Ben Thompson: Canadian biker previews the Crankworx Summer Series

Crankworx Summer Series is a mountain bike festival that brings a taste of the Crankworx action to new riding destinations outside of the Crankworx World Tour. It’s the pathway to Crankworx-calibre racing, staged in new, epic locations outside the Crankworx World Tour.  

Summer Series festivals bring together pinned locals, top amateurs, and up-and-coming youngsters, while attracting top riders keen to mix, mingle, and drop in. 

Canadian rider Ben Thompson joined D'Arcy Waldegrave to preview the event from Christchurch.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the All Sport Breakfast podcast with Darcy
Waldgrave from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
B eight twenty eight. Crank Works we Go now a
massive bicycle festival. The summer series is in Otto Tahi
christ Jets the Venture Park down the Hill. Canadian cyclist
Ben Thompson joins us.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
Now, Ben, how you doing good than you do?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I'm doing very very well. You're looking forward to the
action of the next couple of days. The crank Works
is a big event and you're in an astonishing place
as well. What have you made of christ Jets so
far in that crazy old park?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Oh? Man, I love this place. It's amazing. I was
here a couple of years ago and I was only
here for a few days, so it's it's good to
be back. And we have of course, which is always fun,
something different, So yeah, it's should be a good time.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
What can we expect to see, because I'm presuming it's
not just the last guy to pick up a bike
that's going to be there. You're going to have some
pretty top competitors.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Yeah, for sure, there's uh, there's there's a lot of
hungry kids coming up and there's a lot of experienced
guys here. So I mean, yeah, you're gonna see you're
going to see a lot of the top tricks going
down and some sort of runs and everyone, I think
for sure tell us the approcess.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
How does the slope style of event actually work for
those who don't know? What does it consist of?

Speaker 3 (01:29):
Yeah, so for those that don't know slop style, it's
like a standard downhill rate you. Uh, there's no timing.
It's a judged event and there's cours get thrown out. Yeah,
around the world there's different ones and you're pretty much
judged on difficulty from the bottom. And yeah, they want

(01:50):
to see you boosting, looking good and doing doing the
hardest tricks you can.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
So a couple of days practice to work out your
beast routine for warm of a beta wood and I speak.
There's a big change, a big variance between different parks
that you ride on as well. So what do you
know about cross change? Is this working well for you?
As far as what tricks do you think you've be
able to put down?

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Yeah? I think so it's uh, it's yeah, it's nice
to have a horse and sometimes the new course is
a good thing and sometimes it comes with its own
challenges because you got to work out speeds and sometimes
it's tested. So I think that they're this course has
been they're doing some tweaking and stuff to make it
as good as they can. I'm sure by the time

(02:37):
finals comes, it'll all be dialed in.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
And as far as the featches that are required from
the ifing B what actually has to be built at
this park.

Speaker 3 (02:50):
So yeah, they've built pretty solid. Of course they have
I think give out a ten ten foot lifts hips
to the right or to the left, and then there's
a massive step down in between another couple of big
wood lifts. So it's uh, they've definitely done a good
job and there's some there's some big stuff on here, definitely.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
And being like all of these sports, it's all about progression.
What is the pake right now? What is the trick
that everyone's trying to land?

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Well, that's a that's a tough one. I don't I
don't know if there's one trick everyone's trying to land.
I think every rider has their own unique talent tricks
they're working towards. But I know everyone is kind of
why it's fun to come to the first event of
the year because you get to see what everyone's working on.
And yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure you guys see some
cool stuff on Saturday and Sunday.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
What are you going to put down for us? Come on,
bean let the cat out of the bag. What are
we going to see the Questions Adventure Park from you?

Speaker 3 (03:49):
I'm not sure. Well, we'll see maybe a couple couple
of things I haven't done before, but yeah, we've got
to make sure these jumps work for it and get
a couple more days of practice.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
And we'll see for more from the Old Sport Breakfast
with Dussy Wildegrave. Listen Lived and Used to hawk Set
Be on Saturday mornings, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio