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
