Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1388078
VOLUME 58 ISSUE 26 JUNE 29, 2021 P41 pretty close, but I had a solid last lap. I stayed off the ground and cleaned all the hills and got to the finish first. The last few miles had some tough hills. Really, they shouldn't have been hard but they were so cobblestone and wet that you would get zero traction." Kelley's win at arguably the toughest venue of the sched- ule left him nine points up on Steward in the series standings and carrying a lot of momentum heading into the summer break. "The previous two races I felt like I should have won those," said Kelley. "I led almost every lap and got passed with a few miles to go, so it's nice to go into the summer break with the points lead." Frustrated with the lappers, Steward was not happy at the finish. "I had some good lines at the start of the race, but after I got in the lead, I stuck with that same line but started getting slower throughout the race, and it seemed that all the lines that I had walked just weren't the good lines anymore," said Steward. "I think on lap four I finally got a pretty good cushion and just tangled with a lapper. As I was getting up, those guys caught me from about 20 down and they passed me. The rest of the day it was just a never-ending battle with lappers. It was really tough. Really, just aggravating." Jordan Ashburn parlayed a great start with a solid ride to come home third, matching his best finish of the season. "I got a good jump off the line and me and Stew drag raced into the first corner and he ended up going down," said Ashburn. "I was re- ally excited to get out front on the first side because it was super dusty. I just charged really hard the first couple laps. Me and Stew gapped the field a little bit, but then Ben reeled us back in. I just made a few too many mis- takes towards the end, but happy to end the day with a podium." FMF/KTM's Josh Toth, who is finally healthy after suffering a few injuries in 2021, overcame a big crash in one of the rock sec- tions to finish fourth. Toth started from the second row on Snow- shoe's unique starting tradition due to his points ranking. "Howard's Hole got pretty crazy and [I] was able to catch up right to the back of those guys," said Toth. "Once we got around the to the other side of the mountain, I caught up to Grant [Baylor] and Strang. I tried to get around Strang going down that nasty downhill rock garden and a rock flipped over under my rear wheel and just ejected me. My bike was pretty mangled. I man- aged to catch back up to Strang and put a pass on him, but those top three were gone. I felt like I was pushing and ripping all day, but those guys were on another level." KLM Milwaukee GasGas' Grant Baylor hit the ground a few times, but still managed to log a solid fifth-place finish. "I just kind of just tried to tag along with those front guys all day," said Grant. "They ran us on the east side of the mountain with all the ski slopes and roads, and it was just fourth gear, fifth gear wide open and dusty and you couldn't see anything. I lost some time there on the first lap got caught in the dust. Then I just tried to pick it up there and make up some positions as the race went Jonathan Girroir (969) came from behind to win the XC2 250 Pro class.