See the winners from Crankworx Cairns
The winners from Crankworx Cairns have been crowned, with one Aussie beating her Cairns idol to take gold and another rider paying tribute to close friend Frank Falappi in her race. SEE WHO WON:
The winners from Crankworx Cairns have been crowned, with one Aussie beating her Cairns idol to take gold and another rider paying tribute to close friend, former respected police officer Frank Falappi.
Crankworx Cairns is one of three stops on the tour of the world’s largest mountain biking festival.
Australian Sian A’Hern won the downhill event on Friday, beating her idol, Cairns resident and former world champion, Tracey Hannah.
“I’ve looked up to Tracey since I started racing bikes, I’ve always wanted to beat her,” Ms A’Hern said.
“To always have been so close to her and finally beat her is insane.”
Ms Hannah, who placed second, competed wearing the jersey of close friend Frank Falappi, a Far North mountain biking legend who died after a tragic crash at the Smithfield Mountain Bike Park on Friday, May 9.
“We lost a really good friend, and really an ambassador for mountain biking in Cairns … so I raced in one of his race jerseys as a tribute to him,” she said.
Ms Hannah hadn’t raced at Crankworx Cairns in 2024, and wasn’t going to race in 2025.
“I haven’t even ridden that bike since my race run last year, I’ve ridden a bike, but not that bike,” she said.
Ms Hannah said she changed her mind at the last minute after volunteering at the Masters world championships last week.
“I registered at the very last minute and I was just doing it for fun and to race in one of Frank’s jerseys, so I’m super stoked with the result,” she said.
Aussie Jackson Frew took gold in the men’s downhill event, claiming the spot over top-seeded fellow Aussie Ryan Gilchrist.
“I put everything into that run, and I took some risks that I really didn’t want to have to – especially in practice pulling that last jump,” Mr Frew said.
Sabina Košárková from the Czech Republic was the inaugural winner of the women’s elite full tilt event on Saturday.
Ms Košárková began mountain biking a few years ago for “fun” outside of her main discipline of BMX riding, which she is trying to compete in at the 2028 Olympics.
“I was having fun, I loved it,” she said of the final.
“It was really confusing in the beginning but then I found my piece. I knew that if I had … a good gate I could win, because I think it was all about the gate – if you have a good gate then you can go your own line.
“I was in the middle and I wanted middle so I was pretty happy about it,” she said.
Ms Košárková also won the pump track event on Saturday evening, for which she is a previous world champion.
Taking out gold in the men’s elite full tilt event was Joshua Jolly, a 19-year-old from Ballarat in Victoria.
After crashing during practice, Mr Jolly said he lacked motivation in the lead up to the event.
“It’s pretty cool … I didn’t even want to do it to be honest, but I went up there and kept ticking off the runs and got it done.”
He said the track was “super sick, super fast, super techy – it was pretty scary racing other boys down the hill but I would love to do it again”.
Mr Jolly then placed second in the pump track event on Saturday evening behind fellow Australian Jayce Cunning.
Winners were crowned at the slopestyle event on Sunday, with Alma Wiggberg from Sweden and Timothé Bringer of France taking out the women’s and men’s titles respectively.
To see all the Crankworx Cairns results, visit crankworx.com
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Originally published as See the winners from Crankworx Cairns
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