Verbeeck sweeps slalom, Iles cinches Summer Series overall
Bas van Steenbergen wins Sun Peaks Dual Slalom, but Finn clinches title with second place
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Clint Trahan / Crankworx Summer Series
The name for Cranworx Summer Series’ three-week jaunt through B.C. may make it sound like summer camp, but the racing schedule is relentless. With 16 races crammed into three weeks, it has as much in common with a training camp as it does summer getaway. 10 races deep, riders are starting to feel the cumulative exhaustion of constant racing, practice sessions and travel.
Verbeeck sweeps Summer Series Slalom
For Vaea Verbeeck, her win Wednesday at Sun Peaks comes as a relief. It seals a sweep of the Dual Slalom events, added to earlier wins at SilverStar and Kicking Horse. The Coldstream, B.C. racer, though, was feeling the effort.
“It’s definitely getting to the points where we’re so tired, it’s a bit of a weird thing to process now,” said Verbeeck. The racers involved in the series have now completed 10 races in the past 16 days. “It’s not something I’ve dealt with before. This kind of tiredness. Usually I try not to stress mentally and just flow with it for fun, and now I’m so tired and beat that I just stress about that too.”
There’s more on the line than Slalom wins, though. Verbeeck’s win pushes her closer to the overall points title in the Crankworx Summer Series. That award comes with an additional $10,000 prize.
“That’s something I’d usually like to have out of my mind,” added Verbeeck, who currently leads the overall by 70 points. “I’m stoked to race each race with those girls, and I’m stoked to see them perform really well. So usually I try not to think about it and it just turns out how it turns out but, right now, I don’t know why, I’m just so tired, I keep stressing about losing that edge that I have. I think today’s win might help me a bit to go back to my usual ways of just going with it and hoping for a good end to the week.”
Coming in a close second to Verbeeck was Whistler’s Georgia Astle. After one matchup, Astle had a slight advantage. Verbeeck stayed focused and put the pressure on in the second run. Astle blew a gate trying to hold the pace, and Verbeeck rode away with the win.
“I think you can easily see improvements because we’ve had back-to-back weeks,” said Astle, who also took second in last week’s Psychosis DH in Golden. “My gates…every week, just a little bit more confidence, and getting more snap, which is very cool…I’m really happy with the overall skill development over the couple weeks. It’s been super fun.”
Casey Brown added another Summer Series podium to her tally on Wednesday. Brown faced off against Andréane Lanthier Nadeau to take third in the Dual Slalom, and stay within reach of Verbeeck in the overall.
Van Steenbergen adds a second win in wild day of Dual Slalom racing
On the men’s side, Bas van Steenbergen battled his way through the brackets to earn his second Crankworx Summer Series win.
“Stoked,” said van Steenbergen, after narrowly edging out Finn Iles by by a 0.34 margin after two runs. “It was good redemption from last week where I felt like I made some dumb mistakes. I felt a little more on it today.”
While the final round was tight, it wasn’t van Steenbergen’s only close call. In the semi-final, up against the Summer Series revelation Kasper Woolley, van Steenbergen went down on the last flag.
“A flag got stuck in my tire, so he thought he won, and we ended up having to do a re-run,” he said of his battle with Woolley. “That’s kind of a shitty one for him. But yeah, it’s tight racing.”
“It’s just a bit frustrating,” said Woolley, who edged out Mark Wallace in the small final to take third. “I threw down my best lap, but it didn’t count for anything, but that’s the way it is. Out of my control.”
Woolley had to put the semi-final frustration behind him quickly to save the podium finish. Wallace was second in last week’s Kicking Horse Dual Slalom and, after one run, the two were in a dead heat. After pushing back up for the deciding run, Woolley edged ahead to a 0.09 second lead to claim the final podium spot.
“I’m pretty stoked. I missed the Slalom last week, and the first week I did horrible, so I’m pretty happy to come third.”
Iles cinches Summer Series overall title with second in Slalom
Finn Iles finished one step ahead of Woolley on the podium in second. While missing out on a win isn’t Iles’ favorite thing in the world, the result pushed the Whistler World Cup racer to a bigger win. The points from his second place earned him a big enough margin to clinch the Crankworx Summer Series overall title.
“I felt confident that I could compete for the overall,” said Iles, “I wasn’t sure I could win or what I could do, but I’m happy to have come out and have done what I’ve done to clinch the overall. Proud of myself.”
Iles has racked up four first places, four silvers and a bronze in the 10 races so far.
With just two downhill races remaining, Iles isn’t planning on missing the podium for a second time. While downhill is his home, he says he’s enjoyed the other disciplines.
“I’ve hardly raced Dual Slalom but it’s one of the most fun events you could do. I think the head-to-head really adds that extra flair to the event. I kind of surprised myself the first week and from there I had a different confidence going in to the event.”
