Crankbrothers made our annual trek to the City of Lights for the 2011 Interbike in Las Vegas, NV. We had big plans at Outdoor Demo, the indoor show, and CrossVegas. It was a hectic week, and we walked away on Friday blurry-eyed from one of the best shows we’ve had in Vegas. These days, what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay there, and we’ve got stories and pictures to share.
Outdoor Demo typically means blistering hot weather, dust, and heatstroke. This year, it was more like thunderstorms, mud, and hypothermia! The first day of the demo gave some of the best weather we’ve seen out there: mild temps with a nice breeze. It wasn’t until the afternoon that it started to sprinkle a bit, and everybody was treated a huge rainbow. It quickly turned into a double-rainbow, and as expected, echoes of “what does it mean??” were heard throughout the demo. It was definitely unique to see that in the Vegas desert, and it was perhaps the first time that it’s ever rained at Outdoor Demo. Then, on day 2, the skies opened up, the temps dropped, and it was a full-blown thunder/lightening storm! The storm didn’t stop people from getting out and riding, and lucky for them: that was probably the best dirt and riding conditions Bootleg Canyon has ever seen.
The Demo was particularly fun for us this year. We had a huge VIP dealer lounge that welcomed dealers to come in, hang out, and enjoy free food, cold beer, and air conditioning—or heaters on the cold/rainy day! After a few hours on the trail, people enjoyed strutting down the blue carpet as they entered the lounge to relax on plush, white leather couches. Tons of good stories were shared, and it was great getting to hang out with everybody.
The indoor show was impressive to say the least—our booth was jam-packed the whole time, and energy was high. The big introduction for us was the cobalt 11 29” carbon wheelset, which is fresh off of winning a design award at Eurobike. We were eager to share it with everybody at Interbike, and people seemed just as eager to get to see it. Expect for it to become available by the end of the year.
Since we know that the long days in Vegas can be tough on everybody, we decided to become the official caffeine sponsor at Interbike, offering free iced tea at the Demo and a free coffee mug with your coffee at the indoor show. We hope that this helped keep everybody buzzed throughout the show! We also were handing out free pint glasses, so maybe those helped keep everybody buzzed at other times…
CrossVegas is a big highlight of the Interbike experience every year, but even more so this year. To help spread the word about the crankbrothers race club, we sponsored the pro women’s race, which became known as the crankbrothers ladylucx elite women’s race. The race club riders both had great results in this race, with Chloe Forsman riding to an impressive 7th place, and Amy Dombroski landing herself on the 2nd step of the podium. We were proud to have such strong racers representing the club!
The best part of CrossVegas came in our course-side race club lounge. We invited everybody to join us in the lounge for free race club cocktails, great views of the action, and a perfect spot for hand-ups to the racers. The cocktails were served in race club cups and we handed out baby blue checkered flags to help people cheer on the racers. It ended up turning into a rowdy night, and it was fun to let loose a bit with some diehard cyclocross fans.
Interbike is always a good time, but there was something about this year that was just electric. Maybe it was the double rainbow, or maybe it was all the race club cocktails, but either way, it was a special show this year. We’re already talking about everything we want to do next year, and hopefully we’ll have just as many stories to share.
