Crankworks and the Animal Bike Tour

I got home from work on Saturday night to be informed via Twitter that the Animal Bike Tour was going to be in Bath the next day. This seemed like a good reason to ride the Bristol – Bath Railway path again and this time take a camera.

The plan was to go to sleep early and wake up fresh for the ride; instead I got drawn in to watching the Red Bull Joyride at Crankworx in Whistler. It was immense, I was disappointed for Sam Pilgrim the one Brit representative who didn’t get chance show how awesome he is. However 15 year old Anthony Messere made up for that with truly amazing tricks that put him into first for a long while, until Cam Zinc and Brandon Semenuk put in some fantastic runs to put him in third, Messeres last run could have easily won it for him with a front flip off the first drop that no-one else pulled, unfortunately he crashed part way down ruining an otherwise winning run. Catch it again here, believe me it’s worth it!

I have put the ride to and from Bath in the next post as it started getting rather long. Once in Bath I quickly found the place the tour was taking place, and having just missed one show found somewhere safe to lock up my bike, which in Bath isn’t difficult as cyclists are very well catered for. I then set about wading through crowds of tourists to find something to eat before the next show.

About 15 minutes before the show started a crowd began to gather, and the introduction started by the time the show started proper the crowd had grown even bigger. The star of the show is Martyn Ashton who has been involved in the sport for a long time and pushed the boundaries of trials riding encouraging young riders to go higher and harder with their tricks in order to beat him. Normally there is at least one other rider, however the space at Bath was fairly limited. (Overheard from a conversation with Doddy from MBUK magazine).

The show is built around the two vehicles and various ramps ladders and rails that are attached to them and starts with Martyn hopping up and down a wide spaced ladder then bunny hopping over a pole that is raised a couple of times so that Martyn eventually hops over a 1.05 meter bar. (1.06 in the last show). The tricks get bigger and better and the crowd gets louder and more excited, finally Martyn launches down the ramp off the top of the van into a jump where he pulls a back flip. The Crowd goes wild.

He rides it out and if you’re looking carefully you notice him reach down to the front of his bike. He hops round and all of a sudden the front wheel falls off, the commentator makes out that it’s accidental and that it must be time to finish the show. No Martyn keeps hopping, down the ladder up a ramp before dropping off a four foot crate and putting his forks gently to the floor.

I’ve watched Martyn Ashton and others at shows like this before, however I’m always impressed by it and the fact that he’s still out doing these shows pushing himself harder and keeping at the top of the game marks him as one of the legends of Mountain Biking. Well worth a 30 mile round ride to see, in fact so good I watched it twice.

Oh and a quick well done to the new British National Downhill Champions Tracey Moseley and Ruaridh Cunningham.