In what is hopefully one of the last major mountain bike event cancellations due to Coronavirus, Crankworx announced today that the Whistler stop is cancelled for this year.
“To our riders, core media, festival partners, and fans, we know it’s been tough. Mountain biking is both a career and a passion for many, so to lose an event that I know means so much to so many people…it’s been tough for everyone,” says Darren Kinnaird, Managing Director of the Crankworx World Tour. “We have been exploring our options for Crankworx Whistler 2021 since last summer. We held on to the possibility for as long as we could, while working on alternatives. The province of British Columbia is on a good track and is in the process of lifting restrictions, but unfortunately there’s not enough certainty or lead time to pull off the festival for this year. That said, we’re hard at work on some exciting things to get riders and fans excited this summer, so watch this space.”
Though the U.S. has been rolling out vaccines without much of a hitch, Canada is still a little bit behind the curve, and on step one of a four-step reopening plan. Travel within the province is still restricted to some degree and Canada’s borders are still closed to non-essential travel.
Last year with the cancellation of Crankworx Whistler 2020, the organizers shifted to hold the CLIF Crankworx Summer Series to give resident BC athletes a venue to compete.
Crankworx is still planning to hold competitions in Innsbruck and Rotorua, with the Crankworx Innsbruck round scheduled for June 16-20 and the Rotorua round scheduled for November 1-7.
Organizers say that the iconic Whistler event will be back from August 5-15, 2022.
