Friday brings Speed and Style at Crankworx Innsbruck
Goomes and Lemoine take top honours in Austria
Photo by:
Clint Trahan / Crankworx
Crankworx Innsbruck sent it into the weekend with Friday’s Speed and Style competition. Combining trick and raw speed in a head-to-head format, and now including a women’s category for the second year, Speed and Style is quickly growing into an audience favourite.
Canadians had a big day on the mountain, with Vaea Verbeeck, Georgia Astle and Jackson Goldstone all flying into the top 10.
Canadians in Innsbruck
Queen of Crankworx Vaea Verbeeck rallied from a big knee injury to take fourth on Friday at Speed and Style. She wasn’t the only Canadian in the top-10. Whistler’s Georgia Astle joined in seventh. On the men’s side, junior Jackson Goldstone squeezed into ninth. Reigning King of Crankworx Bas van Steenbergen ended up 14th after three big days in Innsbruck.
Robin Goomes flips to first in women’s
When Speed and Style made it’s Austrian debut last year, Robin Goomes made it extra-memorable with the first women’s mountain bike backflip in competition. Goomes upped the ante again this year, throwing down backlip combos in her battle against Caroline Buchanan, who also got inverted in competition. Goomes flip-nacs and flip-no foot cans earned her the win.
“I don’t know if it has settled in yet, I didn’t really expect to win. I just expected to at least come out and try to do the tricks I want to do. I got them done and am just stoked that it led to a win,” said Goomes.
Men’s winner, Thomas Lemoine was impressed with the level all-round across categories at the Speed and Style.
“The level is getting very high for boys and girls, so it is amazing,” Lemoine remarked after his own wood. “I was not feeling like it was going to be easy, so I was more stressed for sure, but more happiness in the end.”
Lemoine sails to sixth Speed and Style
Thomas Lemoine still managed to find his way to a sixth Speed and Style win, despite the elevated competition.
“I think it was one of the best competitions we’ve seen.” said Lemoine, “We’ve seen maybe five people doing double back flips today,” he added.
The level wasn’t just high on the top step. Rider’s new to Crankworx, like Mike Ross, impressed on Friday.
“I didn’t know that third guy on the podium [Ross],” said Lemoine, “and he did maybe 20 double back flips and 20 cashrolls in a row today and never missed one.”
Results: Speed and Style – 2022 Crankworx Innsbruck
- Tomas Lemoine (FRA) // Robin Goomes (NZL)
- Teodor Kovac (CZE) // Jordy Scott (USA)
- Mike Ross (AUS) // Caroline Buchanan (AUS)
