyride.

Unlucky was our Belgian Freeride legend Thomas Genon aka Tommy G. The winner of the 2012 Red Bull Joyride crashed in his first run so hard that he had to decide not to ride his second run. But we are happy that he is fine and healthy and we can’t wait to watch him at Red Bull Rampage in October.

Here you find the top 3 runs of the slopestyle:

We look forward seeing most of those 15 riders in less than 3 weeks in Nuremberg for Red Bull District Ride.

The iconic dust and rock of the 45th State is no stranger to having Belgian freeride athlete Thomas Genon, aka Tommy G, tearing down its shale slopes and launching off its cliff faces. But while Tommy has visited Utah on eight separate occasions, all of these trips have been centred around riding in one of the wildest sporting events on the planet: Red Bull Rampage.

Rampage is an event that pushes riders, and the sport of MTB to new limits. But the brutal back-to-back digging days, the limited time to test and perfect lines, and the pressure cooker that is Rampage finals day no doubt have an effect on riders reaching their full potential.

‘No Schedule’ is a video concept that builds off the back of Tommy’s multiple Rampage experiences. The project sets out to answer a question: away from the structure and time constraints of contest riding, what can a rider like Tommy do with the legendary Utah terrain? To find an answer to this, the project sees Tommy head out to the desert on a 3week trip with good friends Louis Reboul, Eliott Lapotre and Paul Fisson. With videographer Christian Rigal capturing the madness.

“After all my trips to Utah, I had so many ideas I wanted to try, but never got the chance. The ‘No Schedule’ project was really about finally getting the chance to explore these ideas. Having the time to shape stuff until it was dialled and waiting until the wind dropped to ride features was awesome. I felt like I could push things more than ever before.” – Thomas Genon

With endless style, insane moves, experimental features and epic scenery, ‘No Schedule’ achieves all it set out to do.

It goes without saying that special projects like this, need special equipment. For ‘No Schedule’ Tommy used a custom painted Canyon Torque CF- with artwork to match the sandstone ridgelines and cliffs of Utah. The specification was based around the build Tommy used at the 2021 edition of Red Bull Rampage, featuring a dual crown Marzocchi 58 fork, Shimano brakes and transmission, Schwalbe tires and Novatec wheels. This unique bike, which blends capability and playfulness in equal measure was another inspiration for the project.

“I have always loved riding big bikes in big terrain. But this new Canyon Torque CF build was something different for me. In the past it took some effort to get the DH bikes in the air and move them around. But the Torque just wants to get airborne. It’s so much fun.”   – Thomas Genon

Thomas Genon
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ThomasGenonMTB
Instagram: www.instagram.com/thomasgenon