Watch: Brandon Semenuk’s 2017 Red Bull Joyride winning run
Fifth Joyride victory for Whistler native
Whistler native Brandon Semenuk won his fifth career Redbull Joyride in his hometown on Sunday. Semenuk has focused his season around developing new moves and filming on projects such as Raw 100 instead of competing this year. He was the first rider out on his first run in the competition and the last to ride on the second run at Crankworx Whistler’s Redbull Joyride slopestyle finals.
“I don’t remember the last time I jumped first so that was extremely stressful. I felt cold turkey, so thankful I got a good run,” Semenuk told CBC. As the winner in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015 Semenuk is a crowd favourite and delivered again with a very strong run. Performing a half cab early which was the trick that took him out of contention last year, Semenuk was on point for his run.
@BrandonSemenuk Shot this today in Whistler during your 2nd lap. Congrats on another impressive victory! pic.twitter.com/GHpQBrsAKa
— Bob Crook (@CrookBob) August 20, 2017
Emil Johansson, a 17-year-old from Sweden put in a strong run but was unable to dethrone Semenuk. “Give Emil another year or two to fill in the blanks and he will be the next unstoppable guy on the circuit,” said Semenuk who had a dust up while doing a crowd pleasing victory run but got right back up and completed the run before celebrating at the bottom of the course.
Joyride is the finale of Crankworx Whistler, a 10-day celebration of mountain biking.