Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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IN THE WIND P50 Keith Curtis Conquers Silver Mountain XC T he Stix & Stones Off-Road once again wel- comed the country's best hard enduro riders to Kellogg, Idaho, June 22-23, for the 2019 running of the Silver Mountain XC. The two-day format pitted nearly 450 extreme riders such as AMA Endu- roCross Champion Colton Haaker, RPM/KTM/ Maxxis rider Trystan Hart and Beta factory rider Max Gerston against the rugged Idaho mountains. But ultimately, it was a fresh face that emerged victorious at the Silver Mountain XC, Keith Curtis of Dillon, Montana captured the win, edging out Hart and Haaker for the top spot on the podium. "This was no joke," said Curtis. "That was an incredible day, for sure. It was a ton of fun battling it out with those guys." There was plenty of back and forth throughout both days of racing, on Saturday's qualifying race between Curtis and Haaker, as well as on Sunday between Curtis and Hart in the final. "Coming into this weekend, I knew Trystan and I would battle it out, for sure," said Curtis. "Because we were battling last year until he broke his bike. But we were banging bars until that happened. I knew this year we would be battling. It was cool. I really look up to those guys. It was fun to be racing against them. It was a wild race." After catching and passing Haaker in Sunday's final, Curtis set his sights on Hart. The pair dueled back and forth up until the final hillclimb. Curtis, a five-time snowmobile hillclimb world champion, put his skills to work and got his Klim/Carls Cycle Sales KTM to the top first and beat Hart to the checkered flag by only seconds. "I waved Trystan on, like, 'Go ahead.' He took off and I followed just shortly after him. And I made it to the top of that hillclimb before he did and made it to the single track. We had about five minutes left is all and I just kept on the throttle and hammered down and didn't look back. I think he finished about 11 seconds behind me is all. It was pretty tight." Hart collected second ahead of Haaker, who was happy to land on the podium in third, calling the Silver Mountain XC "by far the best race I've com- peted in in the U.S. Big mountain stuff, shale, rock, creeks, waterfalls, mud, butt-pucker downhills, ghost-ride-your-bike-ups, roots, hillclimbs, this race had it all." Beta's Max Gerston was another strong contend- er, but had to settle for fourth. Grayson Gonsalves of Hawaii rounded out the top-five. CN Results 1. Keith Curtis (KTM) 2. Trystan Hart (KTM) 3. Colton Haaker (Hus) 4. Max Gerston (Bet) 5. Grayson Gonsalves (She) Colton Haaker (left) battles with eventual winner Keith Curtis at the Silver Mountain XC in Kellogg, Idaho. PHOTO: MARY RINELL / MJSMOTOPHOTOS