Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Russell Pearson is still looking for his first WOReS race win. He ran a strong race but ended up third. right before the mud, and my goggles got pulled away from my face somehow," Garrahan said. "I got drenched from the guy in front of me and was blinded by the mud. I ripped off my Tear-Off and still couldn't see, so I started to pull on my Roll-Offs, and nothing was happening. Mud and slime had got into my goggles, and at that point I was pretty much in the dark, so to speak." Davis also got a bad start and was fighting his way to the front. Woods was leading Pearson, with Team wheel and flung me to the ground. I got up real quick and realized that my good shoulder wasn't so good anymore. It had popped out of the socket, so my buddy who had rushed to help me grabbed it, and I popped it back in. Needless to say, I was done for the day. It really sucks; my KTM is running awesome, and I was excited to do well here." While Caselli was performing his own realignments, Yamaha's Lance Smail and Davis had quickly moved into third and forth and were making I went off it and was thrown into a 30foot swap that got me a quick ticket to the dirt." Patrick Garrahan was behind Pearson when it happened. "I saw Russ going off that jump so swapped," Garrahan said. "I just thought to myself, 'That sucks, Russ is about to die.' Russ is pretty good at crashing, though, so he pulled it. He tucked up into a ball and rolled and cart-wheeled and bounced and skidded and then popped right up, grabbed his bike and was ready to go. It was like a well-orchestrated gymnastics floor exercise, except he was going about 40 and was tumbling through big rocks and deep sandy whoops. I'd give it a 9.7. It was good, but I've seen him do better." Pearson remounted in fourth position behind Davis, Smail and Woods. Woods and Smail where running an Green's Destry Abbott and KTM's Kurt Caselli following close behind. Caselli would be the first victim of the unforgiving course. "I was following Destry and wa going to go for t ,e pass on the inside of hI little wnooped-out downhill," aselli said. "I wheelied the first set of whoops, and as my front tire dropped into the pit of the second set, the deep sand just sucked up my front a charge to the front. Pearson, who was behind the hard-charging Woods, was the next to take a soH sample. "Man this course was gnarly!" Pearson said. "Ty had just got around me, and I was going into this big whoop section before getting on to the track. It had a cool little jump that you could keep it pinned off. Well I don't know what happened, but that cool little jump became really uncool. extremely fast pace and exchanged the lead spot three or four times. Smail said of his battle with Woods: "Nathan was pinning it. That was the real battle today; he was putting up a good fight. When I caught up to the other guys, they would let me by, but Woods was going for it." Woods said. "I was trying to give it my all. I got out there with Smail and cue •• just tried to stay focused and hold on. My stamina is getting better. I can go for about and hour and a half now. When I started, it was 45 minutes, then an hour and now almost two hours. This off-road racing is pretty new to me, but I'm catching on fast." While the race was reaching its conclusion, the course was sucking up victims' energy at an astounding pace. Smail seem to have his first WORCS victory in hand, as he had opened up a lead on Woods, who was now into his hour and 35th minute and had hit the wall. The physically demanding and mentally draining course was taking its toll on Woods, and his teammate Davis smelled blood. "For a long time, those guys just disappeared; I thought that was going to be that," Davis said. "Then I thought I saw Woods, and sure enough it was. I could tell he was done. His elbows were down, and he looked tired. Woods and Smail were running a superfast pace, and to make it through a course like this, you have to be just under the pace those guys where running. My start kind of helped me in a way, because I didn't get caugh.t trying to race with them right off the bat. I just got in to my own pace and started picking people off one by one." n • _ s • MARCH 26, 2003 13

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