Cycle News

Cycle News 2023 Issue 10 March 14

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/1494803

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 55 of 161

riders blazing the trail, while De- Long held the physical lead. Pretty much everyone hit the ground or got stuck in the mud at one point or another, which made for an ever-changing top 10 throughout the day, but at the end of three hours, DeLong crossed the finish line first to grab his maiden XC-1 victory. According to DeLong, he didn't set the world on fire, but just kind of hit his marks and didn't fall. "I worked my ass off this winter and it's paid off," said DeLong. "It's pretty awesome, actually. It's kind of a blur right now. There's a lot that happened. I got the holeshot, and I didn't really want to lead, to be honest with you. I got the jump and I guess I got to go through all the mudholes first. Once we got out there, Stew [Baylor] was kind of wanting to go. I kind of let him have it and then we just played follow the leader. I just kind of stayed steady." DeLong said he crashed around five times on the final lap, but still managed to finish 57 seconds ahead of second place. "I guess I was trying to throw it away," said DeLong. "Got my gloves all muddy and stuff. But we brought it home. We pitted a lap early and then I knew I had to put a little bit of a gap down and I did. First one for sure, that's awesome." Babbitt's Online Monster Energy Kawasaki's Josh Strang was sixth at the halfway point, but smart riding allowed him to work his way into second at the finish. Strang has typically done well in mud races. "I don't like to think of myself as just a mud specialist, but the last three or four mud races have been good," said Strang. "It was a crazy day. It was probably worse than 2014. There were tree roots and everything, so the soft dirt just cupped out all the roots. It was definitely a difficult day. I knew Craig was in front, and I kind of buried it there on the last lap. Congrats to him; VOLUME ISSUE MARCH , P55

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of Cycle News - Cycle News 2023 Issue 10 March 14