It took a moment to register what they were chanting, but I knew all eyes on me. Then it became clear: shirtless, drunk and rowdy guys; girls begrudgingly sporting their Sunday undergarments. “Shirts off, on the rock, shirts off on the rock!”
I stripped my jersey off carefully enough, considering my camera was dangling precariously over one shoulder. Then Duncan Riffle pulled over to shotgun a Pilsner amongst the calamity halfway through his run at the Jeep Canadian Open DH. It was a fitting scene on the aptly named Heckler’s Rock and a fitting close to the ten day spectacle of Crankworx. Tippie was stoked. The hundred or so spectators reveling in the last moments of the festival were stoked. Hell, I was stoked. Stevie Smith swooped by on his way to a convincing, near-five-second victory and his third win of the week.
The previous evening’s Red Bull Joyride was the crowd favorite for good reason—windy conditions and a burly course claimed a few victims, while 19-year-old Belgian Thomas Genon came from relative nowhere to claim $25,000. The pictures below can attest to what went down. But Heckler’s Rock was the heart of Whistler mountain biking in mid-August. Dry, dusty and dehydrated, it was a fitting end to Crankworx 2012.
