IN
THE
WIND
P38
Rekluse/Twin Air/Shot-backed
TE 300i.
"Today I wanted to prove my
body in hot conditions because
probably in two weeks we will
have similar conditions at a race
in Spain—not that much hot, but it
will be hot," Gomez said. "I gave
it all to test my body, how it works
[in these temperatures]. In [to-
day's] races, I had a lot of pain in
my stomach; that's why I try today
some different water [to drink].
"The level [of course difficulty]
is very low [compared to Euro-
pean hard enduro]," he added.
"They expected the winner to fin-
ish the race in three hours and it
was like an hour and 40 minutes
or something like that. It was hard
because it was so hot but not be-
cause of the technical challenge."
Coming off a back injury,
Haaker was pleased just to make
it through the weekend without
aggravating it. "I was maybe still a
little bit weak on the fitness side
just from not having the ability to
train normally during my recov-
ery," Haaker said at the finish. "I
was just happy to be here; I was
happy that I had such a quick
recovery from my back injury.
"Yesterday was great; it was
a good test for my back. I made
some pretty big errors today—like
crazy big errors, actually, that I
shouldn't have—but I had fun, a lot
of fun all day! Alfredo was riding
really well, so there's not much you
can do when he's riding so good."
As for Motion Pro/Shorai/Klim
300 XC TPI-mounted Hart and
his late-race charge that enabled
him to pass Haaker in LD3, the
Canadian said, "The heat in the
ravines was pretty brutal! That
just amplifies the terrain difficulty
by 10 times, I'd say. My strategy's
pretty much always the same—I
can't really turn it on early, and
then, in the end, I always seem
to find another gear, and that's
usually my strength—find another
gear at the end of the race."
Beta's Max Gerston didn't have
the day he was hoping for, going
5-4 for fourth. Sherco-mounted
Grayson Gonsalves from Hawaii
rounded out the top five over-
all with his 8-5 day. GasGas-
mounted James Flynn went 17-7
for eighth overall and first Expert,
while Beta's Morgan Tanke made
a bit of history by becoming the
first woman to qualify for and
complete a lap of LD3.
Mark Kariya
LAST DOG STANDING
1. Alfredo Gomez (Hus)
2. Colton Haaker (Hus)
3. Trystan Hart (KTM)
4. Max Gerston (Bet)
5. Grayson Gonsalves (She)
The tests in
Saturday's D-37
Sprint Enduro suited
Trevor Stewart well,
as he won eight of
the 11 to top the day
by 19 seconds over
runner-up Dalton
Shirey.
