DH Racer Brendan Fairclough’s Speed Trumps Andreu Lacondeguy’s Style

The invitational Dual Speed & Style presented by AVID was a huge success with the inaugural Whistler event filling Whistler Village, while thousands more tuned into the live webcast powered by Red Bull Media House.

Britain’s Brendan Fairclough, a rider widely recognized as one of the most well-rounded racers on the DH circuit, ended up in the final with Spain’s Andreu Lacondeguy, one of the world’s best-known freeriders. Lacondeguy, who actually has history battling the clock as a DH racer, gave Fairclough a run for his money but in the end pushed too hard and ended his race in a spectacular cloud of dust while the British World Cup racer sailed over the finish line to take gold.

In the battle for third place two freeriders were pit against each other; American Kyle Strait, who qualified first yesterday, and Sweden’s Martin Soderstrom. Soderstrom was pulling out Joyride-worthy tricks in every heat but in the small final was bucked on a roller and fell, giving Strait the bronze.

Pro freerider Cam McCaul, who lent his expertise as an announcer at the Dual Speed & Style, feels that going fast and having the ability to pull multiple variations of tricks is going to be the type of riding that will prevail in future rounds of Speed & Style.

“Andreu was going up against a World Cup racer so he had to push his speed limits beyond probably what was comfortable for him,” says McCaul. “That race was his to lose but Andreu actually had the speed to stay with Brendan, and the tricks to take the win, if he could have held on. You have to keep within 1.2 seconds in the ‘speed’ area to take the win with ‘style’.”

Dual Speed & Style is a new event on the freeride mountain bike scene. Riders race through a dual course head-to-head for time and earn .6 second deductions for the most stylish tricks pulled on the mid-course booters. Partly influenced by motocross and then brought to life by Kyle Strait’s glory run through the dual course in Whistler during Crankworx in 2011, the SRAM Dual Speed & Style in Les 2 Alpes on July 12, 2012 was the first Speed & Style event organized by Crankworx with Cam Zink taking the win. Judging by the crowds gathered today for the Dual Speed & Style presented by Avid, the event is an exciting addition to the world of freeride competition.

Tonight the Bud Light Crankworx Concerts featured ambient rock and power-pop starting with Jets Overhead at 7:45pm and Said The Whale at 8:45pm at Whistler Olympic Plaza. Stay tuned to www.crankworx.com for upcoming news and connect with Crankworx through Facebook.com/crankworx or Twitter.com/crankworx

Stay tuned to www.crankworx.com for upcoming news and connect with Crankworx through Facebook.com/crankworx or Twitter.com/crankworx

The webcasts, powered by Red Bull Media House, are live streamed at www.crankworx.com www.redbull.com/bike and by online media partner www.pinkbike.com