Van Steenbergen builds lead on double-header day at Crankworx Rotorua
Dual slalom and pump track podiums put Canadian further ahead in King of Crankworx standings
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Jackson Frew pulled this back to take gold in Dual Slalom. Photo: Clint Trahan / Crankworx
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 Queen of Crankworx standings. Buchanan now has an even 800 points, a meager two points shy of current leader Jordy Scott.
“Pump Track is something I love,” Buchanan said after the win. “But all points toward the Queen of Crankworx are valuable and all us girls are putting on a show and it’s incredible. We’ve been talking about the Queen of Crankworx, and anyone deserves it. I’m just stoked to be in the mix and take the win here tonight.”
Scott finished second, adding 80 points to her total to keep the lead, if just. Manon Veenstra of The Netherlands finished third.
On the men’s side, the gold medal match-up put two long-time friends against each other. Niels Bensink qualified fastest for pump track. Beside him was Bas van Steenbergen, the reigning King of Crankworx. Van Steenbergen challenged, but Bensink couldn’t be stopped from taking the gold.
“At first I was a bit skeptical, I wasn’t sure if there would be enough speed but then how it was running in finals was insane,” Bensink commented on his race runs on the pump track. “So fast and it’s holding up, so I am happy. To be honest, I really needed this win. Whistler and Cairns didn’t feel that great for me so I needed it for myself. I was hungry for this one to finish off the season good and give myself a good birthday present.”
For van Steenbergen, second came with the silver lining of a big boost in the King of Crankworx Standings. The Canadian now has a sizable advantage of 143 points over current second place, Jackson Frew. Thomas Lemoine is third, 193 points back of van Steenbergen.
Scott leads the women’s standings by two points over Buchanan after pump track. But Canada’s Vaea Verbeeck is still in the running in third with 736 points going into Friday’s Downhill event. Verbeeck wasn’t on the podium Thursday, but landed a fifth in dual slalom and 11th in pump track to kee her dreams of defending the crown alive.
Results – Specialized Dual Slalom Rotorua
- Jackson Frew (AUS) // Marth Gill (GBR)
- Tomas Slavik (CZE) // Harriet Burbidge-Smith (AUS
- Bas van Steenbergen (CAN) // Jenna Hastings (NZL)
Results – Crankworx Rotorua Pump Track Challenge presented by Torpedo7
- Niels Bensink (NED) // Caroline Buchanan (AUS)
- Bas van Steenbergen (CAN) // Jordy Scott (USA)
- Michael Bias (NZL) // Manon Veenstra (NED)
