IN
THE
WIND
P58
KTM's North American
Ultimate Qualifier Winners
W
es VanNieuwenhuise and
Brendan Crow took top
honors at the 2019 North Ameri-
can KTM Ultimate Qualifier, held
in conjunction with the KTM
Adventure Rider Rally in Breck-
enridge, Colorado, September
13-15. The two will be heading to
the Merzouga Rally in Morocco to
represent the United States in the
KTM Ultimate Race Competition.
The adventure-bike-specific,
two-day competition had over
25 starters on Friday morning.
And after more than 200 miles of
high-altitude technical riding, two-
laps of timed special tests, hours
of tricky navigation, and a timed
rear-wheel-change drill in front of
the rally crowd, the top 10 finish-
ers moved on to the second day
for some real punishment.
Day two put riders into 100
miles of near-extreme, rocky,
single-track terrain capping
off with an intense navigation-
focused timed section through
a maze of trails—a challenge for
any off-road ride but especially
grueling aboard the twin-cylinder
ADV machinery required of the
event. Nine competitors finished
day two.
VanNieuwenhuise proved
his prowess by never finishing
outside the top three in any of the
tests. Crow followed with impres-
sive results across the board,
taking the win in the final naviga-
tion test.
The two Americans will follow
in the footsteps of last year's
American contingent of Scott
Myers and Jordan Huibregtse.
Myers went on to win the inaugu-
ral event in Morocco and was on
hand in Colorado, sweeping the
course and cheering on competi-
tors aboard his prize—a new KTM
790 Advenenture R.
Stay tuned to Cycle News for
coverage of this year's event and
to see if another American can
bring home the win. CN
Brendan Crow (left) and Wes
VanNieuwenhuise (right) will represent
the United States at this year's KTM
Ultimate Race in Morocco after
topping the charts of the Ultimate
Qualifier held in Breckenridge,
Colorado. Pat Garrahan (center)
managed the qualifier event.
