(Updated) Kintner and Slavik Take Rotorua Dual Speed and Style Wins

Jill Kintner took a swift first in the inaugral women’s event.

Dual Speed and Style is an odd duck: Competitors race down a dual slalom course populated with various ramps and drops. A racer can win entirely with speed, but if the other competitor falls behind, they can win back time by doing tricks. The more stylish and elaborate, the more time they make up.

This year it was all about speed, with both Jill Kintner and Tomas Slavik leaving people in the dust. It’s the first year they’ve held a women’s event, and Jill beat Casey Brown in the final. Scrubbing jumps throughout, Tomas pipped Kyle Straight for the top spot in the men’s category. ~~At the moment there seems to be no video of Jill competing~~ (UPDATE) Here’s a POV from Casey Brown in the final against Jill Kintner:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiIRWlXkZ7E
(If the video isn’t showing above, try this link)

and here are all of Tomas’ runs:

(No video? Click here).

Alas, after we posted Bernard Kerr’s (incredible) new video yesterday, he had to withdraw due to a shoulder injury.

Tomas Slavik (left) and Kyle Straight.

David Hayward

David started mountain biking in the 90’s, by which he means “Ineptly jumping a Saracen Kili Racer off anything available in a nearby industrial estate”. After growing up and living in some extremely flat places, David moved to Yorkshire specifically for the mountain biking. This felt like a horrible mistake at first, because the hills are so steep, but you get used to them pretty quickly. Previously, David trifled with road and BMX, but mountain bikes always won. He’s most at peace battering down a rough trail, quietly fixing everything that does to a bike, or trying to figure out if that one click of compression damping has made things marginally better or worse. The inept jumping continues to this day.