VOL. 50 ISSUE 24 JUNE 18, 2013
Karl Davis stepped it up on day two,
finishing second to Smage.
Saturday, and Smage felt lucky to
get through it on the final lap, doing so with a score of three.
"That section was tough, for
sure," said Smage. "It finished
up with a long and steep slippery
climb with a vertical wall at the
top of it. I'm not sure I even wanted to get through that one, but I
was glad I did it at least once."
At the end of the day, Smage
dropped 55 points across three
laps of 12 sections to take Saturday's win, including 18 cleans
and seven fives.
Meanwhile, Roper held off a
late charge by Bolopue to claim
the runner-up position, a personal best, after logging 90 points
for the day.
"I got a couple of thirds last
year, but a second is my best
ever finish, and it feels great,"
said Roper. "I started the weekend off okay, my first loop on Saturday was pretty good, but then
my second loop was kind of my
worst loop of the day. I wasn't
feeling too good starting that
second loop and I was making a
lot of mistakes. Logan [Bolopue]
was riding really good, and he
was improving on each of his
laps, so I knew I needed to pick
it up on the final lap to stay ahead
of him. Fortunately, my last loop
was a good one and I was able
to make up for my bad second
lap and stay ahead of Logan for
second."
Bolopue grabbed his best-ever
national finish as well, rounding
out the podium in third with a total
score of 98.
"I'm pretty used to this kind of
terrain, I live in Pennsylvania, so
this is just around the corner,"
said Bolopue. "I ride in New York
quite a bit and it's always the
same, slippery climbs just like
this, and I like this stuff, it was
P99
perfect for me.
"My first loop I had a lot of fives
– everybody had a lot of fives. I
was kind of nervous at the start
and just didn't have my head in
the game, but I picked it up near
the end of the lap and from there
I just got better with each lap. My
last loop was really good, I got
through some stuff I didn't make
on the first two laps, and that was
a game-breaker for me."
Sherco rider Karl Davis Jr. finished fourth with 118 points, while
California Gas Gas rider Eric
Storz rounded out the top five
with a total of 135.
Sunday
Sunday's round started under
threatening skies but the rain,
which seemed inevitable, held
off until the final lap. For the most
part, Sunday's sections were
somewhat easier than Saturday's, that is until the rain hit, and
then it was a slime-fest.
Once again, Smage took the
lead early on, but he was shadowed by teammate Davis, who
was riding with more confidence
now, after getting a day of muddy
hill riding under his belt.
But midway into the opening
lap, Davis suffered a problem with
his rear brake, which forced him
back into the pits for repair. Once
back on course, Davis picked up
his pace so he could finish out
the first lap without scoring penalty points, which he says may
have helped his performance at
that point.
