Day 9 – Red Bull Joyride Highlights from Crankworx on Vimeo.
The Saturday’s Red Bull Joyride benefitted from a bluebird day and a huge crowd. The riders went off and the event was ultra successful. But did you know this was not the first Joyride to ever be held in Whistler? There was also a Joyride event back in the day, and it set the scene for much of what Mountain Biking slopestyle would become, as well as the awesomeness that just happened this past weekend.
“Joyride was the first bikercross event in the world,” remembers Chris Winter, who co-conceived the contest with local trailbuilder Paddy Kaye. “This was back in 2001. We had 2000 spectators and 100 particpants.” Similar to a boardercross, Joyride was first and foremost a rider’s contest, featuring technical aspects and jumps that were totally foreign to the downhill races of the era. Joyride brought the industry big names to Whistler and set the stage for the Whistler Summer Gravity Fest, a biking contest/party precursor to what would become the most influential freeride mountain bike event of our time–Kokanee Crankworx.
Here is a Joyride 2001 video
Joyride 2001 from paddy kaye on Vimeo.
Paddy Kaye was also in charge of this most recent Joyride, Check the interview with him that Matthew Mallory did for Pinkbike.com or this vid (see below) of Paddy and the riders planning the Joyride course.
- Feet Banks
