Each year as the racing season comes to an end at the World Champs, the industry gets together to hold a final competition of their own to celebrate a job well done and to head into the off season with one final funny story from life on the road.
In recent years we've raced trail bikes down the DH tack in Norway, or ridden kids bikes through an obstacle course designed by Cedric Gracia in Andorra. Of course neither race was over until a beer was chugged at the finish line, so the harder you pedaled and the more out of breath you were, the harder this final task would become. Needless to say there were always a few who would surge ahead at the end.
This year in Val di Sole things were changed up a bit and the focus was put solely on the mechanics. Those unsung heroes who operate behind the scenes day in and day out to make sure the stars of the show can do their thing for all of our entertainment. Their moment in the spotlight would come in the for a revised Rockshox Boxxer Word Champs, and even that has taken a hiatus for the past three years and was long over due for a return.
The premise is simple: The best mechanics in the business square off in brackets and go head to head rebuilding a Boxxer as fast as possible with the winner advancing to the next round. And in true 'Industry Worlds' fashion, the clock doesn't start ticking until your beer is empty.
This year the winner of the previous two incarnations of this event, Evan Warner, would go toe-to-toe with Kevin 'Factory' Joly of Team Specialized Gravity Republic for all the glory and all the grain rights after another incredible season of World Cup racing.
MENTIONS: @davetrump /
@SramMedia
and my wife wonders why her laptop is always covered in oil... errrmmm...
that came out wrong.
Seems like a journalist ? Or may be another mechanic ?
I've drank a few beers like that over the years to win some flip cup tourney's, it all counts. As long as you're pouring it into your mouth, it's in :-) AWESOME!
And to think......Steve Peat was in town. What would happen if he saw all that beer being wasted?
Looks like a good craic though
The cycling industry needs a serious history lesson, its so f*cked.
All that said. I love the boxxer world champs !! I look forward to video & photos of this more than the world champs itself !!